March 28, 2001
New Mexico To Offer Drivers Online Vision Test
By Heather Clark
The Associated Press
New Mexico has become the first state to offer motorists an online vision test. And eventually drivers may be able to renew their licenses on the Web, too.
"Is this cool?" asked Gordon Eden, director of the state Motor Vehicle Division.
For now, the online eye exam is available only at motor vehicle offices in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Cruces and Farmington.
But as early as 2002, anyone with a computer video-conference camera — which identifies the driver to an MVD employee to discourage cheating — could take the eye test and renew their drivers' licenses at home.
"I was just so excited to see a computer program that was going to fit in with our master plan, and that is moving as many motor vehicle transactions to the Internet as possible," he said.
Motorists renewing their licenses have to take the eye exam, verify their addresses and have an MVD employee review their photograph.
New drivers, who have to take a written exam and road test, will still have to go to an MVD office to get their licenses, Eden said.
Charles Shapiro, president of the Elmsford, N.Y.-based VisionRx software company that developed the online eye exams, said the Web-based testing will eventually allow motor vehicle departments to put testing terminals at libraries, malls and other convenient places.
"People don't have to go and stand in long lines" at the motor vehicle division, Shapiro said. Eleven other states are planning to get online eye exams by the end of 2002, he said.
The online eye exam tests for long-distance vision, night vision, peripheral vision and color blindness. It provides a more comprehensive vision test than that required by New Mexico law to be able to drive.
Eden said the more comprehensive eye exam should improve highway safety by testing elderly drivers more thoroughly.
"The aging driver is becoming a greater risk than male teens," he said.
Shapiro said the test also is designed for people who are not used to computers. The test for long-distance vision has eye-exam takers click on large arrows with the mouse to show which way the open end of the "E" is facing.
The cost of the Web-based system has been estimated at $600,000. The money would come from a proposed $2 increase in vehicle registration fees, which Gov. Gary Johnson is expected to sign, Eden said.
If the funding is granted, every MVD field office in the state would have two Web-based programs — the eye exam and an automated drivers' license test — by Nov. 1, Eden said.
"I believe that there's only one time that a person needs to go to a motor vehicle office and that's the initial time to get your driver license where we establish your identity," he said.
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