Parking dramas, meet your match, here comes Hyundai Pay. The boffins at Hyundai are turning your car into a digital wallet with the introduction of a new parking payment system.

Set to premiere on the sleek 2024 Hyundai Kona this fall, the Hyundai Pay in-car payment platform is designed to take the pain out of parking. We’re all for anything that helps to reduce rage on the road.

Pay for Parking from the Driver’s Seat

Picture this: You're stuck in traffic, looking for a parking spot. Stress levels rise, frustration mounts. Knuckles whiten on the wheel. Kids start to scream but not anymore. Thanks to Hyundai Pay, your car's touchscreen becomes a portal to a hassle-free parking experience, no doubt saving countless family days out.

In cahoots with parking pre-booking service Parkopedia – yes, that’s a thing –, Hyundai Pay is a parking payment system that's changing the game. US drivers can now locate, reserve, and pay for parking right from the comfort of their car. No need to fumble for loose change or deal with clunky parking meters. It's apparently as easy as tapping your touchscreen.

Following the Kona, Hyundai Pay is set to appear in nine more vehicle models, thanks to model year tweaks and over-the-air updates. The future? Even more features tailored for electric vehicles. Throughout it all, payment data is locked down with tokenization , keeping it safe from prying eyes.

"Hyundai Pay is the latest example of our continuous advancements in smart mobility and software-defined vehicles," says Olabisi Boyle, the Vice President of Product Planning and Mobility Strategy at Hyundai Motor North America. "With Hyundai Pay's scalable e-commerce platform, we can elevate customer convenience and extend their digital reach by making everyday needs — like finding and paying for parking — easier, swifter, and safer via our connected-car, integrated-cockpit, and secure-transaction technology."

Universal Pain

Now it’s time to state the obvious, or rather point to a survey that uncovers the obvious. Parkopedia's 2023 Global Driver Survey revealed that a whopping 94% of drivers faced parking challenges, with 18% experiencing difficulties every time they searched for a spot. The survey showed that American drivers are all for in-car parking services. In fact, 58% want to hunt for parking through their vehicle, and 68% want to pay for parking via their in-car media system. We’re pretty sure that the rest of the world feels the same.

This ongoing pain features prominently in Hyundai's US marketing for the Kona:

Jokes aside for a second, anything that helps alleviate parking woes is to be celebrated. Certainly, Hans Puvogel, the Chief Operating Officer at Parkopedia, couldn't be happier when he stated: "We are proud to be the first in-car commerce service to launch on the future-proof Hyundai Pay platform, which shows significant faith in the auto-grade quality of our services from one of the leading automakers."

So, get ready to embrace yet another payment system. One day, there’ll be one app to rule them all. What a terrifying prospect, Frodo.