Dubbo in the Central West region of New South Wales, with its population of over 40K people, will be the first town in Australia to test-run digital driver’s licenses.
If the trial is a hit, drivers across the rest of NSW – around five-and-a-half million of us – may be able to cut up their physical cards and just wave their phones around to prove their identity at pubs/shove them in a cop’s face at roadside checks and RBTs. The NSW government plan to roll out the licenses across the state by 2019, although they will not outright replace physical cards.
Say goodbye to waiting for the Roads and Maritime Services to mail out your new license and carrying around a little scrap of paper in the meantime. Those days are over. That’s old school. We’ve got phones now, grandma, keep up.
Services Minister Victor Dominello told Channel 7 that “Already our phone is a de facto digital wallet“, making digi licenses “the next natural progression“.
Digital licences on the way for NSW drivers. Aussie-first trial to be held in Dubbo. More info to be stored on mobiles. @NinaBStevens pic.twitter.com/LGR7qmAdfL
— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) August 20, 2017
Roads Minister Melinda Pavey reckons the new way will make it easier to protect your identity (which may be code for ‘cut down on fake IDs’):
“This trial is an opportunity to demonstrate the additional levels of identity security and increased protection against identity fraud that a digital licence provides compared to a physical one.”
Still, the amount of personal info stored on a smartphone is of concern to cyber experts, who suggest you make sure your password isn’t ‘1234’ – because crims could exploit yr digital license just like they previously hacked phone-stored bank deets. BE CAREFUL.
The trial starts up in Dubbo in November.
