Apple is adding the ability to pay for fuel from within its CarPlay infotainment system, according to a Reuters report.
By Miles Illidge – My Broadband
Apple initially announced the feature during its 2022 Worldwide Developer Conference where it didn’t receive much attention.
Energy company HF Sinclair has since announced plans to launch the feature in the United States.
The company sells its fuel at 1,600 petrol stations across the US, and the company’s senior vice president of marketing, Jack Barger, said it is excited at the prospect of customers being able to purchase fuel from their vehicle navigation screen.
When the feature goes live, US customers will no longer need to swipe or tap their card to pay for fuel.
Once they have downloaded the relevant app and loaded their payment information, CarPlay users will be able to select a specific from their navigation screen to refuel their vehicle.
Asymco analyst Horace Dediu told Reuters that he expects Apple’s CarPlay feature to have a more significant impact than its electric car — which is still in development.
“Forget about Apple Car — Apple CarPlay is a bigger deal,” Dediu stated.
“It’s very likely to scale to millions and millions of cars, if not hundreds of millions.”
The feature could soon be made available for other energy companies. P97 Networks CEO Donald Frieden said he had received calls from companies wishing to make their apps work with CarPlay.
P97 Networks develops a framework companies use to connect their apps to cars.
This article first appeared on My Broadband, read the original here.
