Brazil's digital driving license launch postponed
The launch of the digital driving license in Brazil has been postponed.
The mobile-based ID was supposed to be introduced from February 1, however a number of factors prompted the government to move the go-live date to July 1.
Out of Brazil's 27 states, only 13 were ready for the launch, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo - the locations with the largest concentration of drivers - being among the states that need more time to prepare for the new system.
Additionally, systems to validate the new ID have yet to be defined. For instance, Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency still has to introduce a mechanism to verify the mobile-based documents in domestic flights.
The digital driving license has received a green light from the Brazilian government last July. The new system will feature digital signature certificates and will be as legally valid as the physical document, which will continue to exist.
The physical Brazilian driving license will resemble a chip and pin plastic bank card and will be available by 2019, according to the country's authorities.
The digital license and the new card are aimed at reducing fraud, as the current version of the document is paper-based and relatively easy to counterfeit.