The introduction of digital driver licences is unlikely to mean physical licences are scrapped, the Associate Transport Minister says.
The Government has announced that digital driver licences will be introduced next year.
Digital licences have already been introduced in Australia, parts of Europe, the UK, United States and parts of Asia.
Associate Transport Minister James Meager, MP for Rangitata has introduced a bill to enable digital licences in New Zealand. If passed, Ministry of Transport and NZTA would work through the logistics.
A digital licence could see motorists having their licence accessible on their cellphones, as well as having a physical card.
However Meager said it was too early to tell if digital licences would eventually completely replace physical ones.
He believed digital licences were extremely convenient and could reduce the risk of losing your physical licence. But relying only on a digital licence could present challenges.
They included possibly requiring good connectivity, particularly in rural areas.
He also emphasised the importance of keeping the physical licence as an option.
“I think you’ve always got to leave it as an option, you’re going to run into issues with accessibility for people who aren’t as comfortable using cell phones, maybe some of our older generation.
“It’ll all be providing choice, so the option of one or the other, rather than making it mandatory to do one."
Officials were looking at how the licences had worked in other places.
Meager has also been in contact with Apple, which showed him how digital licences worked overseas and the data protections available.
“For example, if you're using it for ID at a bar, you can feed it into an app that will only confirm whether or not you are of age. So it won't actually show the bouncers your name, your date of birth or anything like that. So it actually has quite good data protections in place."
But that didn't mean it would be easy to use fake IDs- in fact, he believed it would be the opposite.
Each licence could only be put on one device, and there would be a verification process.
“It’s not like you can just put your licence on five different phones."
Costs for the licences would likely be built into what New Zealanders already pay when renewing or applying for a physical licence.
