California Poised to Implement First Electronic License Plates

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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California is about to become the first state in the union to test the feasibility of electronic license plates. Several other states have considered the proposal, but have taken no action so far. The pilot program bill is on Governor Brown’s desk awaiting his signature.

“It just happens to coincide with the NSA issues and the surveillance cameras all over the place—this is not designed or intended to interact with that.”
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How ironic that a nearly bankrupt state is looking to implement something that's going to require huge expenditures of cash.
 
"I get nothing. He's got a scan block. "

"That means he's a car thief. Blast him."
 
Another way for the government to sell marketing information and implement surveillance. I bet these new plates will have gps tracking and the rest in later revisions if not already added.
 
It makes ZERO sense for California to do this. I guess that means Brown will sign it and rape us taxpayers yet again.
 
Leave it to california to fuck shit up. Existing plates are cheap and made by inmates. We don't need to spend more money to make this fancy and outsource to some tech company. DMV and car registration fees are expensive enough.
 
This is a terrible idea on so many levels. Tracking stolen cars is the only benefit I can see, and thieves will get around it easy. This thing can probably be easily shorted out. Which is probably a good idea for everyone to do. Other possible uses: implicating you in crimes because your car was parked in the vicinity, tracking your speed to ticket you for speeding, sending you marketing crap, crazy policy stalking you, hackers stalking you, hackers knowing when you leave and when you are coming back/thieves. So many things that could go wrong on so many levels.
 
So when that SUV/Truck with the high bumper and a person who can't parallel park worth shit dinks the back of my car now I get a tiny dent in an otherwise perfectly readable license plate... however it soon might be that I end up with a broken plate... also lets not forget the vandalism side of things. Then how is the thing going to be powered? Oh yeah the car, so kind of like leaving your interior lights on accidentally and waking up to a drained battery your license plate will slowly drain your battery all night long, or if you don't drive for a long time, or it'll just shut off and police can no longer see your license plate when you're parked (could be bonus.. no more parking tickets!!)

(and yes I am making fun of the situation, knowing full well it won't be an LCD screen that has info. More like RFID that stores information.
 
Guessing it is designed to track everyone and make micro taxing easier. You have driving 30 miles today, 30000 credits will be deducted from your account. Have a nice day.
 
if they were really so worried about postage.. how about not having to renew every year.. how about every 2 or 3 years...

and I like how they are getting around privacy issues.. the government isnt tracking.. its a private company that is monitoring their assets.. which they will of course provide to the government when asked..but the government is tracking you..

just like the phone companies and the NSA or DEA things now..
 
So GPS embedded in the license plate then, to get around that whole black box GPS for every car nonsense (although that's pretty much what the Onstar system is)?
 
Ponder said:
Guessing it is designed to track everyone and make micro taxing easier. You have driving 30 miles today, 30000 credits will be deducted from your account. Have a nice day.
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The technology is already there with FasTrak, other states/regions have a similar automatic toll device too IIRC.
 
It's a pilot program, not to exceed 0.5% of vehicles, and then it's set to be evaluated to decide whether it should be expanded. IMO, it's a really stupid idea. Businesses with large vehicle fleets may form a large enough lobby to hopefully kill this dumb plan after the pilot is completed.

madmat said:
How ironic that a nearly bankrupt state is looking to implement something that's going to require huge expenditures of cash.
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You know nothing, John Snow! (Seriously, the idiotic meme that CA is teh brankruptceeeee is just plain ignorant of reality. The state budget is balanced, like it is every year, and debt load to GDP is pretty average compared to other states.)
 
So if I'm understanding this correctly, it'll be an display, like a TV or something? That would be cool if they could integrate the FasTrak readers into the plate also, but I'd like to know the extent to which the plate can be tracked like RFID, GPS, etc.
 
madmat said:
How ironic that a nearly bankrupt state is looking to implement something that's going to require huge expenditures of cash.
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Exactly.

Next step will be to increase the license fee to at least 2-3 times more than the cost of these new electronic plates (to cover the bribes, I mean overhead)

Then, due to the high failure rate, they will start charging people for replacements.

Due to the high cost, people will stop replacing the failed plates, so then then will start giving out $500 tickets to anyone with a failed plate, even if it's just a single dim led.

They also plan to sell advertisements on these plates. I can already see all the politial fighting about what type of advertising will be allowed, ACLU suing, etc.

The existing plates are just a piece of painted steel (and based on the plates I got for my new car a few months ago, they can't even do a good job with the painting). The plates usually outlast the car. Even if they are damaged in an accident you can just pound them back into shape.

Only one way to put a stop to this. If you see one of these plates, damage it. Maybe if they have a 75% replacement rate they will re-think this.
 
Whether it was intended to integrate with NSA systems or not is of no concern. What matters if it actually DOES/WILL integrate, and the answer is clearly yes. No thanks!
 
boss99 said:
CA is operating at a budget surplus actually.
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And I'm operating at a surplus because my savings account increased by $89 this year.
Ignore that I borrowed $50K for a new car, cashed out my 401K and added another $50K on my credit cards.

CA is so far in the hole that light is just a distant memory.
 
Bigbacon said:
why do people still want to live/work in that state?
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The weather & family. Otherwise I'd have moved years ago.

I'm just hoping it doesn't all collapse before I'm ready to retire. With the high home prices, I’ll be able to sell, buy a cheaper home in another state, and have enough left over for a good retirement.
 
Bigbacon said:
why do people still want to live/work in that state?
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Because it's beautiful. I prefer WA, but California is full of stunning areas.

I'd rather live in CA with their foaming progressives than SC (which is a complete dump).
 
pxc said:
I always wondered who believed those borderline retarded talking heads on FNC. ;)
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Bankrupt or not they tax too much. My company is moving their HQ from El Segundo to Dallas because it's too expensive in El Segundo. That's something like 15K jobs in just one company move. It's pretty significant historically even as our founder actually built LAX.
 
The CA state government is completely for sale and has been for years.

If the company that makes the hardware spends enough on campaign donations, it will become fact.
 
pxc said:
I always wondered who believed those borderline retarded talking heads on FNC. ;)
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Don't you mean MSN or CNN ? They make FNC talking heads look like geniuses by comparison.
 
Bigbacon said:
why do people still want to live/work in that state?
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I can't really think of any other state where you can surf off a great beach in the morning, hike in snow-capped mountains by lunchtime and enjoy a relaxing hike in an expansive desert vista by sunset. If you're particularly motivated, you can stick a quick meal at a world-class restaurant in there, too.

California sucks my balls in many ways, but it has significant appeal in lot of ways as well.
 
nutzo said:
Except I avoid the toll roads, and don't have FasTrak.
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That's fine and dandy. I live in San Francisco, which is a peninsula, so I'm kind of stuck with taking bridges that cost a toll or driving a really long detour. I used to work in the East Bay which meant cross a bridge for work, plus I have a Prius which I had in the "golden-years" when they let them go in the carpool lanes regardless of number of vehicles (and carpool on the bridge). And if you ever had to go fishing for money to cross a bridge it's very handy to simply have it tied to a credit card so you don't need to bother (and often gets you through the toll plaza MUCH quicker).

I don't think I would ever go on toll roads, but they don't have those up here... yet, except for the bridges which aren't technically toll roads

nutzo said:
I'm just hoping it doesn't all collapse before I'm ready to retire. With the high home prices, I’ll be able to sell, buy a cheaper home in another state, and have enough left over for a good retirement.
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That's my plan. Got a house in San Francisco, high housing prices even in this slump means that when I retire I can go just about anywhere for cheaper and it'll probably be any upgrade in house. Plus the ghoulish side of me is planning on my parents dying before my retirement in which case I'll get their house, and have a potential source of income as a rental property. It's good to be a land owner and not a serf :D
 
So GPS embedded in the license plate then, to get around that whole black box GPS for every car nonsense (although that's pretty much what the Onstar system is)?
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Why spend money on a second GPS when the RFID can use the one in your cell phone.

"Oh, I'll turn off the GPS radio". No problem, Cell Tower location services are good enough for government work.

Why make it a plate, just a small unit in the dash is all you need. "To keep costs low and make updating license and registration data easier, just give us your phone number and we will send the update data to your "plate" via your cell phone.

But my car isn't here, how will my car get the update?

"No problem, as soon as you get close enough to your car your phone will pass the data to the "plate" and then your "plate will re-register back through the cell phone system it runs through.

And next year we will roll out our new notification system and when your registration is due you'll just get a text message and when you pay then we will again update your "plate" through your phone.

I'm sorry I am late Boss, I got these new jeans and my phone fell out, and so my "plate" didn't get my registration update and then the cops pulled me over and accused me of "masking" my plate but just gave me a ticket for the late registration, that I still have to straighten out ... yea.
 
madmat said:
How ironic that a nearly bankrupt state is looking to implement something that's going to require huge expenditures of cash.
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In the eyes of government, the state is never bankrupt because as long as the suckers that live within it are compelled to cough up tax money, then idiotic and moronic idea like this will continue to flourish. We are the financiers of our own subjugation.
 
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