Lauren Goode, writing for The Verge:

ExxonMobil today said it would start accepting Apple Pay as a form of payment at around 6,000 ExxonMobil gas stations around the U.S, something that Apple CEO Tim Cook had said was coming during the company’s first quarter earnings call.

However, these Apple Pay payments won’t be tap-to-pay, unlike the experience at almost every other point-of-sale system that works with Apple Pay. In this case, Apple Pay will be integrated into Exxon’s existing Speedpass+ app, which is free to download and uses your geolocation to pull up local pumps. A customer can drive up to the pump, enter the pump number within the Speedpass+ app, and use his or her thumbprint to authorize payment through Apple Pay.

Interesting that you can’t just wave your phone or Apple Watch at the pump to enable payment. Anyone know why?

Update: Reader Erick Erickson pointed me to this Fast Company article, which explains:

Instead of telling gas stations to replace or upgrade pumps—which would have involved $30,000-$40,000 of expenses and major disruption to operations—ExxonMobil is piggybacking on two years’ worth of work it’s already invested in its Speedpass+ app, which has been undergoing testing in five markets. Adding support for Apple Pay to the iPhone app, which also directly supports a variety of cards, was the easy part. All the stations have to do is install a software update on their payment system.

Still, not the same transparent process of simply holding up your Apple Watch to pay.