Chipped Plates?

[craig mac]

What Next?

Number plates that contain microchips enabling cars to be tracked on the roads are to be tested by the Government and could soon be in use in the UK.

The high-tech plates transmit information such as Vehicle Identification Numbers to data readers placed alongside roads, which can be picked up at any speed and up to 300 feet away.

Making use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, the tagged plate scheme is said to be a massive improvement over cameras that use character recognition and only have a 75 to 90 per cent accuracy rate.

The Department for Transport officially approved the microchipped plates last week and testing is expected to start towards the end of this year.

A DfT spokesman said that they want to see if the scheme would make number plates harder to clone or forge, in response to the growing trend of commuters in the London congestion charge zone using fake plates to avoid paying the charge or subsequent fines.

Forged plates are also frequently used by organised criminals when commiting robberies in order to avoid being traced.

Already in use in San Francisco to collect road tolls, the use of this new technology is being closely watched by police forces in the US, which are interested in the possiblities of using it to track uninsured drivers, car thieves or even to foil terrorists using their roadways.

However, civil liberty groups are typically wary, warning that such RFID systems could easily become a "back door surveillance tool".

What do you think, is it a sensible use of technology or are you wary of the idea of being tracked when you're out and about?

Craig

[oobster]

That has got "cash generation for the government" written all over it.

Future trend will be getting your chipped plates chipped to avoid detection!! I dare say some boffin will be working on how to do it already

[Gumball]

how are they going to ensure you have these on your car?? woops, one seems to have fallen off so i got normal ones made up officer

[terminator]

The theifs only require to nick plates from another car with the same model n colour and the poor owner gets shafted.

Waste of money,get the chip updated to say "up yours "every time you pass a monitor

[andy]

It's like everything else. As soon as someone comes up with some new gadget, someone else comes up with a way to hack it. This is not only unworkable, but the civil liberties mob will have a field day.