Austria’s first digital driver’s license now available

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The Analog was yesterday. The digital driver’s license is the first “eAusweis” in Austria and works via cell phone.

Using the app “eAusweise,” every motor vehicle driver in Austria can now digitize their driver’s license. For the time being, the digital driver’s license is valid exclusively in Austria, but it will also be valid within the entire EU. To use the free app via Android or iOS, one has to log in to the “Digital Office” application with the proof of identity “ID Austria.”

State Secretary for Digitalization Florian Tursky is pleased with Austria’s first “eAusweis” and states, “With the digital driver’s license as the first digital ID card in Austria, we have succeeded in reaching a major milestone in digitalization. The digital driver’s license can be presented not only during a traffic check but also in many other areas of application. I am particularly pleased about the possibility of using it to authenticate oneself at the checkout in all Rewe stores. 154,509 Austrians already have a digital driver’s license and can show it with the “eID cards” app. Our goal is to offer as many digital IDs and proofs as possible.”

To use the digital ID card, one needs an Austrian check card driver’s license, a smartphone (at least Android 8 or iOS 12.1) that supports fingerprint or facial recognition, the registration of an ID Austria installation of the two apps “Digital Office” and “eAusweise.”

The digital driver’s license on the cell phone and the apps required for it are free, both the download and the registration.

But there is no obligation; the digital driver’s license is an additional offer and can be used voluntarily.

Ideally, the digital driver’s license also works offline, i.e., without Internet reception. Nevertheless, having a conventional driver’s license with you is advisable to be on the safe side. Also important to know: This type of ID is only valid in Austria, so you can’t drive abroad with it.

If you delete the “eAusweis” app from your cell phone, you also remove the digital driver’s license.

In the future, other documents and IDs will be digitally recorded to make everyday life easier and make it possible to retrieve and present everything via an app.