As from 2022 your Mercedes car will be a credit card

Together with its sub-brand Smart, Mercedes is the first automotive manufacturer that turns its cars into credit cards. It is the next step in facilitating digital payments related to mobility for their car owners or users.

The innovation comes from Daimler Mobility, which has teamed up with American credit card company Visa to enable so-called native in-car payments. This means that the vehicle itself is morphing into a credit card, pretty much like a wearable.

Both companies are rolling out their technology partnership in 2022, starting in the UK and Germany. From there, the convenience will be launched step-by-step over the rest of the world, beginning in Europe.

Bye-bye smartphone

Native in-car payments don’t require an extra app on a smartphone or the classic card swipe. When a driver leaves a parking lot, he will pay by touching the fingerprint sensor installed in the car.

As for now, Mercedes has three models with such a sensory device: the EQS, the S-Class, and the latest C-Class. This solution for purchases can also be used for fuelling or charging.

“There is nothing more convenient than authorizing a payment with your fingerprint,” Franz Reiner, CEO of Daimler Mobility explains, “A luxury customer experience, of course, includes the aspect of safety, and we fulfill that through native in-car payment. We offer our customers security not only when driving, but also when paying.”

In-car commerce

That payment protection is provided by Visa’s Cloud Token Framework (CTF), which will be incorporated inside the cars. It’s a cloud-based security system, converting sensitive data and storing it encrypted.

The goal is to minimize fraud risk. Also, it allows the connection of multiple devices – of which the car will be one – and it performs the approval of payments by two-factor authentification.

Atony Cahill, CEO of Visa Europe, commented: “This is a powerful example of how the world’s leader in digital payments and the inventor of the automobile can combine their technologies to create the next generation of smart solutions for the automobility sector, providing the driver and passengers with a completely new in-car connected commerce experience.”

Part of Mercedes pay

As car manufacturers are increasingly transforming into service providers, the German builder of luxury cars has made the Visa technology a more advanced step within the Mercedes pay platform.

That makes it already possible to purchase several services (navigation, over-the-air options, parking, Mercedes me), but by using the MBUX infotainment system or the in-house app for smartphones.

With the rise of connected vehicles, experts project a prosperous future for these in-vehicle payments. They believe that the market value could be as significant as $86 billion in 2025.