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Apple Pay Chief Suggests Digital Car Keys Could Expand to Rentals

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As Apple celebrates the 10th anniversary of Apple Pay, Apple Pay and Apple Wallet chief Jennifer Bailey today did an interview with The Points Guy, providing some insight into current and future Apple Pay-related features like car key and ID integration in the Wallet app.

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Apple Pay wasn't an immediate hit with consumers, but Bailey said that Apple "worked really hard" to establish a "great customer experience" over the last decade. As mobile payments via Apple Pay have become widely available and more well-known, Apple and Bailey are focusing on expanding the capabilities of the Wallet app to make it more useful.

Back in 2020, Apple introduced support for car key, an implementation of the Digital Key standard that uses NFC. The feature is designed to allow iPhone and Apple Watch users to store a key for a compatible vehicle in the Wallet app, and multiple manufacturers have implemented 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 rentals.
Being able to book a car rental, confirm your authentication and identity ... you can imagine that a car rental company is going to issue you a digital key, and that key could be used to unlock and use a car.
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Some hotel chains have already implemented support for accessing a hotel room with a key stored in Wallet, so it's not hard to imagine this kind of functionality also expanding to cars at some point.

Apple Pay's transit usage is "just fantastic," according to Bailey, and "people absolutely love it." Apple in 2022 launched Wallet support for Digital IDs and driver's licenses, and while that's taken some time to take off, Bailey is confident adoption will pick up because the option for a digital ID is "really profound."
It'll be a long-term journey like we had with Apple Pay. It's helping states understand how our approach is privacy-protected and highly secure, how we don't have the data, and how we don't keep any association with where you're presenting your ID.
Click to expand...
Bailey told The Points Guy that Apple is only at the beginning of its "long-term vision to replace the wallet," but the core Apple Pay technology that kicked off the effort "is perfect."

Article Link: Apple Pay Chief Suggests Digital Car Keys Could Expand to Rentals
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/10/17/digital-car-keys-rental-cars/
Maybe I'm just too behind the times, but if I'm renting a car, I want a physical key or fob. I don't want anything digital. It feels like I wouldn't have "proof" that I am legitimately using the car or that the digital key can too easily be lost. I don't know....

In any case, electronic boarding passes have long been issued for airplanes, etc. I still insist on having one printed though. I find it safer that way. I will do the whole electronic online checkin, but I will print out my boarding pass OR I will print it out at the self-service kiosk at the airport. Having that piece of legitimate paper seems to me to be actual documentation I can show someone if anything wonky happens to the electronic pass.
 
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The rental car companies aren’t up for that for at least another 10 years, they’re struggling with EVs (eg Hertz) enough …
As for hotels, I’ve always opted for a physical key/card, tried digital and it failed on me.
But good for everyone who wants to use it, just don’t force it down our throats
 
You could always get both a physical + digital access (in case of hotel rooms and rental cars), the same way you have a physical and digital credit card, giving you more options, not less.
 
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As Apple celebrates the 10th anniversary of Apple Pay, Apple Pay and Apple Wallet chief Jennifer Bailey today did an interview with The Points Guy, providing some insight into current and future Apple Pay-related features like car key and ID integration in the Wallet app.
Click to expand...
Features will probably be limited to iPhone 18 Ultra models with A20 Pro Max/Ultra chip
 
Someone needs to make a retro-fit adapter to add this feature to existing cars. It's a great feature, but not worth $50,000 cost of buying a new car just to get it.

Basically take the features of my fob (unlock and start) and use the iPhone for it. Can't be rocket science.
 
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My car supports the digital key in my Apple wallet, and while it DOES work and I even used it once when I left my keys in the office, its fiddly. I always need to wave my phone at just the right angle at just the right spot on my door hanlde to get it to work. It works from the watch too, which is also great, but also even more fiddly than the phone. If I want to unlock with my watch I usually have to stand there for a minute getting it juuuuuuuuust right. I love having both of these options for backup purposes, but I would hate to use it as my primary means of opening my doors and starting the car. Especially if you were in some kind of emergency situation where you wanted to open the door, jump in the car start and go quickly.
 
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DEMinSoCAL said:
Someone needs to make a retro-fit adapter to add this feature to existing cars. It's a great feature, but not worth $50,000 cost of buying a new car just to get it.

Basically take the features of my fob (unlock and start) and use the iPhone for it. Can't be rocket science.
Click to expand...
Actually I hope it is rocket science. You’re talking about being able to retrofit a device that would bypass built-in security like immobilizers or you’re talking about a way to clone the key fob so your phone can act as a fob. Either way sounds like a big security hole.
 
Let's just hope it works better than my recent digital hotel room key experience through OpenKey. HORRIBLE software.

Would regularly de-activate my husband's and my keys, sometimes refusing to reactivate them. Hotel had no front desk so every single time we had to call, leave a message, and wait a few minutes for someone to call us back and manually reactivate them for us. A truly infuriating experience.

Happened so many times the hotel person finally told us how to access a secret room with physical keys for every room in the hotel so we could just take one and use that.
 
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lovehateapple said:
I kinda agree. Even though I can see the convenience of digital keys on my phone, I imagine I will feel more comfortable for a long time with having a physical key as a backup.
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My car's key fob has a pull out blade key for when the battery dies, and it can still be used to start the engine by holding the key fob next to the start button.

What's the backup for digital keys in a phone when it stops working if you didn't bring a physical key/key fob? (*crickets*)
 
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