Finland to launch digital driving license soon

Finland is planning to introduce a digital driving license to all people who have a Finnish driving license in the upcoming summer, Finnish national broadcaster Yle reported on Friday.

Simo Karppinen, unit director at the Finnish Transport and Safety Agency Trafi, told Yle that the authority plans to release an application that will function as a digital license, which can be downloaded from both the Apple Store and Google Play Store.

According to Trafi, the application has been tested. At the beginning phase, the application will only work on iPhone. Testing for the Android version will start later this year.

The application includes not only a driving license, but also a variety of vehicle services.

Traffi said that a digital license contains almost the same information as a physical card. It can be used not only as a driving license, but also as a personal identity certificate, for example, when picking up postal packages.

It also will provide vehicle services, such as informing renewal dates to the owner of the license.

The traditional driving license card will not be replaced by the digital application, as replacement would require a legislative change, said Timo Ajaste, Police Inspector at the National Police Board.