QOTD: Is There an App for That?

At the risk of sounding like any number of insufferable site fully staffed with dough heads who spend way too much time extolling the virtues of kale (is kale still a thing?), our question today is about driving and car-related apps.

While backing up his phone this weekend (I can’t bear to lose those all important notes about used cars that have been long sold, don’tcha know), your author was struck by the amount of space on his phone being consumed by items relating to cars.

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The Car As a Wallet: Hyundai Adds Food, Gas, Parking for In-Car Payment Plan

Corporate partnerships and integrated purchasing solutions are all the rage right now in the auto industry. While it’s easy to miss the appeal, as credit cards are pretty easy to use when cash isn’t an option and most modern phones have similar applications, car-based transitions are on the rise. Now, Hyundai’s joining Xevo to provide its own branded in-car purchasing platform.

Like similar services, Hyundai owners will be able to sync their credit card with the vehicle and use it to locate and buy food, fuel, and parking (from participating companies). Also under development is the Hyundai Digital Wallet, “which stores a customer’s payment information and facilitates secure processing, for a seamless checkout experience to enable in-car commerce.”

Hyundai hasn’t established an official launch date — or nailed down the final design — but it insists the system is coming. Initial partners include Chevron and Texaco-branded gas stations, Applebee’s To Go and ParkWhiz. Out of the three, the parking solution seems the most useful by far. But if you absolutely refuse to get out of your seat to procure a bundle of mozzarella sticks, Hyundai (like GM) will eventually have you covered.

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  • Damon Thomas Adding to the POSITIVES... It's a pretty fun car to mod
  • GregLocock Two adjacent states in Australia have different attitudes to roadworthy inspections. In NSW they are annual. In Victoria they only occur at change of ownership. As you'd expect this leads to many people in Vic keeping their old car.So if the worrywarts are correct Victoria's roads would be full of beaten up cars and so have a high accident rate compared with NSW. Oh well, the stats don't agree.https://www.lhd.com.au/lhd-insights/australian-road-death-statistics/
  • Lorenzo In Massachusetts, they used to require an inspection every 6 months, checking your brake lights, turn signals, horn, and headlight alignment, for two bucks.Now I get an "inspection" every two years in California, and all they check is the smog. MAYBE they notice the tire tread, squeaky brakes, or steering when they drive it into the bay, but all they check is the smog equipment and tailpipe emissions.For all they would know, the headlights, horn, and turn signals might not work, and the car has a "speed wobble" at 45 mph. AFAIK, they don't even check EVs.
  • Not Tire shop mechanic tugging on my wheel after I complained of grinding noise didn’t catch that the ball joint was failing. Subsequently failed to prevent the catastrophic failure of the ball joint and separation of the steering knuckle from the car! I’ve never lived in a state that required annual inspection, but can’t say that having the requirement has any bearing on improving safety given my experience with mechanics…
  • Mike978 Wow 700 days even with the recent car shortages.