Texas-based fast-food chain Whataburger is testing out a new payment innovation where your face is now your wallet at select locations—a nifty opportunity for those looking to streamline their fast-food transactions. In a partnership with J.P. Morgan Payments and PopID employ facial recognition to provide customers with a hands-free payment alternative to the traditional wallet and phone ritual. According to a MySA report, specific Whataburger branches in the pilot program are still under wraps as the testing phase continues with enrolled customers.
The process for customers to start paying with their faces is straightforward but adds an extra step to the usual fast-food routine. They must first enroll in the PopID system—a one-time setup involving a smartphone or kiosk to scan their faces, which is then secured on PopID's cloud. While this might sound like a page from a sci-fi novella, J.P. Morgan Payments executive Prashant Sharma assured Forbes of the system's accelerated checkout process, saying to MySA, "The key value proposition is faster checkout speed," and emphasizing stringent security protocols for safeguarding customer data. PopID also insists on their website that "The privacy and security of your information are paramount to everything we do."
Whataburger VP of Technology, Jerry Phillips, expressed the brand's commitment to modernizing their customer's purchasing process. "We are excited to continue to embrace biometric payments to help us revolutionize the way our customers purchase their favorite food reliably and securely," Phillips told the press, as the chain aims to ramp up the dining experience, according to a KSAT article. J.P. Morgan Payments highlighted the initial success seen in expedited service and boosted loyalty program participation.
PopID's encrypted face template system requires one-time enrollment that allows further purchases to be made via a face scan at any participating merchant; this can be done at the counter or self-ordering kiosks. A current PopID map has revealed that four spots in the College Station region and one near Baton Rouge are on board with the biometric method, although Whataburger has yet to disclose which additional locations will be added.
