{"id":400330,"date":"2026-07-16T04:57:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T04:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/400330\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T04:57:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T04:57:29","slug":"3-things-that-have-changed-in-the-california-drivers-license-process-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/400330\/","title":{"rendered":"3 things that have changed in the California driver\u2019s license process \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you haven\u2019t dealt with the California DMV in a couple years, there have been some changes in the driver\u2019s license process \u2014 two concerning the knowledge test and one that affects everybody who gets a license.<\/p>\n<p>No more online proctored exam. Last year, the Department of Motor Vehicles discontinued the option under which applicants could take the knowledge test on their home computer.<\/p>\n<p>Now those who must take the knowledge test \u2014 mostly people who have never had a California license \u2014 can do it only in a DMV office. A good portion of those applicants, however, are eligible to instead take the eLearning course as an alternative, and that can be done on a home computer or a mobile device.<\/p>\n<p>No test required of most renewing drivers 70 and older. This change, in late 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2024\/10\/01\/dmv-knowledge-test-no-longer-required-for-motorists-70-and-older\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">eliminated the requirement of knowledge test<\/a> or eLearning for the oldest drivers, as long as they have a good driving record. They do still have to go to a DMV office for a vision test, but most of the rest of the renewal can be done online before that.<\/p>\n<p>A flimsier license. Introduced late last year, the new license card is of a thinner, more flexible plastic than the previous credit-card-type model. It also has some design changes, including no more magnetic strip on the back and smaller type for some information. There were early reports of some bartenders questioning its authenticity, but by now the word seems to have gotten around.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you haven\u2019t dealt with the California DMV in a couple years, there have been some changes in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[184,7,19662,9,8,181,23,100],"class_list":["post-400330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-california-dmv","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}