Be warned - you may end up with 6 points on your licence!
Drivers can be prosecuted for using ApplePay at a takeaway drive-thru service under tough new rules on using mobile phones while in the car.
Drivers will be forced to turn their engine off and apply the handbrake to stay away from the law once new penalties are enforced from this month.
Under the new laws, people seen holding their mobile phone while driving will be handed six penalty points and a £200 fine - rather than the former three points and a £100 fine.
But what if you’re parked up at a drive-thru?
You can NOT use Apple Pay at say a McDonald’s drive thru as technically it would count as using a phone while driving.
If your engine is off and your handbrake is applied then it’s fine, but if it’s not, then you could be penalised.
A colleague of mine got 3 points and a fine for using his phone while parked. The police said his engine was running therefore he was driving. I wouldn’t risk it tbh, for the sake of turning off the engine.
You’d have to have a really unhappy cop if he was to ticket you in a drive through, id like to think most cops wouldn’t worry too much about that.
And as for being parked with the engine running yes it is illegal now but I have no idea why that cop gave your college a ticket kinda bs if I’m being honest.
I always worry when laws and advice come out about what the state of the engine should be. How do you know when a Tesla is off? All you can do is put it in park and get out, can’t exactly turn it off or even take the key out. Same with other EVs and cars with automatic start/stop.
Also an interesting note is that most drive-thru roads are not public land.
All in all, a poorly thought out hit piece on Apple Pay IMO. As a workaround anyway (and because holding your phone out of a window seems like a bad idea), I’d just move my Watch to the other wrist and hold that out.
