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In-Dash Fuel Payment Is Now A Thing Thanks To Chevrolet And Shell

Don’t you find it curious that people from outside of America consider Americans to be lazy? This is a preconceived idea at best, but then again, Chevrolet and Shell are feeding the sneerers by creating “embedded in-dash fuel payment technology.”
Shell Pay & Save demonstrated in a Chevrolet Tahoe 7 photos
Photo: Chevrolet
Shell Pay & Save demonstrated in a Chevrolet TahoeShell Pay & Save demonstrated in a Chevrolet TahoeShell Pay & Save demonstrated in a Chevrolet TahoeShell Pay & Save demonstrated in a Chevrolet TahoeShell Pay & Save demonstrated with a Chevrolet TahoeShell Pay & Save demonstrated with a Chevrolet Tahoe
So how does this first-in-the-industry actually work? It’s simple: you take tour eligible Chevrolet to a participating gas station, fill ‘er up, and pay through the touchscreen of your car without swiping the card or using your phone.

So far so good, right? Well, not quite. To use this feature, the customer has to press the Shell icon within Marketplace and select the gas station where he or she wants to fill up. “After a few taps on the in-vehicle touchscreen, a code will be generated that allows the user to activate the desired pump and start fueling.” Payment, meanwhile, is automatically charged.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the time it takes to select the station and go through the menu – one tap of the finger at a time – appears to be a more time-consuming process than presenting the card to the cashier. Marketing may be meant to persuade, but this Chevrolet-Shell experiment has the makings of a big fat blunder.

“We introduced Marketplace to deliver value, productivity, and convenience to our customers,” explained Rick Ruskin, senior manager of Online Commerce at Chevrolet. “Bringing the Shell Pay & Save functionality right on the touchscreen of our vehicles is the latest advancement of this platform, allowing drivers to simply access Fuel Rewards and pay for gas while inside their car."

Marketplace launched in December 2017 for in-car shopping and reservations, though it’s impossible to tell how many active users it has because General Motors doesn’t publish this sort of information. Instead of an ending note, here’s a statement from the automaker on the e-commerce platform: “With Marketplace, drivers can now order and pay for their favorite coffee — and much more — on the way to work with a simple tap on the dash.”

Pardon my French, but isn't that distracted driving? Talking on the phone and texting behind the wheel are usually associated with distracted driving, so what's your opinion on tapping the infotainment system's touchscreen repeatedly to go through every step of the so-called Shell Pay & Save?

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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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