Commercializing Connected Car
KT announced on November 15 that it formed a consortium with E1, Lotte Card, BC Card and Smartro, and they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for cooperation in the connected car commerce sector.
Connected car commerce can be defined as a set of services allowing drivers to make automatic payments without plastic cards at gas stations, charging stations, parking lots, take-out restaurants, etc. In other words, their cars function as their payment tools. In addition, users can use the services without informing service providers of their arrival because the locations of their cars are detected with accuracy.
The consortium is planning to launch a pilot project sooner or later so that those who use the charging stations of E1 can get a membership discount and make a payment automatically. Similar services are expected to be provided at more offline and online stores after the pilot project.
KT explained that the automatic payment service is going to be provided based on the differential GPS positioning technology of the KT Institute of Convergence Technology and that the technology is highly advantageous for the popularization of connected car commerce because it requires no positioning system at affiliated stores.