FAQs
About V-Commerce and How It Works
What is this new world of v-commerce all about? How does it work?
Who is the merchant of record on the transactions?
It depends on the type of transaction or service. For example, in fueling, it’ll be the retailer, and we partner with P97 Networks to enable this across several energy brands. In tolling, it may be the toll authority. In EV charging, it may be Sheeva.AI as that space develops. The point is: Our solution is flexible on this.
Who handles your payments?
We are working with several partners in the payments space, but we could ultimately work with any existing payments service or any OEM’s existing partner.
What makes you better than the contactless payment methods I know now, like QR codes and RFID or tapping/swiping cards at the point of sale?
It’s one-touch from the vehicle infotainment screen. You don’t have to bring out your phone or a credit card. It’s especially useful in bad weather conditions or safety conditions around you (e.g. dark parking lots).
It also saves you from infrequently placed or poorly operating hardware - distant pay stations, broken payment systems on fuel pumps or EV chargers, or jammed parking meters.
You’ve logged into your wallet in your car – how many times have you had trouble getting a receipt at a gas station pump or parking stations? No need to be concerned with credit card fraud or QR code fraud, either.
Our product suite makes things a few seconds faster, compared to swiping/tapping a credit card or paying cash, and it can also save you time from special lines when you need to pay that way, and staffing shortages now often mean fewer human attendants.
Is your tech only for EVs? What about ICE or other alternative fueled cars?
We are agnostic to the drivetrain; if there’s a piece of hardware you need to turn on to get whatever fuel you need and we can activate it via API-to-API communication, we can enable it.
Our biggest need is connectivity and that depends on the automaker and the model year, but in general, any car from the 2019 model year or newer, we can enable.
What about other use cases you don’t mention on your website?
If the service you want or use case you envision uses a service point (e.g.. any kind of fueling pump, connected hardware or point-of-sale system to power a car wash) that can use API-to-API communications, we can activate it from inside the car and handle the payment. This is how we added car washes this year!
We are working first on the most-wanted use cases with our OEM partner and their priorities are “car-related” transactions. That means fueling/charging, parking and tolling/road use charging, then various car-related retail transactions (QSR drive-thrus, curbside pickup, etc).
As well, we see fleet management and inventory management as key ecosystem partners in the future.
Who owns the data? Will you sell data?
Our OEM partners will own the data and service providers within each use case will also likely own the data for loyalty programs.
There may be future use cases or certain circumstances where Sheeva.AI may own it, but typically our partners want the data for their customer experience needs.
What are your data security/protection protocols for this?
We are fully PCI compliant and have completed a SOC2 audit.