Florida to offer mobile driver's licenses on smartphones starting in 2021
Florida may soon become the first state in the country to offer mobile driver's licenses to its residents.
Drivers in the Sunshine State will be able to apply for new mobile licenses beginning in 2021, according to a press release from Thales, the company providing the service to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
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The company says the mobile licenses will be just as valid as regular driver's licenses to verify identity, proof of age and driving privileges.
The mobile licenses will be accessible on a variety of devices, including smartphones and tablets. Drivers would pull up the digital ID on a mobile identification app.
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“I’m excited for this innovation project that will make the state of Florida a national leader in offering secure and trusted mobile identification,” said Terry L. Rhodes, Executive Director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. “We have made a sustained commitment to the modernization of nearly every aspect of what our department does and how customers access our services, and Thales will be a great partner as Florida now steps into the future of mobile identification.”
Thales says the licenses are harder to counterfeit since they have a secure digitized credential that can be checked for authenticity, rather than just displaying a digital image of a license that could be easily altered.
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"For stronger privacy, users of mobile Driver Licenses control what information is displayed from the app depending on the context," the company said in its release. "For example, to enter a casino it only needs to show that the individual is old enough and the mobile Driver License will just display that information – not the individual’s name, date of birth, or address."
An official release date has not yet been announced.