I haven’t written about my dream of a walletless life for a while. My end goal, as I’ve written before, is to be able to leave the house with nothing but my iPhone. That would mean using Apple Pay to buy things, a digital house key, a digital driver’s license for identification and driving, and being able to unlock and start my car with my phone.
We’re almost there. Because of COVID-19, basically everyone but Walmart—and there are whispers that even they may be ready to capitulate—now accepts Apple Pay and other contactless payment methods. Apple has announced keyless car entry in iOS 14 and BMW is expected to support the system in their 2021 BMW 5 Series of cars. And, of course, keyless house entry with the iPhone has been available for some time.
That leaves just the digital driver’s license and other ID. It’s a tough nut because it depends on government action. Florida, despite a promising start, is still nowhere near agreeing on a plan and after the last bill failed, I haven’t seen any other movement.
All is not lost, though, because I have an ally. Apple also wants to get rid of the wallet and move everything onto the iPhone and has been quietly working toward that end. According to stories in Apple Insider and iMore, Apple has filed a series of patents to enable the iPhone to securely carry Passports and other government IDs. Apple says that passports on your iPhone is not too far away but won’t be available in the near term. That will be the last piece needed for going walletless and I’m looking forward to it.
Everything I’ve written above applies, mutatis mutandis, to the Android and probably any other smart phone. I haven’t heard anything about passports for the Android but when the government finally offers the ability, Android will certainly have their own solution to support it.