These U.S. States Plan to Offer iPhone's Driver's License Feature

[31 Flavas]

A feature that is 100% useless as based on my experience, no agency, no business or no one accepts it as a proper ID.

The article states exactly where it can be used right now. Which is just with TSA for now.

I literally use it as my ID for getting through TSA. It works like ApplePay or a “Tap-to-Pay” NFC transaction. Your phone stays locked, you 100% keep possession of your phone, it doesn’t get handed to anyone, there is just a little plastic protrusion in front of the TSA agents booth that you hold your iPhone over.

Instead of bringing up a credit card — it bring up your digital ID. It shows you that it’s the TSA you’ll be presenting it to and lists out exactly the details which will be presented. If you agree, you double tap your sleep/wake button (just like an apple pay transaction) to transmit / present the digital ID. I specifically choose to opt-out out of and do not let them do the Photo ID biometric match, and they still let me through.

It’s like early days of Tap-to-Pay. It’s not really that much faster and, in the past, if the cashier you got was unfamiliar with Tap-to-Pay it could be slower because you need to educate them just a touch. But, these days now, I don’t think anyone that knows of “tap-to-pay” actively rejects using it, unless some particular credit card gives you more “points”, a statement credit, or more “% back” in a specific catagory.

 

[31 Flavas]

In most scenarios involving a physical ID card, cardholders are asked to briefly hand over their ID card to the person checking it. Regarding this iPhone digital ID card feature, are there any scenarios where people who use this feature would be asked to briefly hand their phone over to the person checking the ID, or does the phone never leave the hand of its owner?

Not in my experience using it. It’s an NFC / tap-to-pay style transaction. In a hypothetical future, where you’ve been pulled over by a police officer for speeding in your automobile — and the officer is asking you for “license and registration” — instead of physically presenting the two forms of ID, you’d just hold your iPhone close enough to their cellphone and digitally present your ID and auto registration though an NFC style transaction.

 

[Alan Wynn]

That's right because he drags you out of the car and cuffs you for playing with your iPhone.

This has happened to you? To someone you know? You can cite some news story from a reputable source that supports this?

 

[Alan Wynn]

No luck for me at MDW, AUS,or STL. Tried several times, and several different trips.

What happened at Austin? I have used it there many times and never had a problem. It is important to remember that one has to authorize the information transfer after the tap (it will show you what is being requested).

 

[31 Flavas]

Definitely the most useless thing in my iPhone wallet. Not worth the time to enter it. And who actually is going to risk going to the airport without a physical ID?

For me, it’s been a convenience thing. It gives the TSA the same information they’d get from my physical ID, without having to fish out the physical ID. I mean, sure tap-to-pay and using a physical credit card aren’t much different. But, my phone or my apple watch are just a bit more conveniet.

Of course, we had the same observations and statements were being made circa 2014 when ApplePay was first introduced, and circa maybe 2011 when Androids and Google Wallet started to offering NFC capability. But, now nearly all businesses have NFC terminals. Wal*Mart (in the US) is the only hold out and it’s not because of fees or the cost of terminals, their terminals already support NFC, they just want the data collection.

 

[ctklein]

I STILL can not get my digital id passport to go through.

 

[Neepman]

The article states exactly where it can be used right now. Which is just with TSA for now.

I literally use it as my ID for getting through TSA. It works like ApplePay or a “Tap-to-Pay” NFC transaction. Your phone stays locked, you 100% keep possession of your phone, it doesn’t get handed to anyone, there is just a little plastic protrusion in front of the TSA agents booth that you hold your iPhone over.

Instead of bringing up a credit card — it bring up your digital ID. It shows you that it’s the TSA you’ll be presenting it to and lists out exactly the details which will be presented. If you agree, you double tap your sleep/wake button (just like an apple pay transaction) to transmit / present the digital ID. I specifically choose to opt-out out of and do not let them do the Photo ID biometric match, and they still let me through.

It’s like early days of Tap-to-Pay. It’s not really that much faster and, in the past, if the cashier you got was unfamiliar with Tap-to-Pay it could be slower because you need to educate them just a touch. But, these days now, I don’t think anyone that knows of “tap-to-pay” actively rejects using it, unless some particular credit card gives you more “points”, a statement credit, or more “% back” in a specific catagory.

Even TSA acceptance depends on the airport and/or the agents mood.

 

[31 Flavas]

Even TSA acceptance depends on the airport and/or the agents mood.

Same way in early Tap-to-Pay scenarios. You'd get cashiers that would say "no we don't accept it" or "We don't do ApplePay" (when the POS literally have an NFC or ApplePay sticker on it). You'd get power tripping ones at a drive-thru who would refuse, not because the business or their POS terminal didn't accept it, but because they'd they claim they don't want to be liable for "accidental" damage from handling your smartphone.

Doesn't mean it's "useless" or "no one accepts it" -- just means that we're in those early days. These days businesses either have drive-thru POS units on "monitor arm" type things or on a long stick. But, largely I'd think cashiers just don't $h1t anymore because they're probably already using it themselves on their own phone (or card), and it's probably just easier for them now anyway. If I have to hand my physical card to a clerk / cashier, literally, I can see them look for that NFC ")))" logo before using the card.

Depending on where you draw the 'starting line' it's probably taken about 20-25 years to get to this point with "tap-to-pay". We'll get there with digital ID's too.

 

[CLhLC]

When will they add the feature to VA? It's been months since they announced it.