Thales Survey Reveals Drivers’ Growing Interest in Digital Services Across the U.S. and Canada

Citizens are seeking convenience, time savings, security/privacy, and increased access to services when considering using digital services.

Knowing customer expectations, especially those relating to technological advancements and user experience, is critical for delivering modern services. However, doing such extensive research can be challenging, especially for state or provincial governments with limited resources. As a partner to our North America customers, Thales is committed to supporting these efforts.

This comprehensive survey was conducted through an independent platform with individuals across North America, with the goal of providing our customers valuable insights into the needs and expectations of their citizens. This information has tremendous value to agencies that may be launching new programs, seeking to boost engagement with existing services, or considering other modernization efforts.

At Thales, we believe empowering our customers to better serve their communities – while meeting evolving expectations of access, convenience, data privacy, and security – is fundamental to our mission of building a future we can all trust.

Key Insights Learned

A desire to listen, learn, and make improvements ensures the continual enhancement of services and customer experiences. Through this survey, Thales can provide key insights and measurable data to help guide agency modernization and improvement efforts, a few of which are listed here:

The current experience of U.S. citizens at DMVs highlights a great opportunity to expand the digitization and self-service solutions.
Compared with 2025, the satisfaction has declined slightly. Responses reflect an impressive 3.7 out of 5 stars customer satisfaction rating, with 64% of respondents expressing satisfaction or full satisfaction with their DMV services. This trend appears to grow by age group, starting at 55% aged 18-24 while 75% age 65 and older.
As the In-person visits remain the most common way citizens interact with DMVs (75%), 69% of those visits lasted more than 30 minutes. DMVs face difficulties to maintain service quality while operating within the constraints of limited staff numbers.
To improve this experience, digital channels were explored: although 48% of users declare that emails remains the preferred channel, another channel has been gaining ground since 2025: text messaging with 28% of appreciation.

Most U.S citizens are showing a great interest to use an online portal.
Developing online portals is a strong opportunity whether already using Online Portals or being very enthusiast to 94% of citizen are likely to adopt one. The likelihood depends also where citizens are living. Most of the States show a likelihood adoption higher than 70% however Midwest states support for online portals is lower than East Coast states.

Mobile Driver’s Licenses (mDLs) hold significant potential.
Support for mobile driver’s licenses is strong - and growing. Nationwide, 68% are likely or very likely to adopt a mobile driver’s licence. The user satisfaction rate regarding the use of Mobile ID is very positive, with other 4.28/5.

Citizens enthusiasm for self-service is growing.
Public enthusiasm is strong and continues to grow, with 70% of citizens are ready to adopt self-service stations. This demand answer to a will to increase the value of time-saving, greater convenience, and accessibility as long as their data are being secured and private.

The survey findings point to a significant opportunity for Driver and Vehicle Services Departments to modernize the citizen experience. Demand for digital and self-service options continues to grow, but adoption ultimately depends on trust, simplicity, and perceived value. Agencies that successfully address these factors can increase citizen satisfaction, improve operational efficiency, and accelerate the transition toward a more digital future.

Additional resources from the 2025 Survey Report