Never Run Out of Gas Again with a Connected Car

Ford’s SYNC 3 system.

ExxonMobil is teaming up with Ford to add ExxonMobil’s Speedpass+ app to Ford’s SYNC3 Connectivity System. The connected systems will tell users before they even get into their vehicles if they’re running low on gasoline. It will also pay for their gasoline automatically at Exxon and Mobil stations. Drivers will find the stations with GPS connected to the app that will show them the fastest route to the nearest station. The system will also help protect customers from credit card skimmers attached to gas pumps. ExxonMobil’s Energy Factor explains the sytem:

“What we heard from consumers is that they wanted to know, for example, how much fuel they had in their car before they entered the vehicle. They also wanted their car to automatically tell them the location of gasoline stations if they needed fuel. Basically, they wanted to simplify their fueling experience,” explains ExxonMobil’s Will Chun, who helped develop the app.

While advances like the Speedpass+ app might seem like little more than time-saving conveniences in an increasingly busy world, they are actually part of the crest of the connected vehicle wave.

“There are terabytes of data coming off a single vehicle every day,” says Vanessa Surber with ExxonMobil IT. “So the real question is, what are we going to do with that data?”

The plan at ExxonMobil is to use that data to develop new technologies that, for now anyway, improve the driver’s experience and knowledge of their car. However, not too long from now, this data will likely be a major part of our autonomous vehicle future.