What you need to know
- A new feature coming to CarPlay could completely change how you buy gas.
- Apple is planning to let developers offer support for preauthorizing fuel purchases from your dashboard.
- It could mean you can prepay for your gas before you even arrive at the station, saving time.
A new CarPlay feature coming to iPhone this fall could let you pay for gas from your dashboard and preauthorize purchases before you even arrive at the pump.
Reuters has spotted a feature that passed by WWDC 2022 without any mention at all. From Thursday:
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) wants you to start buying gas directly from your car dashboard as early as this fall, when the newest version of its CarPlay software rolls out, accelerating the company's push to turn your vehicle into a store for goods and services.
A video on Apple's developer website titled 'Get more mileage out of your app with CarPlay' includes a section titled Fueling apps, where Apple explains to developers how they can create apps designed to help fueling. This includes not only finding pumps but apps that can enable starting up a gas pump and buying gas straight from your dashboard using Apple Pay to skip inserting or even tapping your credit or debit card. The report says that it could also be used to preauthorize payments before you even arrive at the pump.
Reuters says that at least one U.S. firm is already onboard:
But Dallas-based HF Sinclair (DINO.N), which markets its gasoline at 1,600 stations in the United States, told Reuters that it plans to use the new CarPlay technology and will announce details in coming months."We are excited by the idea that consumers could navigate to a Sinclair station and purchase fuel from their vehicle navigation screen," said Jack Barger, the company's senior vice president of marketing.
Apple's updates to CarPlay in iOS 16 were overshadowed by its unveiling of the next generation of CarPlay, which will see Apple's iPhone take over your car's entire dashboard, displaying information and metrics from your vehicle as pictured below:
