California at it Again - Electronic License Plates

[Hijacker]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013 ... e-program/

This week, the California State Senate approved a bill that would create the nation’s first electronic license plate. Having already passed the state’s assembly, the bill now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown (D) for his signature.

The idea is that rather than have a static piece of printed metal adorned with stickers to display proper registration, the plate would be a screen that could wirelessly (likely over a mobile data network) receive updates from a central server to display that same information. In an example shown by a South Carolina vendor, messages such as “STOLEN,” “EXPIRED,” or something similar could also be displayed on a license plate.

The bill’s language says that for now, the program would be limited to a “pilot program” set to be completed no later than January 1, 2017.

“The pilot program shall be limited to no more than 0.5 percent of registered vehicles for the purpose of road testing and evaluation,” the bill states.

Other states, including South Carolina and New Jersey, also have similar bills in progress. A South Carolina company, Compliance Innovations, did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment. That company has been leading the charge in the Palmetto State to implement electronic license plates.
State isn’t getting location data directly, for now

Not surprisingly, though, privacy concerns abound. After all, if the state’s authorities can send and receive data to your digital license plate, then they have to know where you are. That would make the use of the increasingly ubiquitous license plate readers completely irrelevant—law enforcement likely would be able to either directly access location data in real-time and/or get historical travel data.

The state senator who introduced the bill, Sen. Ben Hueso, a Democrat who represents San Diego, did not respond to Ars’ multiple requests for an interview or comment. It still remains unclear as to exactly why this bill was proposed and what its objectives are. The precise technical details of the program are similarly unclear, as is how long plate information would be retained and who would have access to it.

“We've been talking to Sen. Hueso on the bill, and it's gotten some amendments that address some of the location privacy issues—within the pilot, the DMV would not be receiving any location information,” Lee Tien, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), told Ars. “But the company that operates the plates would [have access, and] they are going to be controlling what's on the plates.”

The privacy advocate likened the proposed system to a moving wiretap that reveals an individual’s vehicle location constantly.
California has already chosen a small, unknown startup

Various local media have reported that the state's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) would save $20 million in postage by not having to mail renewal stickers. The DMV did not immediately respond to Ars’ request to confirm this figure. Further, the bill—known officially as SB 806—did not originate with the DMV.

“The California Department of Motor Vehicles does not have a position on SB 806,” Artemio Armenta, a DMV spokesperson, told Ars in July 2013.

Update 7:34pm CT: Armenta also confirmed to Ars that "postage costs associated with vehicle licensing and registration does exceed $20 million annually."

But the state senate’s five-page analysis (PDF) notes that one San Francisco-based company would stand to gain from this test, particularly if it gets the green light:

A supporter of this bill is Smart Plate Mobile, a company that holds a patent on a digital electronic license plate, which is essentially a computer screen that can take on the size and appearance of a standard California license plate (i.e., a 12” by 6” white, reflectorized rectangle with blue characters and “California” in red across the top). This product also allows that screen, once a vehicle comes to a stop for four seconds or longer, to display a different image on the plate such as an advertisement. This bill does not authorize the display of anything other than the existing California license plate on a screen, but thus far it appears that Smart Plate is the company most interested in participating in such a pilot project. Smart Plate has offered to make its product available to DMV to test.

Smart Plate Mobile’s founder, Michael Jordan, declined to speak to Ars. The company's website doesn't appear to have been up since earlier in the year.

It’s unclear exactly how Smart Plate Mobile was chosen as the relevant vendor for this pilot, particularly when there are other patent holders on very similar technologies, including General Motors. However, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence that those previous patent holders have done much to advance their technology at the state level.

Smart Plate Mobile’s reported Sacramento lobbyist, Jim Lites, told Ars that the bill is actually about making the DMV more efficient. He added that the DMV, though, “has indicated that they only want to pilot this or other devices with fleet owners,” such as a delivery company like UPS or FedEx or something similar.

“Large fleet owners do not have any more efficient process for renewing their registration than you and I do for one or two cars,” Lites noted. “The talk has been that the efficiency is to be gained in the fleets and let's start there. Until the DMV comes up with regulations as to how they’re going to implement the pilot, it won’t affect anyone.”

The lobbyist also seemed to dismiss the privacy concerns, saying that ordinary citizens shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

“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,” he said.

The EFF’s Lee Tien and other civil libertarians clearly don’t see it this way.

“We are worried about any kind of location tracking issue,” he said. “In its pilot phase, we thought that getting a bunch of privacy protections at the beginning [was the best way to go], and we're asking and requiring them to get a report to the legislature. I've talked already to the state DMV privacy officer; we're expecting to continue to monitor this [situation].”

I mean seriously? Can this state please fall off into the Pacific to save the rest of the country?

[Dattebayo]

"Hey, we found a way to fix something that wasn't broke to begin with, you're welcome."

[MinisterofDOOM]

Let's definitely take something that's cheap, simple, and effective and replace it with something expensive, complicated and error-prone.
Isn't California already in earthshattering depths of dept? What idiot approved the move from dirt-cheap printed plates to electronic ones? Oh, but wait, they can just tax the Hell out of car owners at registration time to compensate. There's a kind of Orwellian elegance to California's knack at this.

Car thieves will DEFINITELY never figure out how to hack plates to stop them from showing "STOLEN" and they CERTAINLY won't use this as a convenient way to falsify their plate numbers without being conspicuous.

All in all, an idea with no drawbacks! GO CALIFORNIA.

I really need to take over. My Empire will not tolerate wasted effort on trivialities like this.

[Dattebayo]

I'm trying also to figure out how someone can patent a display screen that's the size of a license plate. Samsung should get in on that action asap.

[audtatious]

Great...either it's going to be hundreds more for registration and we will have to offset the cost for the poor or we will have to see commercials while sitting at lights.

Yeah, sounds like Cali

[nissangirl74]

as if I need another reason not to live there

[dre1507]

*sings* California, here we come.....NOT! California just tries so hard to stay relevant.

[Bubba1]

*sings* California, here we come.....NOT! California just tries so hard to stay relevant.

And Californians wonder why they're in debt up to their eyeballs.

[WDRacing]

All in all, an idea with no drawbacks! GO CALIFORNIA.

Seriously...Go. GTFO!

[darylzero]

And what happens when you drive out of state? Horrible idea. Guarantee there is a state senator involved with the company pushing these in some way.
More lights distracting drivers at night, great.
Of course the worst part is the privacy; the state would have your driving record for every day, where you went - how long you stayed there.
No thanks! Government go away!

[krash]

Aside from the ridiculous invasion of privacy, people will hack them and cause all kinds of chaos. Not to mention the incredible cost to get these things. And what happens if they get stolen, you have to buy another? hell no. They'll be a lot more enticing to the right criminal because they'll have useful hardware. Not to mention battery life? "Sorry officer I forgot to charge my damn license plate last night"

Good god California.

[szh]

I mean seriously? Can this state please fall off into the Pacific to save the rest of the country?

Only after we leave here, please! I will gladly close the lights too.

Nothing, just nothing, about the state and the politicians idiocy amazes me anymore.

Z

[Rev_D21]

Seems every idea, good or bad, is a good idea these days.