Google’s upcoming Pony Express service to allow bill payments from within Gmail

There are so many ways to make payments both physically and online. Now, Google wants to add another that gets right to it. The company is reportedly working on a service going by the name Pony Express that forwards bills to inbox of its users. From there, they are able to make payments without having to leave Gmail.

Hit the break for more.

Pony Express, according to Re/code, will collect bills from various companies and store them in one place. This cuts out the need to go between company sites to pay each bill. Instead, Gmail has the tools for paying quickly. It seems that to gather the bills Google will be “partnering with third-party vendors that print and mail out bills on behalf of service providers such as insurance companies, telecom companies and utilities.” Getting bills directly from the service providers is unknown at this time. Users can pay immediately or setup dates for when payments are submitted.

Google enlists the help of a third-party to verify a user’s identity when setting up Pony Express. This includes name, address, and Social Security number. Adding a credit or debit card and phone number will also help make the service more useful.

Where could this service lead, anyways? Simply put: advertisements. Once Google gets an idea of what a user spends their money on, they can tailor advertisements across their many services and platforms even further.

The service is expected to launch in the final quarter of 2015. So plenty of changes between now and that time are likely. Consider Pony Express a fluid project for Google.

Source: Re/code

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​Google’s driverless car ideas include airbags on the outside

Airbags on the inside, that’s what cars typically have, protecting the driver from any incident that might knock them around inside a vehicle. But how about airbags on the outside, for the rest of us? Google’s patented the idea for its driverless cars, with a system of inflatable bumpers that would react in the event of an accident. Sensors could detect when a collision is imminent and inflate the bags to hopefully reduce damage to anyone (or anything) involved. That said, typical airbags might not help when installed outside of the car, as any poor pedestrian that the system would aim to protect would likely be bounced off — which doesn’t sound particularly safe. Google has the answer, however: visco-elastic material.

This wonder-material that would offer a degree of give when coming into contact with objects (or what we like to call ‘people’). The idea of airbags-on-the-outside isn’t completely new, though. Volvo is also toying with the idea, here’s how the carmaker imagines it would look like:

Google appears to be making sure its driverless vehicles are packed with safety features: hopefully, to assuage that freaky feeling a lot of us get at the idea of a car that gosh-darn drives itself.

Filed under: Transportation, Google

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Via: Quartz

Source: USPTO