Julie Clover
As Apple celebrates the 10th anniversary of Apple Pay, Apple Pay and Apple Wallet chief Jennifer Bailey spoke with The Points Guy today to talk about current and upcoming Apple Pay features, like car key and ID integration into the Wallet app.
Apple Pay wasn't an immediate hit with consumers, but Bailey said Apple has “worked really hard” to create a “great customer experience” over the past decade. As mobile payments via Apple Pay have become more widely available and better known, Apple and Bailey have focused on expanding the capabilities of the Wallet app to make it more useful.
Back in 2020, Apple introduced car key support, an implementation of the digital key standard that uses NFC. The feature is designed to allow iPhone and Apple Watch users to store a compatible vehicle key in the Wallet app, and several manufacturers have already implemented this support. Apple is working with more than 30 car manufacturers on car keys.
As support for car keys expands, Bailey sees a future where digital keys are available for rental cars.
The ability to book a rental car, prove your authentication and identity… you can imagine the car rental company giving you a digital key, and that key could be used to unlock and use the car.
Some hotel chains have already implemented support for accessing a hotel room using a key stored in Wallet, so it's not hard to imagine this functionality expanding to cars at some point.
Bailey says using Apple Pay on public transportation is “just fantastic” and “people really like it.” In 2022, Apple launched Wallet support for digital IDs and driver’s licenses, and while it took a while, Bailey is confident adoption will pick up speed because the opportunity for digital ID is “really deep.”
This is going to be a long-term journey, just like we have with Apple Pay. It’s helping states understand how our approach is privacy-friendly and very secure, how we don’t have the data, and how we don’t keep any connection to where you present your ID.
Bailey told The Points Guy that Apple is just at the beginning of its “long-term vision of replacing the wallet,” but the core technology behind Apple Pay that powers the effort is “perfect.”
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