Hyundai Pay Shows Rubber Meeting Road for in-Car Commerce

The list of initiatives to make the car the ultimate mobile wallet grows longer, as Big Tech, providers and the carmakers themselves introduce new in-vehicle functionality to transact while getting around.

The latest example came this week, as Hyundai debuted “Hyundai Pay,” which will launch with the 2024 Hyundai Kona, and then branch out to an additional nine models.

Generally speaking, and per a company press release, Hyundai Pay will enable U.S. drivers to “find and pay for things with their vehicle’s touchscreen using securely stored credit card information.” Most immediately, Hyundai has partnered with Parkopedia to launch Hyundai Pay’s first service, where users can pay for parking at 6,000 locations from inside their vehicle after an initial setup. The companies have said that personal details are secured via tokenization.

BMW also has a pact in place with Parkopedia, which allows users to pay for parking in Germany and Austria.

Mercedes-Benz and Visa

In other examples of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) joining the payments fray, earlier this year, Mercedes-Benz said it would use Visa technology to underpin in-car payments.

With Mercedes pay+, which began being rolled out in March in Germany, drivers can pay for digital services and on-demand hardware upgrades in the Mercedes me Store — the company’s shop for connected car services — via a fingerprint sensor mounted in the car. Mercedes pay+ is powered by Visa’s Delegated Authentication and Visa Cloud Token Framework technology, which securely converts data and stores it.

Volkswagen and JPMorgan

In another example from September 2021, J.P. Morgan inked its own payments-centered pact with German carmaker Volkswagen to buy roughly 75% of its Volkswagen Payments.

In an interview with Karen Webster in the wake of that announcement, J.P. Morgan CEO of Merchant Services Max Neukirchen said the payments functionality will, over time, extend beyond the use cases of loading up at the pump and paying for tolls. As Neukirchen said, “now, more and more, the car is becoming a convenient method to pay.”

Big Tech

Data remains critical in connecting drivers and vehicles, wallets and payment use cases. And, increasingly, Big Tech is harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies to bring voice commands and hands-free interactions into the cockpit. That level of seamless dialogue in an in-car setting can pave the way for new commerce inroads.

Mercedes and Microsoft have teamed up to expand on the former’s use of in-car AI via the ChatGPT generative AI function with its MBUX Voice Assistant in more than 900,000 vehicles. Mercedes also has a deal in place to help provide details on more than 200 million businesses across the globe and bring apps into the vehicle’s infotainment system.

Continental is also bringing Google into its dashboard operations via a collaboration that will assist drivers with things like information about sights on the road or about the vehicle itself.

PYMNTS Intelligence from earlier in 2023 noted that there has been a 14% increase in the use of travel- and transportation-related apps as consumers are becoming more digitally connected — and thus prime candidates to adopt payments here, there and everywhere.