Apple Wallet is already home to your credit cards and boarding passes, and soon it could hold your driver’s license, too.
The United Kingdom’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has revealed that it is prototyping digital licenses that live on your iPhone.
“Here’s a little prototype of something we’re working on,” teased Oliver Morley, CEO of the DVLA, when he tweeted the photo above, which shows a mock U.K. driving license inside the Apple Wallet app.
Until last June, Drivers in the U.K. had to carry two different kinds of licenses: a “photo card,” like those used in the U.S., which includes a photo and personal details, and a “counterpart,” which detailed any points the driver had collected for speeding.
Now that the DVLA has scrapped that counterpart, drivers only need the photo card — and so there’s nothing to prevent it from going digital. But you probably shouldn’t get too excited about ditching your card just yet.
Morley explains this is just a prototype for now, which means there’s no timeline — or even a guarantee U.K. licenses will come to Apple Wallet. And if they do, they won’t replace the photo card completely; they’ll be an “add-on,” Morley says.
The obvious idea behind this is to allow drivers to leave their physical license at home. If you don’t need to carry it with you all the time, the risk of losing it or having it stolen is greatly reduced. And if it’s harder to steal driver’s licenses, it’s even harder to forge them.
The reason why the DVLA won’t scrap the physical card is because you’ll presumably still need that to prove your identity for anything more than just a random roadside stop.
We’ve contacted Morley for more information and we’ll update this post if we get any, but it seems the DVLA doesn’t have too much to share just yet.
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
11 responses to “Your driver’s license could soon live in your Apple Wallet”
As someone who’s currently on his 3rd photocard in 6 months, I’m very excited about this. But it would only be useful if I could leave my photocard at home each day, confident that places will accept the Apple Wallet version as proof of age (for buying alcohol, getting into clubs etc). I guess that will come in time but at least this is a step towards not paying £20 every time I lose a card (I know, I should just stop losing stuff)
in the UK we are not legally required to carry our drivers license. If the police pull you, you have 7 days to present the relevant docs at a police station. So this is really only useful if you are young enough to need proof of age ID. Although it would be good to see the uses for Wallet expand.
“in the UK we are not legally required to carry our drivers license. If the police pull you, you have 7 days to present the relevant docs at a police station. ”
Well that’s way too civilzed ….
Useless in terms of actually having a digita driving licence as it’s not required. But if it can serve as a proof of identity on your iPhone then we have something interesting here.
Finally! I can hardly wait! I’ve have a virtual copy of my Drivers License and State ID in my passbook for about 3 years now via the “lemon wallet” app which was bought out and taken over, but regardless the digital licenses are not valid too police.
So when you get pulled over for a minor traffic violation, now you have to hand your phone to the cop. No thanks.
Come to think of it, I don’t want to hand over my phone at the bank or when checking into a hotel either.
Exactly …There seems to be lots of shorsightness in this concept.
As long as it could occur without unlocking your phone. I could see the police using this to get around using a password (protected free speech) to unlock a device. If there aren’t preventative measures I wouldn’t use this.
Apple shouldn’t have called it wallet if your not able to put your ID in it in the first place. This is cool though I want this so bad!
This is only possible if the digital ID comes with a security code or something, because anyone can photoshop an ID or drivers license. I always take pictures to my personal documents but they are not accepted by authorities because of the photoshop problem. If this works with a secure thing like a Qr code, it would be useful, especially when you have your documents in a smartwatch for example and you don’t need to carry your wallet or phone.
“The reason why the DVLA won’t scrap the physical card is because you’ll presumably still need that to prove your identity for anything more than just a random roadside stop.”
Or.. you know – or if you don’t own an iPhone or heck.. any smartphone…