Connected vehicles are increasingly moving beyond basic data collection toward real-time interaction with the surrounding mobility ecosystem. From Sheeva.AI’s experience, what does it take to make a vehicle genuinely “connected” in a way that creates measurable value for the driver, OEM and ecosystem partners?
Connectivity in cars has evolved from tethered to embedded. And in India, it’s no longer a barrier since the technology is already matured with penetration heading towards 50 % in upcoming years. However, the constraints are being observed in three places;
a. Smarter Infrastructure: OEMs have achieved significant milestones by integrating connectivity & SDV architecture, however, the infrastructure existing outside the vehicle still needs a lot of catching up to do. We have now interoperability framework for EV Charging: Unified Bharat eCharge but same kind of framework also needs to be developed & deployed for other services including fuelling, parking along with V2X – roadside equipment & pedestrian devices.
b. Marketplace Layer: Even if the framework goes mainstream with support of existing payment rails including UPI, UPI Autopay, UPI Circle, the telemetry data does not get leveraged for making services & transaction context rich.
c. Commercial Model: OEMs do offer free connected services for up to three years but post that a significant chunk of drivers does not go for renewal. Depending upon the vehicle segment, the renewal rate hovers between 20%-30%. This ultimately proves that every transaction between the connected vehicle and infrastructure has to earn.
At Sheeva.AI, we’re addressing all these constraints by unifying services centric to vehicle such as fuelling, EV charging, parking & tolling integrated with various payment modes and offered as a one platform for OEMs for better discoverability, availability, uptime, real-time authorization of PoS without any RFID or QR, ultimately offering a frictionless experience while also every transaction gets a commercial viability.
Sheeva.AI’s approach combines precise location intelligence with connected-vehicle services and in-vehicle transactions. How can this layer of intelligence change everyday interactions such as fuelling, EV charging, parking, tolling and other location-based services?
Sheeva.AI’s mission is to connect the real-time telematics already built into the vehicle with real-time service infrastructure and payments. Vehicles today are smart enough to identify what they need. The service side does not see that need in real time, so the provider misses the opportunity to serve the vehicle, and the driver misses a consistent experience because service operators are fragmented.
Sheeva.AI bridges that gap. On the supply side, we aggregate service providers, their infrastructure and payment modes on one platform. On the demand side, we integrate that platform into the OEM’s connected app ecosystem, on mobile or natively on the infotainment system.
Examples
- Fuelling: Indian forecourts are attendant-served, so the friction is handing over a phone or card and waiting for confirmation. With Sheeva, the car’s location identifies the outlet, and the driver pays by UPI or UPI Autopay or Credit Card from the OEM’s app while also serving as a medium to collect & redeem loyalty points from fuel retailers directly. This is live at 30,000+ stations.
- EV charging: The problem has been a separate app and wallet for each network. Unified Bharat e-Charge, launched by the Ministry of Heavy Industries, BHEL and NPCI, now tackles that fragmentation across networks. Our work is to bring it into the car. The vehicle arrives, the charger is identified by location, the charger gets authorized without an RFID card or QR code, and the bill settles against the UPI Autopay or Credit Card.
V2X requires multiple stakeholders—vehicles, infrastructure, OEMs, technology providers and public authorities—to work within a common ecosystem. From your experience in the Indian market, what are the biggest integration or ecosystem challenges that need to be solved before V2X can scale beyond individual deployments?
India has selected C-V2X in the 5.9 GHz band. DoT has exempted C-V2X devices in the 5875–5905 MHz band from licensing. MoRTH’s draft rule proposes V2V on all new two-wheelers, passenger and commercial vehicles from October 2028.
But few challenges still remain:
- Roadside Equipment: TRAI is still consulting on how roadside units are licensed and charged for spectrum. Currently, nobody has settled who funds and maintains them: NHAI and concessionaires on highways, or municipal bodies in cities.
- Penetration: The mandate covers new vehicles only, so India faces years of mixed traffic, and two-wheelers are the most cost-sensitive category.
- Trust: A car must be able to verify a message from another make of car, which needs a universal credential system.
- Ownership: Responsibility is split across DoT, MoRTH, NHAI and the states.
Our own lesson applies here. In in-car payments, the technology was ready before the commercial and operating model was. We had to align the OEM, the service providers/merchants, the payment provider and the attendant at the pump. V2X has more parties and no transaction revenue to pay for the integration, so it will scale only where a mandate or a public funding carries it.
Telematics has traditionally been associated with vehicle tracking, diagnostics and fleet data. With AI, software-defined vehicles and real-time connectivity becoming mainstream, how do you see the role of telematics evolving—and what new opportunities does this create for OEMs and mobility businesses?
Telematics in India is moving from reporting the vehicle data to proactively act on what it needs. Tracking and diagnostics are now the baseline. AIS-140 already requires tracking on commercial vehicles, and nearly half of new passenger cars are connected. The gap is that the data is collected but its value diminishes since the action is missing in real-time & rarely becomes a service the owner will pay for, and which is why most owners do not renew after the free period.
The opportunities are specific:
- In-Car Payments: Telematics knows where the car is and what it needs, and payment turns that into a completed transaction, with opportunity to offer seamless experience & marketing attribution for OEMs and service providers, respectively.
- Insurance: IRDAI has enabled pay-as-you-drive and behaviour-linked covers, and telematics data can feed them with the owner’s consent.
- Fleets: A fuel payment tied to the vehicle’s location gives a verified record of where and how much fuel went in.
- Service: Real-time predictive alerts linked to booking help dealers keep customers after the warranty ends utilizing AI modalities.
- EVs: Battery health records support resale value and financing.
But the adoption will be shaped up by full DPDP compliance in 2027, and the cybersecurity and software-update requirements draft for vehicles.
Looking ahead, what will be the defining shift in connected mobility over the next five years: smarter vehicles, smarter infrastructure, vehicle-to-everything communication, or the emergence of the vehicle as a digital commerce and service platform—and why?
The defining shift is the vehicle as a commerce and service platform. In India the supporting rails already exist: UPI covering ~85% of digital payments, FASTag, a connected base ~50% of new cars, and Unified Bharat e-Charge for charging. Commerce needs integration, not new infrastructure for scale.
The category is already real. Sheeva’s fuel payments have been live in Citroën cars in India since April 2024 without upgrading the existing infrastructure of service provider. Tata Motors launched DrivePay with UPI Circle in September 2026.
Smarter vehicles are the means. OEMs are taking control of the software layer, and that is what lets the car authorize, authenticate and pay. V2X will come as a safety mandate – fitment on new vehicles from latter half of 2028 if the draft gets finalised, and fleet-wide presence by end of this decade. Smarter infrastructure has been launched with multi-lane free flow tolling using a FASTag and ANPR as hybrid enablers.
The Indian version will differ from the developed nations in one respect: owners will pay per use, not per year. By early next decade, paying for fuel, charging and parking from the car has high possibility as de-facto payment mode as FASTag is at a toll plaza today.
