Digital identity: after the virtual CNI here is the digital driving license
A generalization by 2024
From next year, roadside checks will change a little bit. It will indeed be possible to present a dematerialized version of your driving licence, directly from the France Identity platform.
The dematerialized driving license is coming soon to France Identity. 🚗🏎️🚛🛻🚐🚒🚚🚙https://t.co/I9kOwkNZ4o
— France Identity (@france_identite) May 17, 2023
Currently being tested, this feature aims to simplify the presentation of your identity papers in the event of a police check, but also for the rental of a vehicle. The stated objective of the public authorities is above all to limit the risks of loss or theft of the physical licence. Because yes, everyone knows it, a smartphone does not represent any security risk…
A complement more than a replacement
To access this functionality, it will, of course, be necessary to have a permit, as well as a valid identity card. After having created your virtual CNI in the France Identity application, it will then be possible to generate a digital document certifying the right to drive.
“It’s like a certified copy of an administrative document”
Ministry of Interior
For France Identity, the goal is not to replace physical documents, which will still be mandatory for certain procedures, but to simplify daily life with this fully dematerialized version. A process that is part of the overall digitization of administrative documentation: virtual CNI at the end of 2023, dematerialized permit at the start of 2024 and finally, digital vital card at the end of 2025.
Virtual documents, real misunderstandings
What about this ‘all-digital’ for our identity papers? First of all, it is a false good idea concerning fraud or the loss of a document. Smartphone theft, risk of hacking, security breaches, autonomy and battery… So many reasons that make this process at least as risky as the physical version of our documents.
But, on top of that, this technological acceleration of our administration does not seem to be to the liking of all services. For example, the SNCF, always at the forefront of innovation (…), seems to live in a parallel world by contesting the statements… of the official State service responsible for the digitization of identity papers.
The exchange. East. Absolutely. Lunar. 🤦♂️#SNCF pic.twitter.com/PwLV0Q1TmJ
— Phileas Gatsby (@OnTheRodPhileas) May 17, 2023
For the moment in any case, the dematerialization of our documents is only at the stage of local experiments. Their deployment should not replace the physical version of our permits, identity cards and vital cards. At least, for now.
