Visa announced at the 2016 Mobile World Congress that the company is extending its Visa Ready program to the Internet of Things industry.
If the Visa Developer program opened the world's biggest retail payments network to software developers, the company is now teaming up with sectors that specializes in IOT devices, including appliances, public transportation and wearables
In partnership with Honda and ParkWhiz, Visa unveiled car-based concept apps that can be accessed through the car's dashboard. Apart from allowing payments for parking fees, fuel and other purchases without having to leave the vehicle, the apps also take care of other essential parking and driving tasks.
For example, when the gas level becomes low, the fuel concept app will alert the driver and gives directions to the nearest gas station. Once at the pump, the app will compute for the fuel cost, which can then be paid with just a tap on the console.
The parking concept app allows drivers to pay for parking fees. The demo assumes that parking meters have a Bluetooth to which the car can connect. When the vehicle switches to Park mode and slides into a parking space, the app will show the driver options for parking fees.
The app will keep making payments as long as necessary, but in situations where the parking time is limited, a companion app will alert the owner of the time left before the vehicle must be transferred to another parking space.
"The notion of transforming a car into a platform for payments is not as far off as some may think, and we have made a great deal of progress since first introducing the idea one year ago," said Jim McCarthy, Visa executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships.
In the spring, Visa will start the three-month testing period of the fuel concept app in Northern California, while the parking concept app will take place in New York City.
