REMOTELY AUTHORIZING A PURCHASE FROM A HEAD UNIT OF A VEHICLE

1 . A method for authorizing a purchase from a head unit of a vehicle, comprising:

transmitting, by the head unit, vehicle position information to a cloud via a wireless communication network;

creating, by the head unit, an authorization for the purchase;

sending the authorization for the purchase from the head unit to a cloud via a wireless communication network; and

receiving an indication from the cloud that the purchase has been approved based on a determination that the purchase is appropriate given the location of the vehicle; and

completing the purchase based on the received indication.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle position information is obtained from a global positioning system (GPS) module in the vehicle.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the purchase is a purchase that would require a vehicle be present to gain benefit of the purchase.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising;

receiving purchase amount information from a merchant via a wireless communication network.

5 . A method for authorizing a purchase from a head unit of a vehicle, comprising:

receiving, at a cloud server in a cloud, vehicle position information from the head unit of the vehicle;

receiving, at the cloud server, purchase information from the head unit of the vehicle, the purchase information including a location where the purchase is taking place;

comparing the vehicle position information to the location where the purchase is taking place to verify that the purchase is appropriate given a location of the vehicle; and

passing the purchase information to a credit or debit card processor in response to a verification that the purchase is appropriate .given the location of the vehicle, in order to cause the processing of a financial transaction for the purchase.

6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising alerting a driver by sending a message to the head unit.

7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the purchase is time from a parking meter.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the purchase is prompted by an alert from the parking meter that time on the parking meter has almost expired.

9 . A cloud server located in a cloud, the cloud server comprising:

a processor;

a first interface designed to receive vehicle position information and purchase information from a head unit, of a vehicle, the purchase information including a location where a purchase is taking place;

a purchase verification module configured to compare the vehicle position information to the location where the purchase is taking place to verify that the purchase is appropriate given a location of the vehicle; and

a second interface designed to send the purchase information to a transaction processor in response to a verification that the purchase is appropriate given the location of the vehicle, in order to cause the processing of a financial transaction for the purchase.

10 . The cloud server of claim 9 , wherein the first interlace includes an interface to a cellular phone network.

11 . The cloud server of claim 9 , further comprising a third interface designed to send purchase information to a merchant.

12 . The cloud server of claim 11 wherein the merchant includes a merchant server in communication with a local point-of-sale terminal at the location of the vehicle.

13 . A head unit in a vehicle, comprising:

a processor;

a global positional satellite (GPS) module designed to determine a current location for the vehicle;

the processor configured to create an authorization for a purchase, the authorization including vehicle position information from the GPS module;

a cellular network transmission module designed to transmit the authorisation to a cloud via a wireless communication message and to complete the purchase upon receiving an indication from the cloud that the purchase has been approved based on a determination that the purchase is appropriate given the location of the vehicle.

14 . The head unit of claim 13 , further comprising a direct wireless transmission module designed to communicate directly with a point of sale terminal at the current location.

15 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, cause the machine to per form operations for authorizing a purchase from a head unit of a vehicle, comprising:

transmitting, by the head unit, vehicle position information to a cloud via a wireless communication network;

sending the authorization for the purchase from the head unit to a cloud via a wireless communication network;

receiving an indication from the cloud that the purchase has been approved based on a determination that the purchase is appropriate given the location of the vehicle; and

completing; the purchase based on the received indication.

16 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations for authorizing a purchase from a head unit of a vehicle, comprising:

receiving, at a cloud server in a cloud, vehicle position information from the head unit of the vehicle;

receiving, at the cloud server, purchase information from the head unit of the vehicle, the purchase information including a location where the purchase is taking place;

comparing the vehicle position information to the location where the purchase is taking place to verify that the purchase is appropriate given a location of the vehicle; and

passing the purchase information to a credit or debit card processor in response to a verification that the purchase is appropriate given the location of the vehicle, in order to cause the processing of a financial transaction for the purchase.