The Future is Here: High Tech Drivers Licenses
As our wallets continue to grow fatter with stuff to carry around on a daily basis (health insurance cards, car insurance, credit cards up the kazoo, drivers license, etc.), the New York DMV http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/edl-main.htm is offering a nifty solution to the added passport bulk.
They have embedded a chip (RFID, if you are technically inclined) in their new line of drivers licenses which can act as a U.S. passport by offering an identification number to the border patrol upon scanning it, in lieu of an entire passport book.
This unfortunately won’t work for all international travel, but mainly our friends in Canada, Mexico, and of course the Caribbean Islands. The drivers license works, by giving the border patrol a photo identity card, plus an convenient RFID to scan, which will then gives them all the necessary information on whether or not you belong here.
The powers-that-be, have assured us that no information will be used within these chips that would enable the stealing of ones identity. It would be bad enough to lose your drivers license, but your license and passport in one could spell double trouble, but you can rest assure that Uncle Sam is at your back this time… err, he better be!
The total cost of the special drivers license is $30 over the standard issue, which when compared to the fee of a drivers license and passport separately, you are saving a good $50 or more, no matter where you hang your hat.
Unfortunately, the saying doesn’t go, “As New York goes, so does the rest of the country,” so us other blokes around the country may be waiting awhile before this gets around to our neck of the woods… But that’s okay, we’ll let them New Yorkers iron out all the flaws first!
