As smartphone technology advances, manufacturers are looking to incorporate more and more functions into them. One of the latest could be driving license.
 
According to a blog post by Joseph Pearson, Vice President, of Gov ID Business Unit at HID Global, a survey conducted among Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMVs) in North America saw one-third of them either indicating interest or planning to implement the solution.
 
“Having your driver’s license on your smartphone – instead of having to carry your wallet with a plastic driver’s license – is intriguing to most people,” Pearson noted. “Our smartphone has become an extension of ourselves and is used for virtually everything else, ranging from boarding an airplane to buying products. Why not our identity on our smartphone?”
 
He added that the inclusion of driving license to mobile phones could simplify people’s lives, allowing better control of their privacy and digital identity. For DMVs, it will help improve the quality of their service and generate new revenues. No longer will people need to line up at the DMV for matters like license renewal or address change.  
 
Services like tickets, boarding passes and even wallets have become part of smartphones, and driving licenses could be seen as the next obvious candidate.A report from CNET last year had suggested the possibility of this technology being adopted early this year, citing interests from states like Delaware.
 
"The world is changing, and a lot of transactions and activities that people do are now done in digital formats," Mike Williams, chief of communications for the Department of Motor Vehicles in Delaware had told CNET. "You can do so much with your smartphone. You can pay at the gas pump. You can go to the grocery store. You don't even need a debit card sometimes anymore. So this is just a movement in that direction."

Some concerns persist

Pearson said pilot programs in this direction have caught the interest of policymakers. However, this is not without some misgivings.
 
One of their main concerns is that a license on a smartphone can easily be faked. But Pearson rejects such a possibility, adding that it’s far easier to fake a normal driver’s license than a mobile version. With mobile, counterfeiting can be prevented by electronic authentication that uses cryptography.
 
Another concern is that of the battery life of phones limiting the license’s usage. Although smartphone technology has grown at a rapid pace, batteries have failed to keep up. But according to Pearson, this shouldn’t be a cause of worry as mobile driver’s licenses can be made available online with the permission of the license-holder. Authorities can access the data online even if the phone is out of battery.
 
A third, and perhaps more significant, concern is that the whole process is too complicated to implement. Again, Pearson disagrees, noting that since the DMVs already have the system to create regular driving licenses, all it needs is to work with a trusted partner who can securely provision the credential over-the-air into a citizen’s smartphone.
 
If these arguments can convince the policymakers, we might soon see the use of mobile-based driving licenses. It may not make the physical licenses obsolete in the immediate future, but could allow both systems to exist together. As Pearson points out, this will give the governments time to test and understand the system better.