Visa and Accenture Turn Smart Car Into Payment Device

Management and technology solutions provider Accenture has teamed up with Visa to develop the smart car of the future.

The main focus of the endeavour was to bring digital commerce to the connected car, and a working proof of concept was produced in just three months. While the smart car sports advanced features such as driver-focused behavioral analytics and GPS-based location services, helping drivers to find preferred gas stations, the integration of digital payments proved to be ingeniously straightforward: Users simply tap the dashboard to authenticate NFC-enabled payments. According to the companies, the system even lets drivers place orders from the comfort of the car, allowing them to authenticate and pay from the driver’s seat.

While a press released eschewed going into detail about how the system works, it points to a level of technological sophistication that accords with Accenture’s product history – the company has been contracted by such high-profile organizations as the UN’s refugee agency to provide sophisticated identity management solutions – and with Visa’s growing interest in digital payments and associated technologies.

The concept is a smart one, given the rise of the Internet of Things and digital payments. Biometric technologies, such as voice recognition, are also expected to play an important role in the smart car of the near future, with one benefit being a more convenient driver experience. With its fingerprint- and NFC-enabled payment system, Visa’s and Accenture’s project further demonstrates how sophisticated technology can help make the smart car a more convenient way to get around.