{"id":2050,"date":"2010-06-24T07:09:04","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T11:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicholsclan.com\/tinblog\/?p=2050"},"modified":"2010-06-22T09:45:46","modified_gmt":"2010-06-22T13:45:46","slug":"what-could-go-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/2010\/06\/what-could-go-wrong.html","title":{"rendered":"What Could Go Wrong?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CA<\/a>California is entertaining what may be the most gratuitous use of technology, ever.\u00a0 Their legislature is considering a bill to move the state toward electronic license plates<\/a>.\u00a0 The plates would essentially be digital displays that would look like normal license plates at speed.\u00a0 But once the car was stopped for more than 4 seconds, the plates would become small billboards displaying advertising.\u00a0 The thinking is that the state would make a bundle off of selling the ad space, and that would help close their mondo budget hole.<\/p>\n

Okay, kudos to the state for thinking outside the box a bit, but… seriously?\u00a0 I’m willing to buy the financials.\u00a0 I’m sure they’d sell out the ads, and the revenue from the ads would likely pay for the expensive plates with money left over to pad the state coffers.\u00a0 And given the ads are only displayed when stopped, they shouldn’t be much of a driver distraction.\u00a0 But there are still a few issues to be addressed.<\/p>\n

The tech of the plates themselves would have to be pretty rugged.\u00a0 You’re basically talking about a very low-end iPad-like device in a weatherproof and bulletproof package.\u00a0 The system requires a screen, processor, memory, and some sort of wireless communication.\u00a0 After all, it would be silly to have the plates locked in to a single ad for a whole year or whatever the duration of the registration is.\u00a0 Also, these plates require power, and this would be a mod to all cars to wire that.\u00a0 You can’t just tie into the license plate lights as they aren’t on all the time, and don’t even exist on the front of the car.<\/p>\n

Not to mention that now you have $100+ of tech loosely bolted to either end of your car.\u00a0 I can’t imagine anyone stealing that, right?\u00a0 What about the personalization of the ads?\u00a0 Given the DMV knows who you are, where you live, and what you are driving, will the ads be tailored for your vehicle or neighborhood?\u00a0 Will Honda object to Toyota buying ad-time exclusively on their bumpers?\u00a0 Will you be offended when ads for Jenny Craig or Tampax appear on your car?<\/p>\n

But the big issue will be hacking. These things have to be connected to be useful.\u00a0 And that means they will be hackable, and you know someone’s going to do that.\u00a0 Can you just imagine the possibilities when you can alter the plates on the cars all around you?\u00a0 And what about the criminal element?\u00a0 Now bank thieves won’t need to do all that messy plate swapping on the getaway car.\u00a0 They can just electronically alter the plate number as they drive away.<\/p>\n

Yup… this is well thought out.\u00a0 Although being from New York, it does make me feel better that maybe there’s a state with a legislature more useless than ours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California is entertaining what may be the most gratuitous use of technology, ever.\u00a0 Their legislature is considering a bill to<\/p>\n

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