Apple Wants Drivers to Buy Gas With CarPlay

When the next version of Apple’s CarPlay rolls out this fall, drivers will be able to buy gas directly from their car’s dashboard.

That’s according to a Thursday (June 30) report by Reuters, which stated the new feature — showcased at Apple’s recent developer conference — will let CarPlay users tap an app to navigate to a pump and purchase gas directly from a screen in the car.

HF Sinclair, a Dallas company that sells gas at 1,600 stations across the U.S., told Reuters it intends to use CarPlay technology.

“We are excited by the idea that consumers could navigate to a Sinclair station and purchase fuel from their vehicle navigation screen,” said Jack Barger, the company’s senior vice president of marketing, per the report.

Earlier this month, Apple announced that the next version of CarPlay will fill more screens and carry out more functions in vehicles.

Read more: Apple Adds Functionality to Its Vehicle Dashboard App

With this product, drivers’ iPhones will be able to communicate with the vehicle’s real-time systems and display on the instrument cluster driving information such as speed, revolutions per minute (RPM), fuel level and temperature, the company said at its developer conference.

“We’ve been working with automakers to reinvent the in-car experience across all of the driver’s screens,” Emily Schubert, senior manager of car experience engineering at Apple, said at the time.

Apple said the new CarPlay will accommodate screens of different shapes and sizes and will allow drivers to choose from instrument cluster options with a variety of designs, colors, backgrounds and layouts.

“Cars have changed a lot, with larger-sized screens and more of them throughout the car,” Schubert said. “There’s an opportunity for iPhone to play an even more important role.”