Mobility app Setel has introduced a new feature called Voice Fuelling, which the eponymous company behind it describes as “an AI-powered experience that lets users activate their fuel pump using voice commands”. It’s still in beta, but it builds on the existing One-tap Fuelling feature. This essentially allows you to activate the latter via voice commands, with support for Bahasa Melayu, English, Mandarin and Tamil. The feature is also claimed to make “digital fuelling more approachable for those new to apps or who simply prefer speaking over tapping”.
To use it, you naturally have to first sign up for a Setel app account, which involves using your IC number to register. Once that’s done, look for the Account button at the bottom right of the home page, then Preferences under Settings. From here, enable Voice Fuelling. Alternatively, the Voice Fuelling button may also appear directly on the home page. This will prompt you to also activate the aforementioned One-tap Fuelling if you haven’t already. Naturally, since this uses your voice, you will also be prompted to allow microphone access.
Alternatively, you can pop over to your nearest Petronas petrol station, and the ground crew will help you go through the process. Once that’s done, you can “activate fueling” by simply stating your pump number, and let the app take care of the rest. To drive adoption, the company says that new Setel users can earn 5x Mesra Rewards points, up to 500, when they download the app, register, verify their account and pump a minimum of 1 litre. It’s worth noting that this offer is not limited to using Voice Fuelling.
All that being said though, it is worth noting that the feature is not as fancy as the name may suggest. While you do use your voice to let the app know which pump your vehicle is at, that’s the extent of the tech’s involvement in the process. You don’t get to tell the app via voice commands the amount of fuel that you’re pumping as that is determined by the amount you’ve set as part of the One-tap Fuelling feature.
