New Jersey’s Senate Transportation Committee has unanimously approved legislation that would require the Motor Vehicle Commission to develop and launch a digital driver’s license that can be stored on a resident’s smartphone.
Bill S1297, sponsored by Sen. Nellie Pou (D) and Sen. Patrick J. Diegnan Jr. (D), has now been referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.
The NJMVC already allows digital vehicle registration and issues digital insurance cards. If and when the proposed legislation becomes law, it will be tasked with developing a digital driver’s license that can be updated remotely by state’s department of motor vehicles, in turn allowing residents to make changes to information such as their home address without having to physically visit a government office.
The proposed legislation would require the digital driver’s license to be designed such that users can selectively share information, adopting an approach that has already been championed by digital ID pioneers like Apple. A user could prove their age by displaying their date of birth, for example, without having to display accompanying information such as their home address.
Bill S1297’s progress through the New Jersey legislature offers the latest sign of growing adoption of mobile ID in the US, with a handful of states having now launched their own such programs. But New Jersey’s own particular rate of progress may be determined more by state authorities than the law itself, which gives the NJMVC up to six years to complete the project.
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January 31, 2024 – by Alex Perala
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