There is more than just a Connected Car story behind the Jaguar on display at Innovation City in Hall 4. The demonstration model illustrates not just time saving and life enhancing apps, but how companies are collaborating to take full advantage of the speed and connectivity of 5G.
This time last year at MWC 2016 executives from car maker Jaguar Land Rover met their counterparts from petrol retailer Shell at the Innovation Hall. The Jaguar staff asked how the Shell payments application, which they all used on their phones, could be upgraded and integrated into the new Connected Car that Jaguar was building. At that moment, a technology partnership was conceived and their joint creative efforts (along with developer MobGen) gave rise to the recently unveiled Fill up and Go application for the connected Jaguar. This time-saving and safety enhancing system is drawing attention from mobile operators, mobile app developers and rival petrol retailers who need create their own version of the app.
The original app, which has been a constant work in progress since it was first launched in December 2011, was named Shell Mobile Motorist and conceived as a loyalty programme. As payment functions were added, so that drivers could settle their bills without having to queue up at the till in the petrol station, the popularity of the app grew. The first payment system added to the app was PayPal in August 2015. Apple Pay options were added in 2016 and payment by Android phones is planned for 2017.
When Shell launched Fill Up and Go in February 2017, it attracted significant media attention, according to Stuart Blyde, Director of the Connected Car Programme at Shell. The most obvious appeal of the app is it gives drivers the option not to leave vulnerable passengers in their car as they queue to pay in the forecourt. However, the time saving effect created a secondary wave of interest. The integration of Fill Up and Go with the dashboard apps has wider implications, since it demonstrates that the Connected Car is able to initiate a much wider range of options by connection with a Smart phone.
“When we looked at designing the app, we had three options. Build a whole new app, bring some other app in, or adapt an existing application,” says Blyde, who is giving briefings on how Fill Up and Go app has ‘tethered’ the power of the Smart phone with the ease of use of the connected Jaguar’s dashboard touch screen. Blyde will be at the Jaguar in the Innovation City area of Hall 4. Accenture, whose digital arm MobGen developed Fill Up and Go, is also hosting a connected Land Rover in Hall 2.