It has been a busy few months for IoT and in-car payments.
IBM and Visa sealed a partnership to connect 20 billion devices by 2022, while Jaguar and Shell showcased fuel payments tech in the U.K.. Honda and (again) Visa had their take on in-car payments at CES 2017 last month, while GM teamed up with MasterCard and IBM last year, to enable Masterpass digital wallet on its OnStarGo app.
Banks are missing from the equation, but not for long, according to Daniel Döderlein, founder of Auka – a Norwegian startup that enables banks to issue mobile payment products to customers.
“Several cars [OEMs] have, to some extent, open APIs or partner models for content and apps. There is no technical reason why payments should not be a part of this ecosystem,” he told Bank Innovation. But it doesn’t end with payments: banks will start making their own apps available within car dashboards, which would allow for hands-free banking, but will also create an opportunity for banks to engage the users.
“As a consumer, you would like relevant deals and offers on a map nearby when you drive, much like your car can give you gas station or charging recommendations today. It would give drive through [banks] a whole new and highly appreciated upgrade, ” he added. All that’s needed, according to Döderlein, is a “smooth” API from carmakers.
And many OEMs have already adopted the open API ecosystem, like Ford and Toyota, with their open source SmartDeviceLink Consortium (SDL). SDL is an open source code for connecting apps to in-vehicle platforms.
Cars, potentially, can also be a good home for the (excessive?) number of digital wallets that banks and FIs have compiled over the past few years. Mastercard certainly thinks so. The payments giant said in a blogpost:
Consumers have come to expect a broad range of sophisticated technology features in their cars such as Wi-Fi access, voice-activated controls, keyless entry and remote start and stop. By embedding Masterpass within OnStar Go, Mastercard will enable drivers and passengers to safely make secure and seamless payments for goods and services using credit or debit cards stored within their Masterpass wallet.
To learn more about IoT, join us in San Jose on March 6-7 for Bank Innovation 2017, where the best conversations in fintech take place. Click here to register.