Apple is rolling out the latest version of CarPlay softwareto turn cars into stores for goods and services. The company's efforts to change will accelerate.
With new features quietly announced at this month's Apple developer conference, CarPlay users can tap the app to go to the pump and directly from the car screen. You will be able to buy gasoline. Skip the normal process of inserting or tapping a credit card. Details of the Apple demo for developers have not been reported so far.
However, Dallas-based HF Sinclair, which sells petrol at 1,600 stations in the United States, plans to use the new CarPlay technology for Reuters and will continue to do so. He said he would announce details within a month.
"I'm excited about the idea that consumers can move to Sinclair Station and buy fuel from the vehicle's navigation screen," said Jackberger, senior vice president of marketing for the company. .. The
fuel app is the latest in sustained push by Apple and can be purchased by tapping from thenavigation screen. We've already opened CarPlay to apps for parking, charging electric cars, ordering food, and adding driving task apps such as mileage recording on business trips.
Fuel is a major expense for car owners. In April, the US Energy Information Administration estimated that the average US household would spend about $ 2,945 on gasoline in 2022, about $ 455 more than last year.
Apple is currently an automaker, developer, or user CarPlay; Asymco analyst and founder of Micromobility Industries, Horace Dediu, said the business interest is to put Apple at the forefront as cars turn into rolling computers. I am saying. This new feature will hit hundreds of vehicles already compatible with CarPlay when Apple releases a software update this fall.
" Apple Car— Apple CarPlay is a bigger deal," said Dediu. "It's very likely that we can expand to millions of cars, if not hundreds of millions."
New this fall CarPlay To use the feature, iPhone users must download the fuel company app to their mobile phone, enter their payment credentials and configure the app. After setting up the app, users can tap the navigation screen to activate the pump and make payments.
"It's a huge market and consumers really want to get rid of friction from payments," said Donald Frieden, CEO of the Houston-based P97 network. .. Connect the app to your car.
Frieden said he responded to calls from oil companies interested in running the app on CarPlay. BP, Shell , Chevron did not respond to requests for comments on whether the iPhone app will run on CarPlay.
Failed attempts
Apple's recent move could increase tensions with automakers who have their own ambitions for commerce in the car.
For example, automakers have previously tried to popularize gasoline purchases from cars, but they have failed. General Motors deployed a system to do so in 2017, but closed it earlier this year "because the supplier withdrew from the business," GM told Reuters in a statement.
Beyond fuel and other purchasing apps, Apple is also trying to extend CarPlay to the driving system of the car by accessing speed and fuel gauge data.
However, automakers are unlikely to hand over that data to Apple without making their own request in negotiations that analysts believe are already underway. ..
At the Reuters Automotive Europe Conference in Munich on Wednesday, Mercedes-Benz CEO Orakerenius said the company's goal was "to have a complete and holistic Mercedes experience."
Kallenius says Mercedes will not reinvent all categories of apps, but "everything related to product liability relevance when interacting with companies in this digital domain. You need to pay attention to. "