General Information

Welcome to the COVESA In-Vehicle Payments for Modern Vehicles Group Meeting

Weekly Meeting: Bi-Weekly on Wednesday starting 3/25/2026 (1700 CET, 11:00am ET, 8:00am PT) (zoom link) (See Community Calendar for details) - IMPORTANT - Between March 8th and March 29th of 2026, the US is on DST and Europe is not. This makes the meeting 1 hour later in the US

Slack: https://covesacommunity.slack.com/archives/C062FSND1GU

Google Group: in-vehicle-payments@covesa.global

Chair: Mark Gerban , PAIRPOINT

White Paper - IVP For Modern Vehicles v.1.05:

Open

2026 Porto IVP Status Update Presentation:

Open

Meeting Notes

May 20th, 2026

The discussion focused on the continued development of the COVESA In-Vehicle Payments architecture, including FIDO alignment, SIM/eSIM-based trust signals, verifiable credentials, and merchant ecosystem involvement. The following points were highlighted:

1.) The FIDO agreement remains pending. Paul and Mike will follow up to progress the signature process. It was also noted that a potential COVESA/FIDO press release could help add credibility and momentum to the payment discussions once the agreement is in place. The Agentic Protocol, reportedly developed by Google and contributed to FIDO, was also discussed. Mastercard has reportedly co-developed certain elements. This is relevant because trusted devices and trust anchors are likely to play an important role in future agentic and delegated transaction models. FIDO may also explore non-payment use cases, which could broaden the relevance of the COVESA IVP work beyond payments.

2.) From the OEM side, there is interest in using SIM/eSIM memory to retrieve trust signals for payments and potentially other vehicle use cases. Further technical review is required, particularly around memory capacity and integration requirements. The SIM software package discussed for communication with the SIM is estimated at around 44KB in size, with AT commands required for communication with the SIM to create the trust anchor.

3.) If memory becomes a constraint, an additional eSIM could potentially be used, with an estimated market cost of approximately $1 per module. This could offer significant economic advantages compared with non-standard components such as HSMs, which may cost approximately €5–10 per unit.

4.) It was also noted that the SIM does not need to sit in a specific part of the vehicle. As long as AT command capability is available, the relevant SIM/eSIM could sit in different vehicle modules. This may provide greater deployment flexibility compared with a dedicated HSM-based approach.

5.) A separate verifiable credentials project is being discussed with COVESA. Paul will introduce the relevant California-based contacts. The team should consider whether this work can be incorporated into the payment and trust model discussions.

6.) Jim will help coordinate discussions with merchant ecosystem stakeholders, including Conexxus, to ensure merchant and acceptance network requirements are reflected in the evolving architecture, where a COVESA/FIDO press release will be quite helpful.

May 9th, 2026

1. The group is currently discussing the preferred hardware architecture for vehicle-based payment authentication and trust signaling. The primary focus is whether the industry should standardize around the vehicle SIM as the common trust anchor and token storage mechanism, rather than relying on dedicated HSM implementations.

2. One of the key considerations raised is scalability and ecosystem consistency. While HSMs provide strong security capabilities, OEMs currently use a wide range of different chipsets and hardware configurations, creating fragmentation and potential interoperability challenges. In contrast, virtually all connected vehicles already include a SIM/eSIM infrastructure, making it a more uniform and broadly deployable foundation for a standardized architecture.

3. Supply chain resilience was also discussed. Dedicated HSM hardware introduces additional sourcing and supply chain dependencies, whereas SIM-based infrastructure is already mature, globally available, and integrated into existing automotive connectivity stacks. As a result, the group appears to be converging toward SIM-based trust architecture as the more scalable and practical long-term direction for cross-OEM standardization.

4. The working group now needs to reach formal alignment on whether the SIM should be recommended as the baseline architectural direction within the standard. If consensus is achieved, the next step will be to update the white paper with a formal recommendation reflecting this direction.

5. In parallel, the group also noted that the cooperation agreement between FIDO Alliance and COVESA still requires signature completion from Steve in order to move the collaboration forward.

6. Following signature completion of the agreement with FIDO Alliance, the next milestone will be presentation of the proposal to the technical working group for approval on May 25th. The presentation will be led by Mark, Sri, and Jim.

7. Subject to approval from the technical group, the subsequent phase will involve direct engagement with Visa and Mastercard, alongside discussions with FIDO Alliance, to present the proposed standard architecture and demonstrate how it can leverage and align with existing EV charging payment infrastructure already deployed in the market. The objective is to build broader ecosystem and industry support around a scalable authentication and trust framework for in-vehicle commerce.

8. Jim will additionally help coordinate discussions with merchant ecosystem stakeholders, including groups such as Conexxus, to ensure merchant and acceptance network interests are incorporated into the evolving architecture and standardization approach.

Agenda April 9th, 2026

• Kkunal will circulate the onboarding architecture tomorrow. This needs to be finalized before moving to the next step of engaging OEMs.

• The API/SDK interface will be used so OEMs can leverage native capabilities (Sri to confirm internally at GM).

• Once the API/SDK approach and architecture are finalized, the IVP white paper will be updated.

• Steve to prepare a liaison agreement between FIDO and COVESA, focused on biometric authentication. This will support user identification and login for in-vehicle payments (FIDO supports multiple modalities). A key point to determine is which hardware components (e.g. SIM, HSM) will be used for a standardized approach.

• Mark to prepare a presentation for COVESA next week covering IVP, the white paper outline, and draft architecture for feedback (11:00–11:15), followed by the panel on Thursday, April 23.

• Mark to write to Sri and prepare details for Steve: a short paragraph outlining how COVESA and FIDO will work together, with collaboration scope clearly defined.

Mar 25, 2026

• Architecture Review and Confirmation

• Porto AMM Planning

Feb 9, 2026

1. Updated Payment Flow Diagrams

• Kkunal presented revised payment flow diagrams.

• He will share the updated materials with the group for further review.

2. AI Demo Flow Including Google Agentic Commerce Protocol

• Kkunal will also provide a demo of the AI-driven commerce flow, which incorporates Google’s Agentic Commerce Protocol: https://developers.google.com/merchant/ucp 

3. Focus Area: Agentic Commerce with Voice

• The round agreed that agentic commerce—particularly voice‑enabled experiences—will be a primary focus area for introducing payments infrastructure within COVESA.

4. KYC and Customer–Vehicle Binding

• A formal KYC process will need to be defined to ensure that customer registration results in a verified profile that is securely bound to the vehicle.

• Existing implementations from OEMs such as Mercedes and BMW may serve as useful reference points for establishing a standardized approach.

5. Engagement with the AI Workgroup

• Once the round reaches consensus on the proposed protocol, we will invite the AI workgroup to review and share insights.

• However, the initial assessment indicates limited overlap between their current scope and this group's work.

6. COVESA Porto Event

• The group discussed participation in the upcoming COVESA event in Porto.

• A workshop led by Mike has been requested, and organizing one to two panels is under consideration.

• Attendee lists are still unclear, but the group aims to ensure representation from this workstream.

• Mark is currently unable to travel due to workload, but can join virtually if necessary.  

• John Moon may be able to lead the discussion here.

Dec 1, 2025

Participants:

Topics:

Benefits of MCC Optimization for In‑Vehicle Payments

1. Lower Transaction Costs

• Current MCC classifications often place EV charging and fleet fueling in higher‑risk categories, driving up interchange fees.

• By establishing dedicated MCCs for EV charging, fleet fueling, and car‑present transactions, we can better reflect the true risk profile and reduce costs.

• Payment networks typically require several years of transaction history (around four years) before adjusting pricing. A coordinated industry effort can accelerate this process by pooling data across OEMs and merchants.

2. New Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) for the Automotive Industry 

• Car‑Present Transactions: Allows the transactions to be authenticated via the proposed COVESA IVP framework for e-commerce transactions, allowing for reduced risk in the transaction

• Fleet‑Present Transactions: EV fleets and trucks represent predictable, recurring usage patterns that should be classified as lower risk.  They may have higher authentication mechanisms (e.g. fleet driver IDs, authentication apps with the vehicle for higher security for fueling, etc.)

• Charging MCC: EV charging should be treated more like a utility transaction, which historically carries lower risk.  As a cable is involved, continuous authentication occurs over a more extended period during charging, reducing the risk in non-prepaid cases.

• Proximity MCC: Geo-location verification (vehicle is at Costco, charging station, or merchant site) provides strong fraud mitigation and supports lower interchange fees.

Next Steps

• Note MCC proposals for new or reclassified categories that include payment networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) in follow-up standards paper.

• Aggregate historical transaction data across OEMs and merchants to support reclassification (this may need to be card scheme driven).

• Update the draft architecture framework with description of each section in paragraph form to explain the technical aspects, in preparation for the follow-up of the COVESA standards paper.

• Bring in new merchants and OEMs into the COVESA IVP standards discussion

• Ask the COVESA team to formalize agreement with FIDO Alliance, so we can bring Andrew Shikiar (FIDO CEO) into the discussions

Past In-Vehicle Payment (IVP) Workshop Recordings