Visa to trial new car sales technology

Visa customers will soon be able to purchase a vehicle within seconds without even leaving the driver's seat using an app built into the dashboard.

The financial services company outlined the plans to commercialize a connected car prototype using block chain technology in the coming months at the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan.

Visa vice-chair Ellen Richey said the project would allow customers to finalize purchase, including organizing auto insurance and lease payments without any paperwork.

“You can finish buying a car in seconds and drive out of the dealership right away. It is dramatically raising the level of efficiency,” she said.

The car integrates with blockchain technologies to record and update contracts to simplify the processes of secure payments and smart contracts, she noted.

Blockchain is a method of recording data, a digital ledger of transactions, agreements, contracts - anything that needs to be independently recorded and verified as having happened, and is seen as potentially disrupting the conventional ways of doing businesses.

Richey said Visa is working with over 50 partners, from big-names like IBM Corp to IT startups to explore blockchain technologies.

Chinese bankcard network China UnionPay is also using blockchain technologies for trial projects on cross-border transactions and supplying chain finance.

President Shi Wenzhao said the technology is still at an infancy stage, when a decentralized approach of blockchain may fail to sustain high-frequency transactions.

“Major technological breakthroughs could only be achieved when big institutions step in,” he said.