Your license plate will be able to replace your bank card: what you can pay with

The French company specializing in Lyf payment has just presented a payment system via license plate in car parks. No need to go to the terminal or via a payment terminal to pay for parking. This solution could be extended to other services, such as tolls for example.

If you are used to paying regularly with your phone or via contactless with your bank card, this new fast payment solution should probably please you.

For ever greater speed, the French company Lyf, which specializes in payment, has just unveiled a payment solution directly thanks to the vehicle registration plate. Indeed, you will surely have noticed it if you use your car regularly, but payment via your smartphone from the car is still far from being a reality, both at tolls and at motorway service areas, via service stations or in car parks.

A first experience in car parks

Thanks to a new partner, namely Parcus, a leading parking operator in Strasbourg, Lyf makes life easier for car park customers thanks to a payment system directly via the license plate. The customer simply registers his license plate directly in the Lyf app.

Thus, at the entrance to the car park, its plate is recognized and the barrier rises automatically. At the exit, there is a new reading of his plate: payment is made without any action required. The barrier opens and the payment receipt is immediately available within the application. Enough to avoid getting stuck in front of the barrier with a payment terminal which, sometimes, shows some signs of fatigue.

Soon for service stations and charging stations?

The arrival of this type of means of payment also makes it possible to see a little further. Indeed, we can well imagine a similar system on the motorway for example within a few years, even if electronic toll badges already offer this type of service. Nevertheless, this implies having an additional object planned in the car.

Lyf already offers an interesting system with click & collect and scan & go in the TotalEnergies motorway shops. Later, Lyf intends to “smooth and speed up the passage to the pumps in gas stations”. It remains to be seen whether it will be the same principle as payment via the license plate.

We also imagine a similar system on charging stations for electric carsmost of whom still find it difficult to equip themselves with a payment terminal and require a multitude of specific cards depending on the supplier.

Across the Atlantic, several states now authorize the adoption of electronic license plates based on E-Ink screens: the same display technology as on our reading lights.
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