Iowa DOT Introducing Driver's License App In 2015

by Cameron Aubernon

Published: December 12th, 2014

iowa dot introducing driver s license app in 2015

Live and drive in Iowa? The state’s DOT will soon have an app that will act as your license.

The Des Moines Register reports the app will be free of charge to all Iowa drivers when it arrives sometime next year, and is as official as the traditional plastic license card one receives after waiting forever and a day in the DMV; drivers can still get the more tangible version if so desired.

Iowa is also one of 30 states that allows drivers to present insurance information in electronic form during a traffic stop. Per Iowa DOT director Paul Trombino, having a digital license is only logical. He adds that the app will be secure via PIN verification, and will be accepted by security in Iowa’s airports, as well.

#2015 #DriversLicense #IowaDOT #SmartphoneApps

Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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31 of 73 comments

Beastpilot on Dec 12, 2014

A hundred thousand 18 year old college freshmen just collectively yelled OH HELL YES. How does this not make fake ID's insanely easy? It's a picture on your screen now accepted as ID. So why can't I just have a .JPG on my phone that I pasted my picture on and hand that to the Cop/Bouncer/TSA agent/DMV/Loan officer giving you a subprime, no-down, 100 month loan, etc? I realize all ID's can be faked, but this makes it silly easy. At this point I fail to see why they don't just accept your verbal statement that you are who you say you are. If the idea is that you have to show that you launched the correct app, typed in a PIN, were connected to the network and server... Well, it's one week until someone has an app on the store that does all of that for a dollar and allows you to input any data you want.

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SaulTigh on Dec 12, 2014

The smartphone has caused us all to collectively take leave of our senses.

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- See 18 previous
- Petezeiss on Dec 13, 2014
  
  Not moi! All I have is a flip phone that always sits in the car unless I'm charging it. But I'm viewed as a freak as much by my peers and elders as by the kiddiewinkies.
  
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- Lie2me on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss "But I’m viewed as a freak..." Those "troll-like" people you live amongst are smarter then I thought ;-)
  
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- Petezeiss on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @Lie2me Yah, well, gotta have sometin' ta do when yer sittin' on da ice waitin' for fish bite, eh?
  
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- Lie2me on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss That's why you need a smart phone, nothing else says "hipster" quite like sitting in an ice shack with a bottle of Jack commenting on TTAC
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss Thinkpad X60 with a WAN card for me, smartphones are for noobs.
  
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- Lie2me on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss A little awkward to carry around in your jeans pocket
  
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- Highdesertcat on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss I'm still using a TracFone with prepaid minutes, no camera and no pics, no apps and no data. Hey, it works for what I need it for; to make phone calls or text. But the rest of the family? Yup, everyone of them has a smart phone, loaded with apps they use everyday, plus an iPad or Samsung Tablet. Hell, even my 86-yo mother-in-law is busy taking selfies with her grandkids and great-grandkids, and then sending them out to everyone that can receive the pics.
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss If I'm in an iceshack in Wisconsin waiting for fish to bite, I'm rolling the Thinkpad to stave off my boredom. On a regular night, I leave the computers at home. This whole "constantly connected" meme is a disease in the making.
  
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- Lie2me on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss I have an iPhone, Galaxy S5 phone, a Galaxy note tablet and a Windows phone, because job
  
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- Petezeiss on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss "I’m still using a TracFone with prepaid minutes" Me too, HDC, costed me 11 bucks American.
  
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- Highdesertcat on Dec 13, 2014
  
  petezeiss, yeah, I think that sounds right. I picked mine up at Wal-Mart and it came with 10 minutes. But it was such a long time ago, I really can't be sure.
  
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- Lie2me on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss When I'm not working they all sit in a pile on my desk and I don't touch them
  
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- Highdesertcat on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss Lie2Me, we don't have that luxury. Ours are on 24/7/366. Just recently upgraded the two iPads and iPhones with iOS8.1.2, and the changes on the phones are evident. Hell, even my Tracfone is on 24/7/366, even while it is charging every night. I cannot recall when we have ever turned off phones, iPads, Tablets, PCs, fax machines, or printers. Once bought, turned on and set up, they stay on.
  
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- Petezeiss on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss Any new tech is awesome until you have to use it every bleepin' day. Then it's just more crap to haul around and forget somewhere 70 miles behind you. And while I appreciate the insanely great fantabulousness of smart phones, powerful pocket computers they be, those dinky screens are just so useless. Laptop's as small as I go... gotta have a keyboard, don't want to fingerpaint my input with skin oil. Eewww...
  
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- Lie2me on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss Glass Wipes are your friend
  
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- Highdesertcat on Dec 13, 2014
  
  petezeiss, all this new tech is the wave of the future. We can no longer function without it. I'll admit that the iPad Air clad in a Belkin Qode has got to be the handiest little laptop I have ever used anywhere. Coupled with the hotspot in the iPhone we can be on the road anywhere and still use both iPhones and iPads while rolling down the highway. Truth be told, I would much rather sit in front of my DellXPS27 Win8.1 PC, but that gets too involved when I'm on the porcelain throne. An iPad allows me to do my best thinking on that throne. I use a clean t-shirt to wipe the glass on the phones, tablets, iPads and the Dell XPS27. Don't use windex or glass wipes. The gorilla glass is treated with oleo-polymer from the factory. Best to leave that on. Ammonia takes it off.
  
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- Petezeiss on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss I'll pay for my cable broadband, ain't no way I'm also paying for a cellular data plan. No.
  
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- Lie2me on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss Work pays for all my mobile
  
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- Highdesertcat on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @petezeiss Yeah, the cost of connectivity is outrageous, for an individual or family. But people who own a business let the business pick up that tab as a legitimate business expense and just tack on users and devices as needed. We're with Verizon now but have been with Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T and even CenturyLink over the years. It would not be doable for many individuals to cough up the cost of Broadband and Mobile plans but business owners see it as a legitimate business expense. And so does the IRS.
  
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28-Cars-Later on Dec 13, 2014

I'd like to know more about how it works, but I suspect this will end up being incredibly abused at the very least by kids trying to buy beer.

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- Lie2me on Dec 13, 2014
  
  Fake ID app... never thought of that
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @Lie2me First thing which came to my mind, but how easy that would be depends on how it works. Even if the app was somewhat secure an enterprising teenager could simply make his own app which looked like the state app but only displayed his credentials (or fake credentials with his pic overlayed). Much more difficult for the local rugrats to figure out how to physically make a plastic id (or overlay their pic on an existing one) and come up with the hologram covering. Ask me how I know :)
  
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- Lie2me on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @28-Cars-Later It sounds like something easily hacked, but probably not or states wouldn't be interested in them as a formal ID
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @Lie2me Once something is on a computer I promise you it is never 100% secure. Everything can be hacked, its just a question of how and also how long to figure it out.
  
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- Lie2me on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @Lie2me True dat
  
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- Petezeiss on Dec 13, 2014
  
  @Lie2me Snitch-boxes with thousands of log files a layman would never even suspect existed let alone be able to locate.
  
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Mikedt on Dec 13, 2014

The whole idea of having to carry a license and registration is asinine. The first thing the cop does when you give this stuff to him is verify it via the computer. So why do I need it in the first place? Hell. before he's even walked to your window he's run the plate, verified the owner - and I'm guessing has looked for outstanding warrants and license status, registration status and the make/model/color of the vehicle itself. The need to carry paper that just backs up what his computer says is just an excuse for more tickets. Because, lets be honest, no matter what you hand him, he's going to believe his computer above anything else.

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- 28-Cars-Later on Dec 13, 2014
  
  The verified owner and the driver are not always one in the same, the license also serves as primary informal identification of a person whether they are on the road or on the street. I do agree with you on the computer though, something else the license serves them is a way to look for open warrants on the driver. Here the state database handles registration but the county handles all of the other local issues (i.e. bench warrant for failure to appear in court, child support etc). So they do not get this information from the initial plate scan, but can get it after they run the license, at least AFAIK. I'll ask the next time I run into my bro.
  
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- Vulpine on Dec 13, 2014
  
  So the data is in his computer--as far as it goes. How does he confirm that YOU are the authorized owner/driver and that YOU are who the computer says you are? He still needs to see something with that authorized picture on it (for visual comparison) and quite honestly the police computers don't know if your car is properly insured or not since the insurance companies don't tell them.
  
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