Original text here from Patrice Bernard (LinkedIn)
In contrast to the progress made by PayByPhone in the area of vehicle-integrated wallets—which I recently covered—an interview with J.P. Morgan’s Head of Mobility Payments provides a thought-provoking look at the practicality of such use cases, even if unintentionally.
Let’s set the scene: in this conversation with American Banker’s Penny Crosman, the topic is a collaborative innovation between Qualcomm and J.P. Morgan, aiming to integrate a payment instrument directly into a vehicle. For now, it's only a concept demo planned for CES 2025, suggesting the U.S. is lagging significantly behind Europe in this field.
Subscribe to our newsletter:
From a tech standpoint, there’s nothing groundbreaking here. So the core question becomes: what’s the actual user value? Expected use cases include common car-related expenses—parking, tolls, gas, EV charging—all directly tied to vehicle activity.
J.P. Morgan’s rep introduces another idea: a driver could pre-order food from a favorite fast-food chain, with the order timed to be ready upon arrival based on an automated ETA prediction. The system could even suggest stops at previously visited locations using route learning.
It all sounds logical at first. Yet when Crosman repeatedly asks, “How is this better than just using your phone?”, the answers begin to crack. Take the restaurant example—is ETA-based ordering really a significant improvement, especially when it requires cooperation from the merchant? And don't mobile apps already predict arrival times quite well?
The same logic applies—more starkly—to parking, tolls, and fuel. Despite imperfections, smartphone apps (like PayByPhone’s) already address these needs. Plus, many allow personalized transactions, meaning charges are linked to individual users, not the vehicle—unlike J.P. Morgan’s model, which ties payments to the car owner.
If there’s one case where a dedicated vehicle wallet truly makes sense, it’s in shared mobility. Imagine a fully autonomous wallet assigned to the vehicle itself, operating as a service agent: paying for all passenger-related expenses and automatically billing each person for their share. That would be a true innovation.
