"Microchipped number plates join fight against vehicle crime". This was a byline on page 6 of todays Motoring Telegraph.
These number plates together with the roadside technology to read them will start being introduced in 2004. The main aims seem are to detect/prevent insurance offences, detect car thefts and, eventually, wil lead to the abolition of the windscreen VED with paperless/automated relicensing.
It all seems good on paper but are there any drawbacks?
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Will make these offences easier to commit just like digital odometers made clocking considerably easier. So those who have always avoided paying insurance/road tax will have a nice simple way to avoid paying - microchips have never proved totally secure so cloning will probably common.
One aspect of this which is more concerning -- they could work out average speed between fixed points !!! or even road usuage charging ...why not go the whole way and have drivers bank account details stored on the chip so they could debit your fines and road usuage directly ??
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I do not trust the government, no matter what it's political persuation, with the ability to monitor my whereabouts at any given moment.
Instead of using Big Brother tactics to keep us under control, they should try and get their existing systems to work properly first. Apparantly the DVLA database contains details of vehicles registered in the names of Micky Mouse and Superman, among others.
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I remember working with the DVLA database 15 years ago. It was very out of date then:-(
I suspect microchipped number plates would give rise to a major cloning industry.. and given the HUGE 20M plus number of cars on the raods, any changes in technology to defeat cloning will be expensive to implement. Presumably you buy a new set of plates each year?
If that is the case, the security at the factory where the blank plates are made would have to be VERY good. Since people can clone SKY digiboxes I give any government system little chance of succes.. they make a pig's ear of all computer systems. As they will need a super computer to run it and a well thought out specification , no chance of a successful implementaion for 20 years.. if past gov't crock ups are anything to go by (and they be cheap skate and ruin it!)
I can just see the EBay adverts: number plate revitalised for £50 .. (like digital speedos being rewound.. and that's illeagl and have the government stopped it?).. Who said anything about making laws work? Lawyers get paid for passing laws and evading them, not for making them work (and most MPs = lawyers:-(
madf
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Tom
IIRC I saw or heard something a couple of days ago which said that the DVLA contained the numbers of 10 million more vehicles than are actually on the road.
Reminds me of my time at Essex CC, where the library user database was one and a half times the population of the County.
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I saw the same thing Brian, but even more worrying I think it actually said that there were ten million LESS on the database than were believed to be in use.
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Two words - Big Brother.
How many times do the public get steamed up in support of a scheme which will, according to the marketing, "catch those who have something to hide...if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear".
It would be the thin end of the wedge, it will start of innocently enough, then more control will be added bit-by-bit.
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On balance, I'm rather inclined to agree.
The point that always concerns me is that these sorts of schemes will end up being very effective at catching the ordinary motorist but not the criminals. Wouldn't be at all surprised if it ends up being used to catch speeding motorists (perhaps "adding a bit more than the 10%" on an open road, or something similarly innocuous) while the real crooks (no licence, road tax, driving ban etc) will find a way round it all and escape punishment.
However, I still think such gadgets should continue to be developed and hope that the powers that be keep their technology one step ahead of the criminals.
Splodgeface
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Tom IIRC I saw or heard something a couple of days ago which said that the DVLA contained the numbers of 10 million more vehicles than are actually on the road. Reminds me of my time at Essex CC, where the library user database was one and a half times the population of the County.
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Brian, you should realise we are very well read in Essex, we all have two tickets now so we can get enough books out to satisfy our urges!!!
I believe the NI system has a similar problem, IIRC there are something like twice as many people registered as there are living in the UK.
It would seem that Government departments and computer databases don't mix.
Cockle
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"It would seem that Government departments and computer databases don't mix."
They certainly don't.
For years the Lord Chancellor's Department put the number of JPs at 30,300.
Last year they suddenly found they'd only got 28,800.
I doubt whether the London congestion charging computer system will last a week, if it ever starts running at all!
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Alarm companies will be able to clean up offering number plate theft protection :-)
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