MDL interoperability put to the test amid standardization, adoption push

Australia’s National Digital Trust Service (DTS) for digital driver’s licenses has passed an interoperability road test based on international standards.

The DTS takes the form of a VICAL (Verified Issuer Certificate Authority List) produced by Mattr in collaboration with Austroads. The VICAL supports the interoperability of verifiable digital credentials based on standards like ISO/IEC 18013.

Austroads is working with states and territories to ensure they can release new digital IDs compliant with ISO 18013 and 23220, as the jurisdictions agreed to earlier this year, in 2025 and 2026.

The road test consisted of mobile driver’s license authentication at Idemia’s CAT-2s, operated by the Transportation Security Administration at American airports during the International Identity and Verifiable Credentials Summit in Sydney this week. American and European mDLs were also tested as part of the symbolic boarding of “Flight 18013.”

The successful interoperability test sets up the potential integration of native iOS and Android digital wallets.

At this point, however, Queensland is the only Australian state or territory with an ISO-compliant mDL, produced by Thales.

Austroads CEO Dr. Geoff Allan told InnovationAus that being able to use a native device digital wallet makes it easier for smaller jurisdictions, like Tasmania and the Northern Territory, to issue mDLs. He also suggests that Victoria’s mDL is likely the easiest to bring into compliance with the ISO standard, and New South Wales has a plan to make sure its credentials are interoperable.

“The Digital Trust Service brings together the experience and learnings of the equivalent systems in North America and Europe,” said American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) President and CEO Ian Grossman in the announcement. “It brings global best practices that support safety, security, inclusion, reliability, and interoperability. It has shown the power of collaboration on a global scale to deliver better outcomes domestically and internationally.”

American adoption

Trinsic highlights the importance of the ISO 18013 family of standards in its new report on mDL adoption.

The report comes while NIST’s NCCoE is leading a consortium to encourage the adoption of mDL standards and best practices.

There are now 132 Americans eligible for mDLs based on the 15 states with active programs, by Trinsic’s count, and another 119 million will become eligible when the 15 with program in progress come on-line. That leaves 84 million people whose 20 states are yet to establish mDL programs.

Trinsic’s report further breaks down the number of states supporting wallets from different vendors. Apple Wallet leads the way with support for seven states’ mDLs. Idemia’s MiD app supports six, one more than Google Wallet.

The report goes on to review international mDL developments and drivers of adoption. The company predicts there will be up to 100 million mDLs issued in the U.S. by the end of 2026, using adoption curves in other countries as a guide.

Trinsic also worked with Mitek to demonstrate the use of mDLs for renting or test-driving a car at the California’s DMV’s recent hackathon.

Banks are keen on mDL adoption, according to a LinkedIn post from Trinsic CEO Riley Hughes, which highlights Incode’s demo of KYC for financial services and Ultrapass Identity Corp’s for fraud reduction at the event.

Digital credentials for farmworkers were showcased by startup Entidad, ABC News reports, and OpenID Foundation Executive Director Gail Hodges told the publication that “we’re really at the beginning of this inflection point of adoption” in terms of digital ID adoption.

That said, California’s legislature will review the state’s mDL program when it reached 1.5 million users, at which point it could be made permanent, or killed off.

Article Topics

Austroads  |  digital ID  |  Digital Trust Service (DTS)  |  digital wallets  |  Incode  |  ISO 18013  |  Mattr  |  mDL (mobile driver's license)  |  mDL authentication  |  Mitek  |  Queensland mDL  |  Trinsic  |  VICAL (Verified Issuer Certificate Authority List)