On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 23:06:29 +0000, Matthew Maddock wrote:

Well, the last I heard (and there's about 45 days left in 2004) you
couldn't buy Microchipped plates.

If true it's a typical Public Sector IT project i.e. it doesn't work.

Quite likely! My wife works in the NHS and you should hear
about the amount they waste on failed IT projects.

I can believe it.

It will annoy a lot of people, and the chips will be as tamper proof as
the others, i.e. not at all. Or people will simply bust them (can you
imagine the amount of hammering electronics on a car number plate will
take).

This article is very misleading. The microchip is actually a transponder
which sends out a unique identifier when read by an appropriate device.

Chances of it continuing to work are pretty low then.

It does not in itself contain any information and is a sealed unit. There is
no programming interface, the ID is set by the manufacturer in the
manufacturing process. That unique identifier will be used to look up the
information on the computer database. The system is actually no
different from what is in existence now with automatic number plate
readers fitted to cameras and police cars.

So... what does it do that ANPR doesn't then ? I suppose it's cheaper.

These microchips are
transponders and are highly robust,

I doubt it, not at that price, not the amount of battering it will get on
a number plate. It'd be more sensible to put it in the car, harder to swap
plates for one thing.

and making a reading of the ID is
easier than reading a written number plate, which could be
mis-represented, dirty, or just hard to read due to ambient conditions.
Transponders suffer none of these problems.

Fine, but all that tells you is *that* plate is attached to *that* car.

Or you could simply fake a plate that looks like a real one - so how
will the "automatic detection" know if a car is there or not ?

Because the device reading the microchip will not detect its existence
in the plate. Simple - if it ain't there, then it is fake!

Yes, but there is a claim of automatic detection machines, not being used
for cops to see the car. To know it's a fake you have to be able to detect
the existence of the car.

How will it cope with people who are insured rather than cars - people
on company insurance ?

Because on policies that have multiple vehicles and multiple drivers the
cars are explicitly detailed on the policy.

Not always they're not.

This in nothing new, the
insurance / tax & mot status of all vehicles is already part of a
database (MID for insurance) which the police can look up live now by
reading your number plate. There are many police cars with this system
already fitted, and it is used very sucessfully.

Not that successfully.....

How will it know the driver is insured to drive the car - all it will
know is that there is *some* insurance on the car.

as above - nothing new. Just because you are stopped does not mean you
are instantly guilty, it just means that there is no record of insurance
for that vehicle (or of you being insured to drive it) if you can later
produce documentary evidence to the police then no action is taken -
this is no different from what happens now when you get a producer.

So the point of this really is just to make life easier for the Police ?

I don't like it. I think it's a backdoor tracking system, it's nowt to do
with insurance.

It can't surely store "insurance validity" - if you cancel insurance
will you detach the plates and take them in so they can be reprogrammed
?

What will happen regarding foreign registered vehicles ?

Such a miniscule problem, why worry?

It is *now*. You couldn't by Scamera detectors in Halfords till the
country went overboard with cameras.

Getting Microchips for £1.00 is no problem ; hell they are cheaper
than that. Getting something that will work and keep working for £1.00
is a different matter entirely.

I started work using transponders 15 years ago for an identification
system in which they were subject to an industrial washing process, then
temperatures of nearly 200deg C and they continued to work just fine!

Well, you might be right, but to be honest I doubt you can do this en
masse for £1.00.

Anything that helps stop scum get away with no insurance/tax/mot has to
be good. If it inconveniences legal motorists (although highly
unlikely) then so what.

Well, it doesn't seem to do anything much that ANPR does, will result in
less trafpol, and is highly dubious from a Civil Liberties POV.