Rolling into a New Iteration of Digital Payments

Human beings are known for a myriad of different things, but most importantly, they are known for getting better on a consistent basis. This progressive approach, on our part, has already got the world to hit upon some huge milestones, with technology appearing as a major member of the stated group. The reason why technology enjoys such an esteemed stature among people is, by and large, predicated upon its skill-set, which ushered us towards a reality that nobody could have ever imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, if we look up close for a second, it will become clear how the whole runner was also very much inspired from the way we applied those skills across a real world environment. The latter component was, in fact, what gave the creation a spectrum-wide presence, and consequentially, kickstarted a tech revolution. Of course, this revolution then went on to scale up the human experience through some outright unique avenues, but even after achieving such a monumental feat, technology will somehow continue to produce the right goods. The same has grown increasingly evident over the recent past, and assuming one new fintech-themed development shakes out just like we envision, it will only make that trend bigger and better moving forward.

Car IQ Inc, a pioneer in vehicle payments, has officially finalized a partnership with Visa to help vehicles leverage the latter’s vast ecosystem of merchants and banks for seamlessly accessing a host of critical services. According to certain reports, the partnership is meant advocate the use of Car IQ Pay Vehicle wallet for purchases, such as fuel, tolls, parking, insurance, service, repairs, and plenty more. Now, while making digital payments a part of your vehicle’s fabric itself is something worth applauding, a feature which makes the whole setup all the more attractive is the way it allows you to add data to your transactions. This, in particular, plays a massive role when it comes down to contextualizing payment experiences like offers and personalized rewards benefitting fleets, drivers, and merchants etc. Another notable feature that is set to hit the deck here is how, owing to its newly-conceived access of Visa’s capabilities, Car IQ will be able to accommodate the stated data in real-time, and it will do so  before, during, and after every single payment. Beyond the core features, if you have any doubts about the technology’s safety posture, then it might be worth acknowledging that the partners will bet on Car IQ’s renowned Know Your Machine™ solution, which can authenticate a machine’s identity to enable all types of vehicles to transact directly with merchants.

“Cost management, transparency and a seamless experience are more important than ever for commercial fleet payments, with total spend reaching over $80B across cash, checks, ACH and traditional fleet card payments,” said Veronica Fernandez, North America Head of Business Solutions at Visa. “Through this collaboration with Car IQ, we’re excited to drive growth of vehicle-based payments that allow users to take control of their fleet business through enhanced and timely data capabilities that allow for real-time business decisions.”

The development provides an interesting follow-up to one Ptolemus report where it was claimed that vehicle payment market will likely reach a whopping figure of $600 billion by 2030. This huge commercial promise is big reason why Car IQ has also been working with auto OEMs to install full-fledged payment functionality into various consumer vehicles.

“Our collaboration with Visa allows us to accelerate the adoption of vehicle payments and make them a seamless part of the fleet experience today, and the consumer experience in the future,” said Sterling Pratz, CEO of Car IQ. “Our vehicle wallet allows banks and merchants to trust payments from vehicles, as well as any other IoT device, over the Visa network. “While our first wallet initiative is focused on vehicles, our platform is designed to easily support any IoT device payment, and we are already seeing interest for connected ‘smart’ city applications and believe the connected home will be next.”

Founded in 2016, Car IQ’s rise to prominence is rooted in its ability to deliver in-vehicle payment experiences without any need for a physical credit card. The company’s excellence in what it does can also be validated from the fact that it is, at the moment, accepted at over 25,000 fuel stations nationwide including Shell, Sunoco, Kum & Go, Circle K, Sinclair and more.