Waze Introduces Contactless Payments At ExxonMobil, Shell Stations

Waze, the popular GPS navigation app owned by Google, has introduced contactless payments for ExxonMobil and Shell card holders in the U.S.

When drivers pull into participating stations, they will see a notification on Waze prompting their Android or iOS device to securely pay through each company’s app.

“Waze is committed to continuing to help businesses leverage innovative technology to adapt, evolve, and engage with customers,” said Andrew Kandel, Waze U.S. country manager, in a statement.

Founded in 2007, Waze said it had 130 million monthly users as of February 2020.

Google, the world’s dominant online search engine, has faced growing regulatory scrutiny in recent years.

In June, Reuters reported the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is conducting a preliminary inquiry of Google’s $1.1 billion purchase of the Israel-based Waze acquisition.

A source told the news service that the FTC has not reached the level of an investigation into Google and the company is complying.

Google and the FTC declined to comment.

Last month, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and the CEOs from Apple, Amazon and Facebook faced questions from the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law on antitrust issues.

Chairman David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island) asked Pichai if Google has evolved from a turnstile to the rest of the web to a walled garden that increasingly keeps users within its sites.

Pichai also faced tough questions from U.S. Rep. Val Demmings (D-Florida) on Google’s 2007 acquisition of DoubleClick and its 2017 decision to merge DoubleClick’s data with user account data.

“Google’s chief legal advisor testified before the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee that Google wouldn’t be able to merge this data even if it wanted to, given contractual restrictions,” Demmings said. “But in June of 2016, Google went ahead and merged this data anyway, effectively destroying anonymity on the internet.”

Pichai confirmed he approved the decision but said Google has since added many data privacy controls to its platform.