A driver's license on your phone? North Carolina DMV seeks approval for mobile IDs.

Licensed North Carolina drivers may not need to carry their laminated license for much longer.

A wide-ranging proposal to update the state’s transportation laws would allow the state Division of Motor Vehicles to issue digital driver’s licenses that could be displayed on a mobile device.

The DMV has been advocating for digital licenses for a couple years, Marty Homan, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, told WRAL. The department hopes legislators will take up the idea this summer after not discussing it last year, Homan said.

“We hear from the public on a regular basis asking when we’ll have this available, but we need the legislature to make appropriate statutory allowances for it,” Homan said in an email.

A handful of states have either implemented digital licenses or are studying them. Advocates say the licenses can improve privacy by enabling users to more easily control the amount of personal information they share in a given situation. A bartender, for example, might just need to see your birthday — not your address.

Physical IDs can be easily lost, stolen, damaged. They can also contain outdated information, offer too much information (including personally identifiable information), and can be easily replicated by counterfeiters, according to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Mobile IDs could also allow people to update license information without waiting in line at a DMV office.

The bill received preliminary approval from the state Senate’s Transportation Committee Wednesday afternoon. The committee sent House Bill 199 — a proposal that calls for dozens of updates to North Carolina’s transportation laws — to the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee for further review.

In addition to allowing digital drivers licenses, the bill would also:

• Cancel the requirement that license plates be replaced every seven years.
• Extend the duration of temporary registration plates from 30 to 60 days.
• Require the DMV to implement a print-on-demand system for issuance of temporary registration plates.
• Increase the penalty for violations involving a temporary registration plate from Class 3 misdemeanors to Class 1 felonies.
• Require the DMV to study using alternative materials for registration plates.
• Raise the DMV processing fee for out-of-state drivers from $10 to $20.
• Raise the fee for printing certain registration and insurance records from $1 to $5.