Smartphone driver's license
Delaware has become the second state after California that will test the feasibility of using smartphones as "digital driver's licenses" to replace the venerable driver's license card.
Other states considering using this radical technology are Iowa, Arizona and New Jersey.
Last January, the Delaware House of Representatives passed a resolution asking the state's Department of Motor Vehicles "to study and consider issuing optional digital driver's licenses for Delaware motorists."
A pilot program might become operational this year. Delaware DMV employees will try out carrying and using the smartphone digital licenses.
A similar pilot program is scheduled to start in Iowa. This program will also tap DMV employees and their smartphones to serve as test subjects.
In February, San Fernando Valley, California Assemblyman Matt Dababneh filed a bill that would let the local DMV develop a smartphone app as a digital driver's license.
If these tests are successful, the first smartphone driver's licenses could start to be used as early as 2016, said Cnet.
In Delaware's case, the proposed digital driver's license will resemble a printed license. It will have the same information such as your name, address, date of birth and a photo. The smartphone license will also have a scannable barcode so machines can read the information.
The digital driver's license will be a mobile app with security protection and data downloaded directly from a state's DMV.
It won't replace the standard driver's license right away but will complement it at first.
Universal acceptance of a digital driver's license in your smartphone will likely to take years. But there seems to be no stopping this move towards digital driver's licenses.
