By Steve Ranger, 30 September 2005 13:00
NEWS Police forces are preparing to trial car number plates fitted with chips to make it easier to identify vehicles.
The Department for Transport (DfT) told silicon.com the technology will be investigated for its "anti-crime and anti-fraud" potential. And although the DfT would not say when the trial is planned to take place, one newspaper report said it is likely to take place this autumn.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) said the details of the trial are still to be decided but that it is likely to be limited to police vehicles.
"As well as testing the technology in a live environment, it will allow the police to assess its value as a tool for accurately identifying vehicles and combating crime," it said.
The DVLA is also working with number plate manufacturers and security companies to develop an approved standard for number plates that would be more resistant to theft.
Today the government also announced a crackdown on uninsured drivers, using a database of all registered vehicles in the UK.
From November the police will start using automatic number plate recognition technology to identify and prosecute drivers without insurance.
Road safety minister Stephen Ladyman said in a statement: "We estimate that every law-abiding motorist pays £30 a year because of uninsured drivers. This new measure will be coupled with new police powers to electronically spot and, ultimately, to seize and destroy cars without insurance. We are determined to rid the roads of the menace of uninsured driving."
Comments
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1. anonymous
Your subheading is "Automatic plate recognition on the way, too". Automatic plate recognition has been around a while, and is already used on petrol station forecourts in systems that take your number plate details before activating the petrol pump (to aid traceability of driveoffs) and also in SPECS speed camera systems. It's also used for catching road tax dodgers. It's been around a few years now....
2. Roger Huffadine
I read the story to mean that some idiot has managed to convince the Police to try a form of RFID chip embedded in number plates, or a form of powered transponder.
Ask Worcester City Council about the automatic barriers for busses - they spent a fortune equipping vehicles and installing the street 'furniture' only to discover that despite all the EU EMC [electromagnetic compatibility] laws, there is too much EMI [interference] and the project doesn't work.
If it is RFID then we are back to the sensitivity of the chips - its easy to overload them with RF and blow them up. Vandals - or those opposed to the system - will have a whale of a time walking around car parks with a zapper and nuking all the number plates.
How about the sensible application of our taxes to a scheme of putting police on the streets and getting rid of most of the 'stupid' paperwork that they spend 80% of their time on?
3. anonymous
Thats a great idea in clamping down on uninsured vehicals. However this only allows insurance companies to continue charging rediculous premiums that people cannot afford so self propelling uninsured driving. If insurance was made cheaper by the government legislating min and max payment for the majority people would then comply.
4. James Button
What's the point when DVLA records are not accurate, and police don't/won't (according to a recent TV report) take action about cloned vehicles even when presented with the original, and clone side by side.
And - how are they going to decipher/separate the RFID on my plate, from the RFID on my car,the one on my id card, the one on my Motorway pass, the one on my London Congestion Area pass, the one on my Dartford tunnel pass, the one on my Cambridge city access pass, the one on my security pass, and the 50, or so in my bag of shopping ........
5. anonymous
Another step toward the totally monitored society! Beware what you wish for - certain misdemeanours are worth tolerating, or tackling in a low tech way, for the sake of not living in a society where your every move can be monitored
6. Simon
Oh great, another pointless law that will do little more than inconvenience criminals, while being a PITA for the general population. The existing number plate supply rules are a farce - in fact an excercise in "being seen to do something" and do nothing except cause inconvenience and cost to the law abiding public.
Everyone knows that the only reason for the current number plate regulations is to try and make it harder for people to use cloned plates to avoid the speed camera scam - nothing to do with stopping crime.
7. anonymous
How is uninsured driving a misdemeanour?
Many years ago I was hit by an uninsured driver – at the time I could only afford 3rd party insurance, so I ended up with no car and a fight to get any compensation that lasted over 12 months. I was self employed, so unable to work.
This “misdemeanour” cost me my car and my job / business. Glad you think it should be tolerated.
8. anonymous
Hmm. Seems like a few people's moral compasses need resetting.
Fact 1. Speed limits aren't a suggestion, they're law. Exceeding them is a crime. Penalising people who don't choose to follow the law is not a "scam", it's law enforcement. Avoiding a speeding fine with an illegal number plate is tantamount to evading arrest.
Fact 2. If your insurance is "too expensive" then I suggest you might want to improve your driving, buy a smaller car, or move house. The Road Traffic Act mandates that everyone has a basic minimum insurance to ensure that, in the event you damage someone else's property, you can act like a responsible citizen and cough up for the damage. Driving without insurance is a nasty little bit of freeloading that some people still seem to think is acceptable.
(And BTW, the thought of government regulating the cost of insurance is risible. Just like they regulated the coal industry back in the 1970s.)
Fact 3. Those of you that think this will usher in a new surveillance society, where *have* you been this last few years? ANPR is here, now. This RFID trial is no more than another way of reading the number plate. If you're that bothered about civil liberties, I suggest you try driving around with your number plates blacked out and see how far you get. (See Fact 1 above).
9. John W
Two topics getting mixed together here I think. ANPD technology allows a police car's computer to look up details relating to the vehicle automatically. I was talking to a Police Officer recently who is a member of the Police ANPD team, who told me how useful the technology was for the police. He said that they are just waiting for the electronic MoT system to come on line and they'll have the whole package.
A police car will simply have to get a car in the sight of it's camera and the display will inform the car of insurance status, MoT and Tax status, and also apparently the Registered Keeper and even whether they have any outstanding warrants, etc!!
The officer told me that it will greatly reduce the need to stop drivers except when essential, and will also largely reduce the need for the 7 day producer tickets.
As for the chip question, this appears to be a separate project to attempt to prevent crooks using false plates to circumvent the law. But as raised elsewhere in these comments, how effective will the chips be anyway. Also, bearing in mind my comments above, how far away can they be read, when according to my friends remarks, the police are less likely to be up close to cars?
What happens if someone has zapped your RFID chips in your number plate. How would you know? Would the police fine the driver for having zapped chips?
It really makes me wonder where the authorities obtain their so called technical advice from......
10. anonymous
They always like to think that technology will fix a human problem
When we have found cars parked in front of our house - so that folks get free parking for the commuter station round the corner - we check to see if their road tax has expired.
But we found that reporting them made no diff as no one came to ticket them. The Police say they will have a letter sent from the DVLA to the registered address of the vehicle ... Wel Duh!
So if folks report cars directly to the Police that are untaxed and so may be uninsured too and no action is taken...?
11. anonymous
Your subheading is "Automatic plate recognition on the way, too". Automatic plate recognition has been around a while, and is already used on petrol station forecourts in systems that take your number plate details before activating the petrol pump (to aid traceability of driveoffs) and also in SPECS speed camera systems. It's also used for catching road tax dodgers. It's been around a few years now....