
Express Transit Suica ruins the Apple Pay experience for using anything else. You want Apple Pay to work that way everywhere but it doesn’t. Most of the time we trudge along using Apple Pay Wallet with face mask Face ID authorization, although the Apple Pay experience on Apple Watch is a big improvement as well as being a trusted device for secure intent.
iPhone users in America are finally getting a taste of Express Transit en masse with the 2020 rollouts of Apple Pay for SmarTrip, TAP, Ventra and Clipper. Apple recently rebranded Express Transit as Express Mode on their new Wallet webpage (in Japanese it’s called Express Card). The branding change may seem trivial but it has bigger implications for first time users of new Wallet services in iOS 15, Express Mode goes places that Express Transit cannot: digital keys and digital ID.
These functions are not new of course, Express Transit cards and Student ID cards have been opening transit gates and doors these past few years. But Express Mode is for everyone and personal: your keys and badge to unlock your home door, unlock and start your car and get you into the office. With these refinements and additions it’s safe to say that iOS 15 Wallet finally delivers the digital wallet dream people have been talking about since 2010. Wallet can replace your wallet.
What’s new
Last year I covered ‘coming soon’ Ultra Wideband Touchless and Code Payment (codeword Aquaman) Wallet developments. The Code Payments feature is still waiting in the wings. Steve Moser kindly confirmed that Aquaman code references are alive and well in iOS 15 with minor changes but this post will focus on announced features. In the WWDC21 Keynote Apple Pay section Jennifer Bailey announced keys and ID. The Wallet features you get from the ones listed on the iOS 15 preview page depend on the device:
Car keys with Ultra Wideband support (shareable)
iPhones and Apple Watches equipped with U1 chip* (iPhone 11 and later, Apple Watch 6)
Car keys without Ultra Wideband support (sharable)
Home keys (shareable)
iPhone XS • Apple Watch 5 and later*
Office key
Hotel key
“Device requirements may vary by hotel and workplace.”
ID in Wallet
iOS 15 devices
watchOS 8 devices (the fine print: Not all features are available on all devices)
None of the new features will be available when iOS 15 launches. Expect them with the iOS 15.1 update or later. NFC Car keys launched on iOS 13 and iOS 14 in 2020.
The A12 Bionic • iPhone XS and later requirement for Wallet keys is easy to understand: Express Cards with power reserve. A12 Bionic (and later) powered NFC bypasses the iOS overhead with a direct connection to the secure element. It is vital that people can unlock car and home doors even when their iPhone battery is out of juice. Up to 5 hours of power reserve makes a huge difference, but only for iPhone. *Apple Watch supports Express Mode but not power reserve.
The bigger story is UWB because it is new technology that works with the Secure Element to create a whole new experience. Up to now the Secure Element was exclusively NFC. Not anymore, the Car Connection Consortium (CCC) Digital Key 3.0 specification “maintains support for NFC technology as a mandatory back-up solution.” Digital car key is first and foremost a UWB solution with NFC relegated to the back seat.
UWB connectivity adds hands-free, location-aware keyless access and location-aware features for an improved user-friendly experience…
3.0 addresses security and usability by authenticating the Digital Key between a vehicle and the mobile device over Bluetooth Low Energy and then establishing a secure ranging session with UWB, which allows the vehicle to perform secure and accurate distance measurement to localize the mobile device.
Car Connectivity Consortium Delivers Digital Key Release 3.0 Specification
NTT Docomo and Sony demonstrated UWB car keys in action last January running on Android Osaifu Keitai hardware. Sony (FeliCa) and NXP (MIFARE and UWB chipsets) have worked closely to extend both FeliCa and MIFARE into the UWB Touchless era. The CCC Digital Key specification is open to any Secure Element provider. UWB + Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is simply another radio communication layer in addition to NFC.


This is significant as it opens up UWB to anything that currently uses the Secure Element and NFC. Apple has not spelled it out but suggest UWB might work with Home keys and there is no reason UWB cannot work with all keys, transit cards and Student ID. The WWDC2021 session video Explore UWB-based car keys is a great introduction and highly recommended viewing if you have any interest in the subject. The session is a bit unusual in that the discussion covers RF hardware and performance design more than software. It feels like the target audience is car manufacturers. There is a lot of detail to get lost in but here are some simple but essential points:
Secure Element improvements: the SE has always used unique keys for mutual authentication, this has been extended with ranging key deviation
Secure communication at a distance: UWB and BLE identifier randomization with secure ranging is an important security feature as UWB Touchless works over much greater distances than NFC reader tapping
Zones: the precise motion and positioning tracking of a paired UWB device with a unique key allows for ‘passive entry’ action zones, walking towards the car unlocks it, walking away locks it, etc. without any other user interaction
RF transceiver and antenna system design: is a deep and difficult art that echos the Suica creation story
JR East (Suica) and Hong Kong MTR (Octopus) have both said they are developing transit gates that incorporate UWB. This makes sense as Mobile FeliCa is now UWB savvy but after watching the WWDC21 session video I can only marvel at the complexity of the big picture because UWB is about mapping and using space and movement to perform an operation.
The engineers face countless problems and challenges to juggle in their quest to build a transit gate that delivers the same FeliCa NFC speed and reliability with UWB…at rush hour. They have to consider radiation patters, system latency and processing power, localization algorithms and much more. If they achieve their stated goal, 2023 could be a very interesting year for transit.
ID in Wallet
Lots of people are excited about the possibility of adding a digital driver’s license to Wallet but as 9to5 Mac’s Chance Miller wrote, we don’t know much about about it at this point. Actually in Japan we do. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) released an English PDF: First Summary Toward the Realization of Electronic Certificates for Smartphones with a diagram that explains their digital ID system architecture. MIC remarked back in November 2020 that they are in discussions with Apple to bring the digital My Number ID card architecture to Wallet. The Android version is due to launch in 2023 and will likely employ the Mobile FeliCa Multiple Secure Element domain feature described by FeliCa Dude (FeliCa using NFC-B instead of NFC-F). A similar basic architecture with different protocols and issue process will undoubtedly be used for adding digital drivers licenses.

The Privacy question
I’ll be very interested to see how ID launches in America this fall. Which outside partner company or companies are providing the service to participating states and running the backend? I suspect it will be something similar to Student ID with Blackboard running the service for participating universities. The biggest security question in my mind is who besides the TSA will use ID in Wallet, and more importantly, how? Some governments and transit agencies are pushing face recognition as a convenience in addition to security. My preference will always be for having my ID on my own Secure Element rather than somebody’s cloud server, an ID that I authorize with my own secure intent.
Wallet UI and usability improvements
Wallet App didn’t get the makeover that some users asked for, but there are are a few small improvements. Up to 16 cards can be added in iOS 15, up from 12 in iOS 14. Archived passes and multiple-pass downloads help make Wallet more useable and remove some housekeeping drudgery.
I finally got two WWDC19 Apple Pay Wallet wishes granted: (1) dynamic Wallet cards and (2) region free transit cards. Apple Card does UI things in Wallet no other card is allowed to do. As far as I know this first changed with Disney’s MagicMobile launch on iPhone, Jennifer Bailey calls them “magical moments when you tap to enter.” There are similar low-key card animations in Home key and ID cards. It’s a very small step but I hope Apple adds more over time than just sprinkling seasoning card animations. Done wisely, dynamic cards could improve Wallet usability that convey important card status and account information.
Region free transit cards means that users no longer have to change the iPhone • Apple Watch region setting to add a transit card. In iOS 15 Wallet you get the full list regardless of the region setting. It’s not perfect but it is less confusing than adding a transit card in iOS 14.
Summary
The overall reaction to iOS 15 has been somewhat muted but there are lots of new details. Apple Pay Wallet additions for home keys, office key, hotel key and ID build on technologies that have been on the Apple Pay platform for some time but Apple is leveraging them in new ways.
The unveiling of UWB Touchless is important and cutting edge, that might revolutionize secure transactions. The next step not only for car keys but for transit and other services that up to now have been limited to NFC. And this time, unlike NFC, Apple is leading the way for UWB.
The bottom line is that UWB opens up a lot of possibilities for many current NFC based solutions. Expect UWB Touchless support for Wallet cards in the near future that use Express Mode in new ways, and new UWB based features for a much smarter Wallet.
UWB Gallery
Screenshots from the Explore UWB-based car keys session video
This foundation for UWB Touchless will be the same for next generation digital transit cards
Zones
Zones are is one of the exciting aspects of UWB Touchless, where functions are triggered by the simple act of walking towards or away from the car. It will be interesting to see how this is applied to UWB Touchless transit gates.
Welcome zone for turning on things Unlock zone Walk away lock zone
Space and movement: the UWB process
Car has multiple UWB and BLE transceivers 1) BLE proximity detection 2) Authentication and Secure Element range key creation 3) Secure ranging communication 4) Car maps device trajectory with localization algorithm 5) Device enters zone, car unlocks Good localization algorithms are key for fast and accurate trajectory mapping and overall performance.

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