Florida digital driver’s licenses are broken until at least next year

How long will it be before you only need to have your phone on you when going out? Depending on your needs, that day may have already arrived, and between smart locks, mobile payments, and digital IDs, solutions exist to replace a lot of the physical keys and cards we used to have to carry around. Progress like that is a wonderful thing, which only makes it sting that much more to see things backtrack — which is just what Florida is doing now, for stupid reasons.

It’s been a glacially slow, and incredibly piecemeal process, but little by little we’ve been seeing more jurisdictions bring their residents support for some form of digital ID. Sometimes that wait has taken years, so when Florida finally got its Smart ID program underway in late 2021, we’re sure a lot of people were very happy. Sadly, the good times are coming to a close as Florida informs users of the Smart ID app that the service is no longer functional, and requests that they uninstall the software.

Why this extreme about-face? Well, the answer seems to be related to bureaucratic nonsense.

Here’s the message the state has been sending out to existing users, as shared by 9to5Mac:

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is working to enhance services to its customers. The agency will be revising the Florida Smart ID application. Once a new vendor is selected, improvements will be made to the Florida Smart ID application.

 

At this time, FLHSMV is removing the current Florida Smart ID application from app stores. If you have downloaded the app, please delete it from your device, as it will no longer be functional. Please note, your data remains secure with the Department.

 

We expect the new app to be developed by early 2025 and will notify you by email at that time.

Basically, it sounds like Florida had a contractor that was building and maintaining Smart ID and, for whatever reason, that arrangement has been terminated and the state just didn’t have any backup plan. So now everybody’s got to go back to the stone plastic-card-in-your-wallet age until somebody else can spin the whole thing back up again.

As the notice explains, the target for that being accomplished is sometime early next year. Considering how bumpy a road this has been so far, you’ll forgive us for not holding our breath.