Estonia to offer world’s first digital car registration service

The small Baltic country shows the way to properly constituting a functional e-government

At the end of March, Estonian transport authorities announced that they were ready to launch what would be the world’s first digital vehicle registration service. The new service represents a major step in upgrading the capabilities of the electronic government, for which the Baltic country has become well known.

Until now, first vehicle registration – meaning the registration right after a vehicle has been imported to Estonia in most cases – has only been possible by visiting one of the offices of the Transport Administration department.

This year, a new self-service environment will be launched, allowing fresh passenger car owners to take photos of their vehicles and upload them without leaving home or work. The vehicle has to be taken to a Transport Administration’s office only if any additional checks are needed.

Joel Jesse, the Director of Mobility Management Services at Transport Administration, said:

Thanks to this, we will definitely save money and customers’ time and will be able to make operations faster and more efficient, as customers will not need to come to one of our service offices any more physically.”

And yes, there’s AI in the mix

The service was developed in partnership with the DriveX startup, which has created a remote vehicle inspection system available as a browser app. Using AI, the software can detect damages and inspect a car in just a few minutes. It is already used by insurance companies.

The DriveX system helps to create good quality photos, supplemented by trustworthy metadata, allowing the employees of the Transport Administration to evaluate if the vehicle complies with all the regulations.

For the customer, the system is intuitive and easy to use. Interactive instructions and AI technologies, such as computer vision, are used to ensure the quality of the result.