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Education

it makes sense to query what will
be going in payments from a legal
Legal ease: perspective.
Who are payors in the
automated world?
A self-driving electric car that needs
to recharge and does so automatically
Payments law for at a charging station will have to
make a payment for the electricity.
autonomous devices The owner of the car will have to
load the car's wallet with a payment
instrument that can be presented to
By Adam Atlas the charging station.
Attorney at Law Yes, the car and the charging station
can be part of a pre-programmed
f we believe the promise of tech leaders like Elon Musk, in a few short network of charging stations and
years, we will live in world with self-driving cars, robots and a multitude cars that use them, but if they are not
of services powered by artificial intelligence (AI). If you don't believe we pre-programmed, they need to have a
I are headed for that future, skip this article; it won't be worth your time. common form of payment.

Thank you for reading on. As objects such as cars, shopping carts, delivery This provides an example of
robots, refrigerators, drones, surveillance cameras, phones and countless other machines making payment decisions
things around us, including our pets, become connected to what will be a 5G without direct human involvement.
cellular network moving 10 times more data than the current 4G network, Presumably, the car owner will give
the car instructions and permission
to charge up where necessary and
make the corresponding payment.
In any case, what is important is
that humans will be, at last, one step
removed from some future payment
scenarios.

How are payments made by
automated machines?

Imagine being accustomed to seeing
lawn-mowing robots prowl your
neighborhood. And imagine you can
pre-program your home to accept
having the grass cut by any robotic
lawnmower that is willing to do the
job for $7.50. Indeed, we might see a
time in the near future when owners
of mower robots will set their offer
prices, and homeowners will set
their offer prices, and an automatic
search for matches will occur as
robots canvass the neighborhood.
Where prices agree, or where the
home's AI and robot are authorized to
negotiate within preset parameters,
transactions will occur.

Today, most consumer payments
are made at the moment when
the consumer has all the relevant
information about the purchase.

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