During this pandemic, contactless payments have become a necessity in order to lessen the physical interaction we have while we still wait for the full rollout of the vaccine. One of the things that Google is helping do that is by letting you do things on its apps digitally and virtually that require little to no touching of public surfaces. Google Maps now lets you do things like pay for parking and transit fare right from the app itself, as long as you have your Google Pay account connected to it.
Google Maps has partnered with parking solutions providers Passport and Park Mobile so you can pay for your parking from the app directly without having to go down and feed the parking meter. When you’re near your destination, a “Pay for Parking” button will appear. Tap on it, enter your meter number and the time you want to park for, and then tap “Pay”. You can also extend your parking session from the app itself so you don’t need to go back and add money to the meter.
Meanwhile, they’re also expanding paying for transit fares globally, partnering with more than 80 transit agencies from around the world. You will be able to buy your fare from the Google Maps app and then use it to ride to your destination without having to toggle between various apps. When you’re looking at the transit directions on Maps, you’ll be able to see if there’s an option to pay for the ride from within the app. There are also some places like in San Francisco where you can buy a digital Clipper card directly from the app.
To be able to do this, you need to connect your Google Pay account to your Google Maps. And of course, your Google Pay account is linked to a debit or credit card from supported banks. These contactless payments are important not just because of the pandemic but also during extreme weather conditions where you don’t want to get out of the car to pay for parking or when you need to quickly pay for your ride without the hassle of lining up or using another app.
The pay for parking feature on Google Maps has started rolling out to more than 400 cities in the U.S including Boston, Cincinnati, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C, and more. The pay for transit one will be coming to Android devices in the next few weeks in places where they have partnered with global agencies around the world.
