Google Maps Can Now Pay For Parking And Transit Fare
There is good news for all the drivers throughout America. Google Maps will now hold the option through which users can pay for their street parking directly through the app. This has been made possible as a result of the partnership between transportation software companies Passport and ParkMobile and Google Maps app. According to Google, this initiative will also be made in collaboration with Google Pay. Google further declared that public transit users will also be able to access the contactless payment feature soon.
Google plans to expand this contactless parking payment feature through Android first in more than 400 cities in the USA. Some of these cities are New York, Chicago, Houston, Boston, etc. Google soon plans on making this feature available to iOS as well.
This feature integrates with the operating system of the transportation software company, Passport, and was launched in Austin in 2020. The two transportation software companies had already hinted at the possibility that this feature would roll out in the U.S soon. Even though this news did not come as a surprise, it was still celebration-worthy for both Passport and ParkMobile that will now be integrated into Google Maps, the most widely used navigation app in the world.
The basic vision behind this initiative was to allow the users to pay for their parking without the need to touch a meter or any other such object especially with the fear of COVID-19 still looming over our heads.
Drivers in selected cities will be able to see the option to pay for their parking through Google pay while using Google Maps for navigation on their Android or iOS device. But, in order to access this feature, users will first have to set up a google pay account which would be linked to their debit or credit card. After that, drivers can enter their meter number, how long they will park for and then complete the payment through Google Pay. Drivers can also extend the parking time as per their convenience.
Vishal Dutta and Fausto Araujo, the product managers of Google Maps and Google Pay, respectively stated in a blog post “Simply tap on the ‘Pay for Parking’ button that appears as you near your destination. Then enter your meter number, the amount of time you want to park for and tap ‘Pay.’ Need to add more time to your meter? Easily extend your parking session with just a few taps,”.
Google also claimed that the ability to pay for transit using Google Maps will be expanding to over 80 transit agencies around the globe soon.
The company further wrote, “You can understand how to pay in advance and even get your fare ready to go before you arrive at the station which is helpful when you’re not sure what payment options a transit agency supports.” As soon as the users access transit directions, they will have the option to pay with their phones using Google Pay which is linked to their debit or credit card. For a number of specific places like the San Francisco Bay Area, users will have the choice to buy a digital Clipper card from Google Maps itself. After the purchase has been made, the user can just tap their phone on the reader or show their digital ticket to pay for the fare.
This pay for parking became accessible on Android on 17th February 2021 in more than 400 cities in the U.S, with an iOS version in the making.
This new transit pay feature can be seen in Google Maps in the user’s directions.