The NSW border city of Albury has become the state’s third regional or metropolitan centre to begin trialling the government’s digital driver’s licence ahead of a state-wide rollout later this year.
The pilot program’s expansion to the regional centre will give a further 25,000 motorist access to the opt-in electronic vehicle licence, which is available through the Service NSW app.
It builds on existing trials of the digital pass in Dubbo – which kicked off in late 2017 – and more recently Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs.
The Albury trial, which extend to South Albury and Hamilton Valley residents only, will be used to “identity potential cross border issues”.
It likely to be the final test before digital driver’s licences and digital photo cards are rolled out across the state sometime before the end of 2019.
Motorists will be able to use the digital pass for police checks and gaining entry to pubs and clubs in the trial area, though this does not extend over the Victorian border.
They will, however, still need to carry their physical licence during the trial period.
Following the rollout of the scheme, citizens will be able to produce either a digital or physical version of their licence when requested to do so by police, according to the underlying legislation.
The legislation also addresses privacy concerns by only requiring driver to display their digital licence to police.
One component underpinning the digital driver’s licence is a blockchain platform called TrustGrid developed by Australian firm Secure Logic.