Chevrolet feature lets drivers pay for gas without leaving their car

Some Chevrolet owners will no longer need to swipe a credit card when paying for gas.

GM on Tuesday announced a first-of-its-kind feature to let drivers pay for fuel at Shell gas stations from the comfort of their cars. The feature makes use of a relatively new tool, called Marketplace, that acts as a dashboard-mounted shopping console. Now, owners of Chevy cars from 2017 or later will be able to activate a pump and pay for gas from their dashboard.

Of course, drivers will still need to fill up the old-fashioned way--by exiting the vehicle and using the pump (except for residents of New Jersey, the last state in the nation that doesn't allow motorists to pump their own gas). But Chevy says its new technology does offer protection from credit-card skimmers, devices that can be attached to ATMs or card readers to steal information.

"With this, credit card information is stored through your existing account. There's really no way for hackers to try to get your info," said Stefan Cross, a spokesperson for GM. 

The feature is available in a million Chevrolet vehicles; by year-end, it will be available across all GM brands for model years 2017 or later, or roughly 4 million vehicles, Cross said.