Chevrolet is to allow some of its drivers to start paying for petrol without touching their wallet or smartphone thanks to a link-up with Shell.
As a result, select Chevy models will soon be able to pull up to a pump at a Shell petrol station and pre-pay for their fuel via the in-car display before jumping out and filling up.
The process uses Chevy’s Marketplace system, which enables users to link several different payment methods to their in-car display and use it to also pre-purchase coffee or make restaurant reservations from the driver’s seat.
For petrol, it links with Shell’s own Pay and Save system, which sends users a PIN when they sign up that is used to authorise a transaction.
Sadly for UK drivers, the scheme is limited to the US for now, and even there it is only currently available in three cities – Detroit, Seattle and Houston – a wider roll out is said to be coming in the summer.
But it does offer a glimpse of the sort of in-car interactivity that will be possible in years to come, especially as WiFi becomes a more common commodity in production cars.