The Arizona Department of Transportation is piloting new technology at its Scottsdale Motor Vehicle Division office to expedite transactions and reduce customer wait times.
ADOT partnered with New York-based information technology company Kyndryl (NYSE: KD) and Oakland, California-based Credence ID to launch Tap2ID, allowing residents check in online at the Motor Vehicle Division using a digital driver’s license stored on a mobile device or a QR code. Residents can also use the new technology for transferring car titles.
“We are looking at finding new ways to improve the experience of our customers from a convenience, privacy and security perspective," Eric Jorgensen, director of ADOT’s Motor Vehicle Division, said.
ADOT's Scottsdale Motor Vehicle Division, 7339 E. Paradise Lane, is an ideal location to pilot the new technology because of its open layout that enables the agency to test different setups for the Tap2ID devices, Jorgensen said.
“Of course, Scottsdale tends to be one of our areas where there’s familiarity with technology and eagerness to use it,” Jorgensen said, adding ADOT previously installed self-service kiosks in the Scottsdale office.
How the technology works
Residents can either scan their digital driver’s licenses stored in Apple Wallet or a QR code in the ADOT app. There’s also an option for customers to check-in using their physical IDs.
The digital ID technology uses consent-based selective disclosure, meaning residents have an option to select the type of information shared while using it.
“We always want to make sure people understand privacy is at the core of what we do,” Jorgensen said. “If you think about how this works today when you are sharing your identity and your driver's license, you are handing over everything. You don’t know what the other person saw or copied. This way, you are choosing what information needs to get shared. For example, if you go to a place where you have to prove you are over 21, all you have to do is that.”
Although digital IDs rolled out in Arizona in 2021, physical driver's licenses are still widely used among residents. Businesses and other agencies don't yet have technology to scan and verify digital driver's licenses. Last year, however, the Transportation Security Administration partnered with the state of Arizona to accept digital IDs at security screening checkpoints at Sky Harbor International Airport.
Deployment of the digital ID technology at ADOT's Scottsdale Motor Vehicle Division is part of the agency's broader plan to potentially introduce the new system at its offices across the state, Jorgensen said.
ADOT has contracted with Kyndryl – a spinoff of IBM – for more than two decades on various projects. Kyndryl built and manages more than 60 of ADOT’s online motor vehicle services. The company recently completed upgrades to the agency's systems and network.
“There's some offices around the state that struggle with staffing, to the point where if someone's out sick, you can't really run the office,” said Brian Shell, senior partner at Kyndryl. “We've been able to figure out some virtual ways to use some of this technology through the same back-end applications. If there's an office in a remote location where there's only two or three people and one person is out sick, they could still see 60 customers by having a virtual station.”
Following beta testing at the Scottsdale Motor Vehicle Division, ADOT's digital ID technology will roll out the service by June or July with plans to expand it to other locations, Jorgensen said.
“We’d like to start seeing how it works and make sure it works the way we expect it to,” Jorgensen said. “Then, we will begin to roll it out to other places where it makes sense.”
