While forward-thinking drivers are considering the implications of supercharging stations for their Tesla vehicles and the impending arrival of Google’s driverless cars, another, far more personal technological development is coming to roads in California. A bill allowing the use of electronic license plates passed the state’s assembly last week, and is slated to be signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.
SEE ALSO: Driverless Cars: Now Street-Legal in California
What makes the electronic license plate so groundbreaking is that it lets the California government remotely post alerts on a license plate to indicate whether the driver of the vehicle is uninsured, or if their driver’s license has been suspended. The new plates would also allow authorities to post an Amber Alert across the screen, and even a “stolen” notice on the plate in the event the vehicle is illegally taken from its owner.
Currently, the bill describes the initiative as a pilot program scheduled to go into effect by 2017, but other states, including New Jersey and South Carolina, also are looking at the technology as a means to streamline the process of registering motorists.
One version of the electronic license plate, offered by Compliance Innovations, delivers power to the device's e-paper display via kinetic energy from the car’s vibrations and from solar power collected by the plate’s transparent film.
As for the inevitable privacy concerns that will be raised by the initiative, the bill states that the pilot program will only target 0.5% of registered vehicles, and that the data collected will be “limited to that data necessary to display evidence of registration compliance." It adds, "The department shall not receive or retain any information generated during the pilot program regarding the movement, location or use of a vehicle participating in the pilot program.”
Would you use an electronic license plate? Tell us in the comments, below.
Image: WSPA