Have you ever wished you can order pizza while stuck in traffic or are waiting at the parking lot? Well, it looks like your wish is about to become a reality as Pizza Hut, Visa, and Accenture are working altogether to get people their pizzas while they are on the road.
The three companies have announced last Monday at the Mobile World Congress 2015 that they are planning to work on "in-car ordering" for people on the go. They have confirmed that they are working on a "proof-of-concept connected car" in order to test the mobile and online transactions for customers on the go. Unfortunately, customers still need to visit an acutal store to pick up their orders, unlike the conventional pizza delivery we are all used to.
The "connected car," according to Visa, will be equipped with Visa checkout, the financial institution's online payment service, Bluetooth Low Energy or BLE, Beacon technology that will be installed at Pizza Hut outlets which will alert the staff upon the customer's arrival for pick up. Accenture will be in charge of the integration of all the technologies involved in the in-car ordering process.
Basically, Pizza Hut will be providing customers access to menus and delivery or pick up options via the in-car ordering system.
"All we've done is turned the automobile into a payment card," Visa executive VP for Innovation and Strategic Partnerships Jim McCarthy said.
The system works just like Apple Pay, only instead of paying using their mobile phones, customers will be paying through their cars.
It seems like restaurants are taking advantage of advanced technology. Pizza Hut is not the only restaurant to experiment with a new technology for ordering food, but competitor Domino's is also getting its hands on new age technology.
Domino's is getting a slice of the smartwatch craze and has started taking pizza orders via the wearable. According to Domino's bosses, customers have been asking them to make ordering available through other technology channels.
"They want to be able to access the brand through technology. And we have pretty drastically changed our model over the last five to seven years to accommodate that," Patrick Doyle, Domino's CEO said.
"What customers have shown us is that they want access to the brand through technology, and they want it anytime, anywhere they are no matter what screen is in front of them, whether they're driving their Ford or in their living room or on a laptop or mobile phone," Doyle told the media back in December.
Domino's customers can now order their favorite pizza through Android and Pebble smartwatches. And we can't wait to try Pizza Hut's in-car ordering system.
