Mobile driver’s licenses: When will Pa. get them?

(York) — Don’t expect to whip out your smartphone to show your driver’s license to a police officer anytime soon.

More than a dozen states, including Delaware, are testing out putting driver’s licenses on smartphones. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation anticipates offering a pilot program in the future, but that’s still years away.

“The technology is really new and is still being developed,” said Alexis Campbell, community relations coordinator for PennDOT.

Representatives from the state have been actively involved in discussions about the mobile driver’s licenses, she said in an email. States and Canadian provinces are working with card manufacturers to develop solutions that meet the customers’ needs while addressing the concerns of law enforcement and others who would accept the electronic identification.

“… as jurisdictions begin pilot programs, those results will be shared so that we can all learn from each other’s experiences,” Campbell wrote.

“The ultimate goal — which is many years away — is for jurisdictions to offer mobile driver’s licenses as an alternative to physical products,” she said.

Delaware officials recently announced they will be conducting a six-month pilot to see how mobile driver’s licenses will work in the real world and to address any problems before deciding whether to adopt the new technology for its customers, according to a news release.

The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators has been working on the new licenses. It has created a video showing how these and identification cards could be taken out of the wallet and placed on a mobile device.

Some of the benefits include:

• A name or address could be updated without having to go to a driver’s license center.
• It allows for more privacy. For example, only an age could be disclosed for someone who wants to buy alcohol at a bar or liquor store.
• Security could include entering a pin number to access the license.

Some of the downsides include that businesses will need devices that can read and authenticate mobile driver’s licenses, and if the smartphone battery is dead, then it will not be available, said Claire Jeffrey, a spokeswoman for the motor vehicle group.

About 15 states and provinces are studying mobile driver licenses, Jeffrey said in an email.

Iowa is the only jurisdiction moving forward with its plans to implement them in late 2018, she said.

Moving to mobile licenses is more complicated than the technology itself, Campbell said. State laws also would need to be changed.

People have their smartphones on them all the time.

“I think that’s definitely the way the technology is heading,” Campbell said.

This story comes to us through a partnership between WITF and The York Daily Record.