An electronic driving licence when used as an ignition key could save thousands of lives

In July 1996, a joint European driving licence format and design was introduced. An earlier ministerial meeting, had decided that the new licence should have a chip to be introduced at a later time. The advantage of a chip built into a plastic card is that, in addition to the printed licence information, the chip may contain additional information about the bearer if that is desirable. The chip information may increase the security of the card and, for instance, store a coded fingerprint. This will make it very difficult to use the card if it is in the wrong hands.