Tech

Delaware may adopt digital driver's licenses

Delaware is aiming to be the first state to offer virtual driver's licenses accessed through a secure smartphone app.
CNBC

As consumers use their smartphones for payments and more, Delaware is considering allowing digital driver's licenses.

The state's Senate passed a resolution last Thursday authorizing its Division of Motor Vehicles to study and consider employing digital licenses for motorists. As electronic certificates are likely the wave of the future, Delaware would "like to go first," the state's DMV director, Jennifer Cohan, told The News Journal.

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Iowa is currently working on a pilot program for digital licenses with an anticipated 2016 rollout, the newspaper reported. That state, along with Delaware and 40 other states, uses MorphoTrust USA as a license vendor.

"It's an idea whose time has come," said Jenny Openshaw, MorphoTrust USA's vice president for state and local sales, told The News Journal. "Smartphones are becoming more and more a digital wallet. Eventually, the last piece of plastic I need to carry around with me is a driver's license."

For more on the technology and proposal, see The News Journal's article.