Visa is working with Accenture and Pizza Hut to test the use of onboard mobile and online commerce for car drivers.
The proof-of-concept connected car project is being demonstrated at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The package features Visa's onliny payment service, Checkout, cellular connectivity, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), as well as Beacon technology deployed at Pizza Hut restaurants to alert staff when the customer has arrived and is ready to pick up the order.
While Accenture will manage the integration, Pizza Hut will provide in-car access to menus, delivery and pick-up options as well as test in-restaurant beacon technology to notify team members when the customer’s car has arrived. To avoid potentially hazardous distractions, the driver will use Interactive Voice Control technology to order and authenticate the purchase.
The partners expect to test the connected car commerce experience in Northern California, over a three-month period, starting this spring.
“By 2020 it is estimated that more than 250 million vehicles worldwide will include some form of embedded connectivity,” says Bill Gajda, senior vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships, Visa Inc. “As the number of connected cars on the road increases, so does our ability to bring secure online commerce to consumers everywhere. We initially focused on a specific use case - ordering a meal on your way home - but we envision a world where consumers can seamlessly make many of their everyday purchases from the car.”
As an example, he cites petrol purchases, transit and parking charges and drive-through retail opportunities.