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I think the usefulness issue is similar to having pseudo-QR codes for COVID-19 vaccine records a few years ago. The electronic version isn’t useful until the folks who need to read it have appropriate readers. It’s a chicken and egg situation; it’s not worth it for an agency or business to ensure that the folks who need to check IDs have the readers unless enough folks who need to be verified have that form of ID.
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I have an Apple Watch. When I have a card in my Apple Wallet, it’s very convenient to double-tap the side button, scroll to the relevant card, and raise my wrist to the reader. It’s one of my primary uses for the watch. I agree that using the Apple Wallet on an iPhone is no more convenient than presenting a physical card (unless you have a messy wallet or purse).
So for another data point, I just added my California DL to Wallet. Kind of a strange process (scan your DL, scan your face while looking up, tilt your head, open your mouth, etc.) After that, it took maybe five minutes for the verification step to complete. And to confirm what @Simon said above, the “image” of your DL in Wallet is nothing more than an odd drawing of the Golden Gate Bridge (looking like it spans some sort of valley instead of open water), with your first name, middle name, and an initial for your last name. Using the mDL (that’s what California calls it) is purely wireless; there would be no point in showing the mDL to anyone for purposes of verifying anything.
[Edit: After posting the above, I did discover that you can tap the circle “i” button displayed by Wallet above the mDL, which shows an info page from which you can tap a “Driver’s License Info” link which (after FaceID verification) does display pretty much all the information on your actual DL.]
The bridge is nothing like the Golden Gate Bridge. It looks like it’s the Bixby Bridge on the Big Sur Coast:
You never actually show the information in your wallet to the person requesting it. Instead, you double-tap the side button near the reader. You’ll see a screen noting the information requested, and then you double-tap again to send it.
Are you saying I don’t know my NorCal bridges? Apparently you’re right! I mean, it’s not even a suspension bridge. 
In my defense, I’ve lived my entire life in SoCal, where we have a dearth of photogenic bridges. Beaches, yes; bridges, not so much.
Right. I added the edit not to correct my earlier statement, but to supplement it.
If the driver is validly licensed to drive but does not have the license in possession, the ticket will more likely be for violation of California Vehicle Code section 12951, which is an infraction, punishable by fine. The charge must dismissed if the cited person produces in court a license that was valid at the time of the cited offense. (Assuming the valid license is produced in court, dismissal is required for the first 2 violations, after which dismissal is in the court’s discretion.) Section 12500 applies when the driver is not licensed at all. Section 12500 is a misdemeanor, punishable as you indicated. I think. (A different, more serious, section applies if the person is driving on a suspended license, whether or not the person possesses the license when stopped. See section 14601 and following.)
Here is the photo:
Ah…that makes sense…but until every cop car has the portable reader it’s not a very useful thing…but one more step towards the all electronic future. We ar t residents of CA so no real applicability to us.
The Verge has an interesting article today on why you might NOT want to have only a digital copy of your license–why they say you should NOT hand your phone to the police.
With regard to how digital licenses work, the article is a piece of garbage. The only somewhat accurate point about the interaction with anyone asking for your digital ID is part of the last paragraph:
“There are some minor protections built into Apple and Google’s current systems — you can display an encrypted ID without fully unlocking your phone, and various authorities can scan your ID wirelessly if they have special readers.”
In fact, the only mechanism for using a digital ID is against readers that will wirelessly connect with your device and let your device know what information is wanted. You will then need to consent on your device for that information to be released. At no time will your device leave your person.
So, the ability to use digital ID will depend on whether those who need to check it (law enforcement, TSA, liquor stores and bars (age verification), etc.) will obtain appropriate readers. Acceptance will be slow. Whether it turns out like wireless checking for vaccination records (failure) or contactless payments (success) is undetermined.
I agree that Digital IDs will not replace hard-copy ones for a long time (if never), but not for the reasons stated in the article.
Wow! This was fascinating! Thanks, everybody!
And now, he says, swinging down out of the saddle . . . why on earth would you put all your IDs and finances into one thing that can be lost or damaged?
I cannot understood the burgeoning enthusiasm for concentrated convenience, AKA SPFs (Single Points of Failure). I traveled for decades, not often but enough, and discovered that backup was a very good thing. Always carry your wallet, always have both cash and credit, always have your driver’s license or passport, and now always have your phone. Always. I don’t care if you’re just going to the cute store down the block in Abilene. Maybe that fancy card reader isn’t working? Here’s cash. And just try waving your phone at the stadtpolizei, or the gendarmes or the carabinieri. They may actually have a reader but handing them that laminated license reduces the anxiety big time. And don’t stick your stuff in a car pocket, stick it in your pickpocket-proof pocket.
What’s the big deal with keeping a wallet that’s smaller and lighter than a phone in your pocket? This is grim, but if you’re afraid you’ll lose it, maybe you shouldn’t lose it? It’s a habit of mind you can cultivate with big dividends.
Airline passes. Always print them out and put one in your pocket and one in your suitcase. Just last year, the super-fantastic electronic gizmo at O’Hare wasn’t working—here’s my (paper) pass. Done.
The only times when I don’t carry this incredibly heavy and ungainly load are when I’m exercising: sweats or aikidogi’s don’t have pockets but you can be sure those ID’s are close-by in a locker.
Dave
Whether it’s a phone or a wallet, if you’re going to lose it, you are going to lose it. I don’t think one is easier to lose than the other. At least, if you lose your phone, you can (hopefully) track it and the contents are (hopefully) protected.
The modern technology is fascinating. Apple Pay is lightning-fast and I can also open my car door and start the car with my phone. The convenience of being able to do (almost) everything with just one device is very addicting.
I have misplaced my license way more than my phone or keys. I don’t carry a purse and rarely carry a wallet. Women’s clothing has tiny pockets - it’s one of the reasons I have a Mini.
Diane
And that’s the problem I’m trying to highlight. It is addicting and each new convenience encourages you to forget that you are putting more and more vital information into one place. And a one-place is a Single Point of Failure. So, for example, you use your phone to start your car. You go off for a lovely hike in the woods and don’t realize your phone is trying to connect to far-distant cell towers. 6 hours later, your phone is dead. You come back to the car. You can’t get in. No one else in the parking lot. What’re you going to do?
Tee hee! Every single woman I’ve ever talked to about pockets, whether they’re 20 or 80 says the same thing: “What planet are these designers on!? I need real pockets!” And it’s been so for centuries.
I’m not advocating that everyone wear greatcoats like Harpo Marx (was it in a Night at the Opera?) but I am advocating that old ways can be the best ways when it comes to resilience.
It takes minutes to print out a boarding pass and put it in your coat pocket. It takes seconds to put some cash in your pocket when you head-off to that great-sounding seafood place you’ve never visited 20 miles away that doesn’t take credit cards.
Your phone is not the answer. Sturdy, simple things, easily done, make the phone a convenience rather than a liability.
Dave
I certainly take printed travel documents with me but use my phone primarily as I navigate airports. It’s an essential backup to have the printed version.
But low stakes ventures? Not really, I have cash for the farmers market, about my sole use for it these days. I read recently that a vast majority of transactions in certain countries are now cashless, I think Sweden led with the high 90s in percentages.
Many women, me included, has at times bought mens pants or shorts just for pockets. They don’t fit well but hey they have pockets! I do also have cargo pants/shorts but things like jeans are the pits with front pockets the actual size of a Levi’s watch pocket - can’t even fit a key in there!
You are right, it’s not difficult to grab some cash and I often do. But sometimes I am just running to the hardware store (and I know they take Apple Pay) but drive by a tag sale (where I would never spend anything but cash) and have to continue by because I didn’t grab my cash. I typically bring what I need when I leave the house, it’s just easier to carry and less to loose (or get stolen in this day and age)
I think in the early stages of this thread I mentioned a few local stores that didn’t take Apple Pay that I always forget about because I don’t shop that much. I just found out Hobby Lobby is one. I also discovered that after a year, my local Family Dollar got their phone pay fixed so that’s good.
Diane
I don’t fly but I have gone to a number of concerts with digital tickets. Those I always print out too, but that’s very specific to those events.
Diane
Adam, TSA PreCheck Touches ID is available currently at only FIVE US airports (at least for United flights), two of them in NYC (LaGuardia and Newark). I have NO idea how long it will take for it to become generally available, but conceivably it could make large differences, although I wonder how BT pairing would enter into it.
We returned from European vacations last summer and this, obtaining Global Entry (which includes TSA PreCheck) in the interim. Last year we came in through ORD and joined many hundreds of (often sneezing, coughing and usually maskless) passengers in a snaking line which we navigated for almost 2 hours before reaching a customs and entry kiosk (and yes, I did have fever and a positive Covid Ag test 2 days later). As we waited, a trickle of people approached a few gleaming Global Entry unmonitored terminals and were cleared within a second or two. This summer we were among the privileged few, and the experience coming in through Newark was as different as one could imagine. One just glances at a screen and is waved on (OK, I had to take off my hat). But to OBTAIN Global Entry one has to do an online application and an in-person interview (finding a place to DO the latter is the challenge). During the interview your passport and DL are scanned, you are fingerprinted, and you’re asked non-embarrassing questions. But the SCARY part is that nothing except that glance at a monitor that shows you yourself and recognizes you in an instant is required. Makes it pretty clear that public anonymity while wandering about, if not already gone, will be in the immediate future.
Digital IDs are accepted at only a few airports. For example, in Califonia, they are accepted only in San Francisco (SFO), Mineta San Jose (SJC), and Los Angeles(LAX). Furthermore, mobile driver’s licenses are only accepted for TSA Pre-Check at LAX. So, yes, the ability to use them is currently highly limited.
There is a free alternative to Global Entry that works and has a separate exit control at many airports. It’s called Mobile Passport Control and works through a free mobile app.
Note: While researching this reply, I also discovered that Customs has released a mobile app for Global Entry that allows you to skip the Global Entry terminal before proceeding through the exit.
Unfortunately, you often don’t have a choice these days. My family and I have been to a few concerts in the last few years, and TicketMaster/LiveNation seems to have transitioned to an electronic-only ticketing system. After you buy your ticket, it is only accessible via their mobile app. The venue scans a bar-code from the app, but it’s time-coded, so printouts are useless for admission.
I honestly have no clue what someone must do if they don’t have a smartphone. I think they may not be able to attend these events at all. And yes, I am quite upset by this trend.
The last two times I traveled internationally, I was asked (by the airline) to use it in lieu of the paper customs declaration paperwork. It was quite pointless. You go the kiosk, scan something generated by the app, and get a paper printout of what you entered. Which you hand to the Customs agent just as if you manually filled out the paper form, after waiting on the same line as everybody else.
Maybe it will be useful in the future, but for now, it’s all pointless theater.
That’s awful! I didn’t need an app last time. I hate that.
Diane