California license plates might go digital, show ads | Hacker News Reader

California license plates might go digital, show ads

news.yahoo.com

11 pointsstretchwithme17 comments

Serious question: shouldn't the owner of the vehicle be allowed to receive a share of the profits?

At the end of the day, the liability associated with these "ads" falls on whom: the state or vehicle's owner?

Mind you, I think this is the most retarded idea ever.

No, the DMV will claim the plates are their property. Currently the plate is just a way to ID yourself, like the Driver's Licence.

Legislation like this will change things, and the DMV will declare they own the licence plate, the same way Microsoft claims they actually own the Xbox in your living room.

You are right, and I don't know why you were downvoted: this is the claim that would be made, and it would be asserted as the reason you are not allowed to take your blue-on-white license plate and repaint it to be hot pink on lime green (at least, not while it's mounted to your vehicle).

However, I don't think this idea will go anywhere, since it potentially creates all sorts of first-amendment issues - you love coke but your plate keeps showing ads for Pepsi, as it were; as DMV is a state agency they are subject to constitutional limitations, and as the owner/occupant of a vehicle people are inevitably going to associate any license plate messages with you, so forcing you advertise something you don't like (or indeed to advertise at all) is arguably an infringement on your freedom of speech.

I'm all for creativity and lateral thinking, but I think this is a really, really stupid idea - it's straight out of Idiocracy. The sad irony is that while the idea is a suggestion for balancing the state budget, it's taking up resources being proposed and debated in the legislature, and if it passes it will take up resources in the conduct of feasibility studies.

Doesn't the existence of vanity plates complicate this picture a little? In any case, I would think people will strongly resist having stupid ads for their car when they don't get paid to have them there.

"In emergencies, the plates could be used to broadcast Amber Alerts"

Classic...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_children_%28reasoning%2...

Or if there is an alert out to stop your car, they can switch it to start flashing, etc.

Seems like a bit of technology would need to be developed to make this cost effective (assuming some sort mobile data is needed).

How long before someone hacks this to flip off the other drivers in style?

This is definitely one of the least thought out proposals I've heard in a while. At least when it gets completely subverted, it will only embarrass those responsible rather than introducing catastrophic data loss as with the proposed Internet Kill Switch.

[flick switch] "FUCK... YOU... FUCK... YOU"

Moveover, can the lawyers amongst us murmur aloud the state of regulation in the 'physically' mobile advertising market? Such as how alternating 'windowshade' ads atop pickup trucks differ from location targeted LED/LCD signs in Taxi roofboxes in the eyes of 'The Law'? Shouldn't the DMV/NHTSB already have a stance on this?

It seems with the advent of large format E-Ink displays, plastering the back of a Semi-trailer with a 4x8 'film', a solar panel+battery pack, a camera and an friendly mobile OS - one could collect CPM based on all sorts of things. Weather, type of vehicle(s) trailing, number of passengers, distance behind, 'txt trivia' for Corporate 'points', and so on. All without being much of a nuisance to passers by..

Alternatively, what fines should be imposed for more 'rogue' implementations? High enough to offset any potential gain? Will that stifle stranger, consumer driven things from happening? If and when you start offering CPM kickbacks to the cellphone bills of those in the Donk/Lowrider/SUV 'urban crowd' that cruise nightly around impressionable youth with multiple large, externally visible LCDs showing everything from Pr0n [1], local rap promo videos, and Blue Clues. One needs only a phone with a 'video out' capacity and creating a local Pandora'esque App playing 'underground' music could be fed by cheap embedded servers placed outside of bars, sports venues, and less scrupulous places. As 'data package' prices reamin high, and smarter phones trickle down....public hotspots (and exploitation) that don't connect to the internet make sense.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, as Soccer Mom's queue in line to pick up their children? While immoral to a degree, the unused LCDs in the back of a ML450 (or schoolbus) could serve ads, school updates, etc. No one is moving and it's usually on private land. No one can really regulate that. Right?

I already dread billboard obscured sunsets on the drive home, I am of the opinion (electric) roadside advertising should be regulated to some degree and a more public discourse on how 'public' land is used. Hopefully someone soon will do a study strapping eye tracking software to a large set of drivers to measure how disorienting erratic light from advertising and other sources can be. Someone will die (<blink> tag induced seizure?), much fuss will be made, and a law 'in honor of XYZ' will pass and perhaps something will be done about it.

:shrug:

[1] http://www.law.northwestern.edu/lawreview/v100/n2/999/LR100n...

I'm reminded of a quote of David Ogilvy, of the ad agency Ogilvy and Mather:

"As a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every prospect pleases, man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard. When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes who will travel around the world on silent motorcycles, chopping down posters by the dark of the moon. How many juries will convict us when we are caught in these acts of beneficent citizenship?"

"Interested advertisers would contract directly with the DMV"

Me: hi, I'd like to purchase some ads

DMV Guy: Please complete form LPA17 and get in that line

I know that billboards and many other things already distract drivers, but another distraction that encourages them to get too close to be safe seems plain idiotic.

So now, even when the robber's car stops, the security cameras won't be able to get a clear image of the tag number. Awesome.

as if there aren't enough distractions on the road already.

Further new ways of creating disruptive easy advertising that doesn't do much to make people really want the product.

I can't quite imagine what the senator was imagining this to turn out as

> I can't quite imagine what the senator was imagining this to turn out as

A campaign donation from the company that wants to sell them, I would imagine.

Reading the title, I thought they might be doing something smart, perhaps using RFID tags or something similar to cut down on plate manufacturing costs and to make the registration renewal process more streamlined.

Nope, it turns out they're just trying to commoditize plate real estate. For a state that makes it a illegal to have a cell phone against your ear while driving, I don't see this passing. Then again, they are $19 billion in debt.

Oh god facepalm

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