CarPlay helps Australian police scan license plates automatically

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• Reply 1 of 8

  applepoor Posts: 365member

  March 6, 2025 2:47PM

  The UK police have had a camera on the front of their squad cars for years. When they come up behind you, they know immediately if the road tax has been paid, the MOT inspection is current and there is a valid insurance policy in force. They also know the gender of the mandatory listed drivers on the insurance policy. So if a girl friend is driving the boy friend's car and no females are on the policy, there will be a pull over for clarification. Another feature is if there is no insurance, they have the option to take the car to the crusher right then.
  
  So big brother is watching every where. 

  

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• Reply 2 of 8

  mplsp Posts: 4,101member

  March 6, 2025 3:34PM

  ApplePoor said:

  The UK police have had a camera on the front of their squad cars for years. When they come up behind you, they know immediately if the road tax has been paid, the MOT inspection is current and there is a valid insurance policy in force. They also know the gender of the mandatory listed drivers on the insurance policy. So if a girl friend is driving the boy friend's car and no females are on the policy, there will be a pull over for clarification. Another feature is if there is no insurance, they have the option to take the car to the crusher right then.
  
  So big brother is watching every where. 

  Here in the states there is a huge problem with uninsured (and unlicensed) drivers. Not surprisingly, these drivers are in a disproportionate number of accidents and we all end up paying for them with our own insurance rates so I’d be happy if the police here were able to preemptively stop and impound cars with no insurance. 

  

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• Reply 3 of 8

  dewme Posts: 5,973member

  March 6, 2025 5:51PM

  I've long wondered why all license (registration) plates or perhaps the vehicles themselves do not have a transponder so vehicles can be identified from a distance, like IFF transponders on aircraft and ships. The US should also consider having a country-wide vehicle identity system instead of every state having dozens of stupid vanity plates. Why do people have an emotional attachment to a license plate? The vehicle identity tag should be like a MAC ID on Ethernet or a GUID used in software. Build the identity tag into all vehicles, including buggies, bicycles, scooters, skate boards, etc. In other words, the 3rd Gen AirTags.
  
  I know, boo hoo hoo on privacy, but public road space should be treated like airspace and access to it more tightly controlled. In today's highly connected environment the notion of privacy is largely an illusion. With improvements in AI and improvements in vision, voice, devices pinging connection points that have geo metadata, and other forms of surveillance, detection, and tracking systems including toll tag readers, the ability to move around the country anonymously is declining very rapidly. Hey, it's not like I'm advocating for a universal system to remotely disable vehicles, but that is probably not a bad idea now that I think about it. 
  
  This probably requires a bit more thought ...
  
  
  

  

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• Reply 4 of 8

  applepoor Posts: 365member

  March 6, 2025 6:33PM

  One will often see a little box perched high on a road side (including interstates) pole aimed down at the traffic. It reads newer vehicles ID as the vehicle passes by and transmits the information to wherever or whoever..

  edited March 6

  

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• Reply 5 of 8

  lesterkrimbaugh Posts: 75member

  March 6, 2025 7:20PM

  ApplePoor said:

  The UK police have had a camera on the front of their squad cars for years. When they come up behind you, they know immediately if the road tax has been paid, the MOT inspection is current and there is a valid insurance policy in force. They also know the gender of the mandatory listed drivers on the insurance policy. So if a girl friend is driving the boy friend's car and no females are on the policy, there will be a pull over for clarification. Another feature is if there is no insurance, they have the option to take the car to the crusher right then.
  
  So big brother is watching every where. 

  Police in the US have side facing cameras as well as front and rear cameras. The cameras are constantly scanning license plates and automatically alert police to any suspicious vehicle – even parked cars. We sometimes see them at the mall driving up and down the rows of parked cars.

  

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• Reply 6 of 8

  entropys Posts: 4,417member

  March 6, 2025 10:59PM

  dewme said:

  I've long wondered why all license (registration) plates or perhaps the vehicles themselves do not have a transponder so vehicles can be identified from a distance, like IFF transponders on aircraft and ships. The US should also consider having a country-wide vehicle identity system instead of every state having dozens of stupid vanity plates. Why do people have an emotional attachment to a license plate? The vehicle identity tag should be like a MAC ID on Ethernet or a GUID used in software. Build the identity tag into all vehicles, including buggies, bicycles, scooters, skate boards, etc. In other words, the 3rd Gen AirTags.
  
  I know, boo hoo hoo on privacy, but public road space should be treated like airspace and access to it more tightly controlled. In today's highly connected environment the notion of privacy is largely an illusion. With improvements in AI and improvements in vision, voice, devices pinging connection points that have geo metadata, and other forms of surveillance, detection, and tracking systems including toll tag readers, the ability to move around the country anonymously is declining very rapidly. Hey, it's not like I'm advocating for a universal system to remotely disable vehicles, but that is probably not a bad idea now that I think about it. 
  
  This probably requires a bit more thought ...
  
  
  

  I think that is the case with a lot of modern cars that can phone home, in effect.  particularly EVs.  I do not, however regard it as all glorious, because it requires a trust in government I do not have.  I have over 40 years of public service, and I have been up close and seen how the sausage is made.
  
  as for the state vs federal. The state is the entity, the federal government is just an overarching entity with theoretically limited power over the states. Power devolved closer to the people.  Nothing wrong with competitive federalism.
  
  

  It is not the founders’ fault in the USA that the federal government has become more powerful.  It is the same in little old OZ as well by the way, the central federal government has expanded its powers well beyond that of the original intent of the Australian Constitution, which unlike the USA  Consitution could be boiled down to a tedious contract between states that is essentially a unified approach to trade (including foreign affairs) and defence. Heck we didn’t even give it taxation powers,  but it was taken on as a temporary measure in WW2, and well, it is still in place. And now we have a federal education department that doesn’t run schools, a federal health department that doesn’t run hospitals as two simple examples, and a relentless quest to duplicate development approvals and everything else states actually deliver. And all run from Canberra, a town with third generation public servants living in utopia with absolutely no idea how life is in the far flung parts of this wide brown land.
  
  in summary, be very careful what you wish for.

  edited March 6

  

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• Reply 7 of 8

  hexclock Posts: 1,345member

  March 7, 2025 1:00AM

  dewme said:

  I've long wondered why all license (registration) plates or perhaps the vehicles themselves do not have a transponder so vehicles can be identified from a distance, like IFF transponders on aircraft and ships. The US should also consider having a country-wide vehicle identity system instead of every state having dozens of stupid vanity plates. Why do people have an emotional attachment to a license plate? The vehicle identity tag should be like a MAC ID on Ethernet or a GUID used in software. Build the identity tag into all vehicles, including buggies, bicycles, scooters, skate boards, etc. In other words, the 3rd Gen AirTags.
  
  I know, boo hoo hoo on privacy, but public road space should be treated like airspace and access to it more tightly controlled. In today's highly connected environment the notion of privacy is largely an illusion. With improvements in AI and improvements in vision, voice, devices pinging connection points that have geo metadata, and other forms of surveillance, detection, and tracking systems including toll tag readers, the ability to move around the country anonymously is declining very rapidly. Hey, it's not like I'm advocating for a universal system to remotely disable vehicles, but that is probably not a bad idea now that I think about it. 
  
  This probably requires a bit more thought ...
  
  
  

  These are interesting ideas with a huge problem attached. It wouldn’t be long before someone either breached the system that stores the transponder codes, or black market readers became available. 

  As far as a remote disable feature… how long before that system is hacked and thousands of cars, trucks, buses and so on are stopped simultaneously. 

  It’s a tricky problem to solve, and may not be solvable. 
  
  

  

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• Reply 8 of 8

  davidw Posts: 2,148member

  March 7, 2025 6:47AM

  lesterkrimbaugh said:

  ApplePoor said:

  The UK police have had a camera on the front of their squad cars for years. When they come up behind you, they know immediately if the road tax has been paid, the MOT inspection is current and there is a valid insurance policy in force. They also know the gender of the mandatory listed drivers on the insurance policy. So if a girl friend is driving the boy friend's car and no females are on the policy, there will be a pull over for clarification. Another feature is if there is no insurance, they have the option to take the car to the crusher right then.
  
  So big brother is watching every where. 

  Police in the US have side facing cameras as well as front and rear cameras. The cameras are constantly scanning license plates and automatically alert police to any suspicious vehicle – even parked cars. We sometimes see them at the mall driving up and down the rows of parked cars.

  
  

  Here in San Francisco, meter person scooters had cameras on them for years. But back when they were first installed, the public was told that those license plate readers were to check for overtime parking violations. In SF (and I imagine in most cities) parking meters are usually placed in front of businesses. Those meters usually have a 20 minutes to 2 hours time limit. One is not allowed to keep feeding the meter all day long, without moving their vehicle. If the meter person suspects that a vehicle been there for longer than time limit of the meter, they would need to chalk mark the tires and then check for the mark after the time limit had passed again.
  

  
  

  But with the vehicle mounted cameras, the on board computer can inform the meter person that the same car been parked in the same spot, since the last time the meter person passed by. So even if there is still time on the meter the second time around, the meter person would know if a vehicle been parked there for over the time limit of the meter. So the vehicle will get a ticket for overtime parking, regardless if there's still time on the meter. It seems that in these metered business areas, the employees of the businesses would take up these metered spaces and keep feeding the meters all day long. Thus taking away parking spaces for those that are there to patronize the businesses.
  

  
  

  But of course today, those cameras are now tied to the police data base and vehicles with a high amount of unpaid tickets will get booted. While stolen vehicles or vehicles that the police might be searching for also get flagged and reported to the police.
  

  
  

  Right now, SF through a Federal grant, is in the process of installing 400 pole mounted license plate readers through out the city. (I believed Oakland (across the Bay) is doing the same.) But we're still a long way from being as efficient as London or Paris or Berlin or most other major cites in the EU, in tracking any car as it makes its way through the city. Here, we are still mainly depending on license plate readers instead of live video "traffic" cameras.
  

  
  

  When ever there is a terrorist attack in some major EU city, I'm still amazed at how the police is able to track the car used in the crime, back to the neighborhood where the criminals first boarded the vehicle and the path it took through the city to get to (or away from) the crime scene. Criminals there can't fool law enforcement by changing the plates half way to or from, the crime scene. The police there would know exactly where they stopped to change the plates. 
  

  

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