Many people dread the process of buying a car. Selecting the car itself can be fun, but the pressure to test drive, the forced banter with the sales rep, and the dreaded negotiation are major turn-offs to many. Visa is working to change that with a new app that can use advanced Bitcoin Blockchain technology to revolutionize the car buying process forever.
Buying a car may soon be as easy as ordering a pizza online
This prototype app was announced at the Money 20/20 payment conference in Las Vegas yesterday and is being built in association with DocuSign Labs. Imagine if you walked into a car dealership, and already knew the car you wanted, the color, and the two or three features it has to have from the range of options. With a few taps and swipes, a customer can walk into a dealership and lease a car, after selecting the annual mileage, in less than five minutes. And that is only the beginning.
Visa and DocuSign engineers have created an app that will let you buy the car’s insurance just as quickly and easily. No more faxing documents and waiting for insurance waivers to be processed, which can take hours. With DocuSign’s exclusive Digital Transaction Management platform and eSignature, integrated with Visa’s payment technology, the car gets its identity registered on Bitcoin’s Blockchain.
DocuSign's Head of Product Ron Hirson told USA Today:
"Much like Visa put its card into the (Apple) Watch (providing on-wrist Apple Pay capability) this is just putting your card into your car. The vehicle becomes a smart asset that offers two-way communication that can benefit consumers.”
From there, the car can do many things automatically, like pay tolls, buy pizzas, or create an Accenture account. This app took just weeks to create and could be ready for an automaker to integrate shortly if needed. The app would monitor discounts qualified for when an owner drives fewer miles than agreed in a lease. Renew registration, pay parking fees or order satellite radio for the vehicle as well. The car could even repossess itself!
"If you think about it, we won't even need repo men anymore (to repossess a car for non-payment), because the car could effectively repo itself," jokes Jim McCarthy, Visa's executive vice president for innovation and strategic partnerships. "We're moving into a bold new era of connectedness between commerce and payments, where reality is finally catching up with the opportunity of the Internet.”
The list of automotive capabilities for a car owner is seemingly endless. Getting the car serviced in your area would become totally integrated, with providers bidding for your business through the app.
"The guy at the dealership will know everything about your car and what it needs before you drive up," says Hirson. "Or maybe the oil change shops in your neighborhood will start a reverse auction to get your business, and when you do pick a place you won't have to pull out your wallet to pay.”
Apps like this show the potential integration of electronic devices working within the anticipated “Internet of Things”. According to the estimates of some analysts, there may be as many as 50 billion Web-connected items, from doorbells to cameras by 2020 with 250 million of them being automobiles.