Malaysia to Use RFID Number Plates Next Year 104
durianwool wrote in with a story about Malaysia's plans to introduce RFID number plates. It reads: "'The first thing thieves do after a car theft is change the registration plates,' Road Transport Department Director-General Ahmad Mustapha was quoted as saying.
The microchips, using radio frequency identification technology, will be fixed into the number plates and can transmit data at a range of up to 100 meters (yards), the report said.
They will have a battery life of 10 years, it said.
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Now the second thing.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't get it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I don't get it. (Score:3, Insightful)
What a doubleplusgood idea for MiniLuv, citizen...
I for one do NOT welcome any such RFID overlords.
Meters (yards) ??? (Score:1, Insightful)
Which on is it?
100 meters = 109.36133 yd
It might not be much at only 100 of them, but there is a difference.
Re:I don't get it. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Speed of the car ? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Meters (yards) ??? (Score:3, Insightful)
The range isn't really a round number of standard measuring units. In fact it isn't even constant, depending instead on a whole range of conditions and on the equipment in use. 100 meters and 100 yards are both approximations that are sufficiently inaccurate that it really doesn't matter which you use.
Re:Now the second thing.. (Score:3, Insightful)
What I do have a problem with is automated systems to do this job (i.e. lowjacking cars) so that it's fast and easy to make revenue.
Stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
I work in a RFID related start-up and I can assure you that putting the RFID tags in the plates just doesn't make sense, is just like adding a control number to the plate... what you want to know is if the plates correspond to the car, not a second way of identifying the plates!!!
They should add the tag into the inners of the car, so they can detect when a detected RFID value and the plate don't match. It's a lot more useful, IMHO.
Also I found funny to see the specs of the RFID chips (tags, as we know them) of 100 meters and ten years of battery, are exactly the same as ours... it would be priceless to discover reading Slashdot that our American partners are doing extra hours without telling my boss!!!
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Re:Now the second thing.. (Score:3, Insightful)
The Germans do it by having a longer driving course than the US does, their traffic laws and penalties are designed to enforce common courtesy between drivers, and their traffic cops are very aggressive about enforcing their laws. The autobahns were designed to fit the countryside as opposed to blowing straight lines through it (reduces driver fatigue by giving them a road that requires that they actually look at it instead of get hypnotized), and they have road beds that are designed to last much longer than the US's. Frankly, I think that if people here could see how well the German system works, most of them would vote to adopt the first three practices immediately if it meant that we could actually have sane traffic flows at much higher speeds.