Stuck in traffic? Now you can put that time to good use by going shopping in the privacy of your car.

The new TalkWallet from Qpass Inc. lets consumers make purchases by simply talking into their phones, rather than fumbling to enter credit-card and personal identification numbers. Consumers call Qpass and say their ID numbers. TalkWallet uses Nuance Communications Inc.'s speech-recognition software to match ID numbers with buyers' unique voiceprints and ask what they want to buy, then charges the purchases to their Qpass accounts.

Qpass last week debuted the system to mobile-telephone carriers, which in turn will offer the service to consumers, likely at no cost, marketing VP Norman Guadagno says. By the end of the year, Qpass hopes to bring TalkWallet to interactive television as well.