Vehicle number plates

[brightncheerful]

Regularly, as if I'd nothing more important to do, I wonder about the origin or history of whatever. For example, so far this week it's been 40 winks, scot-free, and the history of number plates on vehicles. I now know about all three so thought you might be interested in the subject.

https://www.car.co.uk/media/guides/number-plates/the-history-of-number-plates

(my number plate is 2 letters and 3 numbers. I hadn't checked its estimate sale price for years until recently when I found it would be priced at £9000. Which means it now exceeds a neighboury's estimated value of his elderly sports car but withoout as the neighbour endures oil leaks, flat battery, and other mechnical failures.)

[Lanark]

Number plates seem like a low risk investment, but there is one risk which is that at some point the govt replace them with some kind of automatic wireless identification system, they already have this for boats and most car wheels have a TPMS which can be read from 100 feet away.

The current registration number system will run out of letters in 2050.

If you could have a new car with no visible registration number at all, and which could then be made more aerodynamic, why would you bother paying for a private plate?

[Lootman]

most car wheels have a TPMS which can be read from 100 feet away.

Sheet. I had not thought of that as an invasion of privacy before.

Luckily neither of our cars have that, and now will not!

[chas49]

most car wheels have a TPMS which can be read from 100 feet away.

Sheet. I had not thought of that as an invasion of privacy before.

Luckily neither of our cars have that, and now will not!

Just imagine what someone could do with that information

[Lootman]

Sheet. I had not thought of that as an invasion of privacy before.

Luckily neither of our cars have that, and now will not!

Just imagine what someone could do with that information

They would know everywhere I was and when. Can you explain why I would want that?

Of course my mobile phone also does that but at least I can switch that off. Or leave it somewhere to mislead. Can I switch off TPMS?

[staffordian]

Just imagine what someone could do with that information

They would know everywhere I was and when. Can you explain why I would want that?

Of course my mobile phone also does that but at least I can switch that off. Or leave it somewhere to mislead. Can I switch off TPMS?

Surely all it transmits is a pressure reading, no data about the vehicle or it's travel history?

[jfgw]

Surely all it transmits is a pressure reading, no data about the vehicle or it's travel history?

But if it is a two-way insecure link...


Julian F. G. W.

[servodude]

Surely all it transmits is a pressure reading, no data about the vehicle or it's travel history?

But if it is a two-way insecure link...


Julian F. G. W.

If it was...
but TPMS seems to be a wide church that includes a bunch of propietary UHF Bx schemes (both ASK and FSK)
so the only real risk would be to privacy and require one to know the sensor ID for a wheel on a vehicle they were interested in and be able to position a reader sufficiently close to catch it

whereas there's a growing tendency to replace the cables in a vehicle's CAN network (forgive me it's almost as bad as a PIN Number... ) without caring that the protocol is unsecure ... and that affords access to "a lot of stuff"

[bluedonkey]

Looks like you will have to get a bicycle to keep Big Brother at bay.

[DrFfybes]

The current registration number system will run out of letters in 2050.

We managed in 1963, 1983, and 2001 (even after deciding to change twice a year in 1999) so I'm sure someone somewhere will be looking at it.

Besides, it is quite a moneyspinner for DVLA, all thos people wanting to pay a few hunderd quid to have "TLF" or similar on their plate for a few years.

[tjh290633]

The current registration number system will run out of letters in 2050.

We managed in 1963, 1983, and 2001 (even after deciding to change twice a year in 1999) so I'm sure someone somewhere will be looking at it.

Besides, it is quite a moneyspinner for DVLA, all thos people wanting to pay a few hunderd quid to have "TLF" or similar on their plate for a few years.

Won't they just reverse the sequence? ABC01DE?

TJH

[doolally]

We managed in 1963, 1983, and 2001 (even after deciding to change twice a year in 1999) so I'm sure someone somewhere will be looking at it.

Besides, it is quite a moneyspinner for DVLA, all thos people wanting to pay a few hunderd quid to have "TLF" or similar on their plate for a few years.

Won't they just reverse the sequence? ABC01DE?

TJH

Probably. But only after a full-time team of 20 have spent a couple of years looking at all the options
doolally

[DrFfybes]

Won't they just reverse the sequence? ABC01DE?

TJH

They restrict some plates from circulation. I wonder if you'll be able to buy MAC83TH

[Lanark]

They could start adding emoji characters, but which UK town will be allocated the poop emoji?

[didds]

But if it is a two-way insecure link...
Julian F. G. W.

providing what identifying information though?

I can walk down the road in a town where i dont know anybody shouting "47! 47! 47!".

Im giving away the number Im shouting, but nothing that would identify me so that anyone would know who I am

[didds]

They could start adding emoji characters, but which UK town will be allocated the poop emoji?

most of them?

[swill453]

But if it is a two-way insecure link...
Julian F. G. W.

providing what identifying information though?

I can walk down the road in a town where i dont know anybody shouting "47! 47! 47!".

Im giving away the number Im shouting, but nothing that would identify me so that anyone would know who I am

If, as someone said earlier, the receiver can pick up signals from all tyres within 100 feet, there has to be some identifying information transmitted.

Scott.

[didds]

If, as someone said earlier, the receiver can pick up signals from all tyres within 100 feet, there has to be some identifying information transmitted.

Scott.

yessss..... as to which vehicle it comes from presumably?

rather than the name and address and bank account details of the driver?

I'm not really convinced that knowing that AB12 ZYX has tyre pressures of 55psi is much of an invasion of privacy?

I must be msising something that obviously does identofy something that is personal/dangerous to be shared?

[Lanark]

If, as someone said earlier, the receiver can pick up signals from all tyres within 100 feet, there has to be some identifying information transmitted.

Scott.

yessss..... as to which vehicle it comes from presumably?

rather than the name and address and bank account details of the driver?

I'm not really convinced that knowing that AB12 ZYX has tyre pressures of 55psi is much of an invasion of privacy?

I must be msising something that obviously does identofy something that is personal/dangerous to be shared?

Every pressure sensor has a unique ID, so any motivated organisation could record this in a bunch of places and then sell the data.

e.g. if you placed a sensor in every filling station you could build up a rough map of every car that has done long distance travel and sell that to the insurance industry.

They could record people who enter high crime areas and use that to adjust their insurance premium.

They could record the data at every motorway junction and use it to calculate your average speed.

Now you could say that a lot of this data and more is probably stored inside the cars computer, but I don't think many people have access to that data. It does make you wonder about the future though - "We have read through your cars on-board trip history and identified 249 speeding offences in 2018 alone"

[didds]

that makes a bit more sense

Presumably the same could be done with anpr, credit card transactions, mobile phone signals etc ?
And there would be an ENORMOUS amount of dead/useless data for those insurance companies' systems to have to weed out to find the nuggets of interest. "Hmmmm... we can see your vehicle typically sits on your driveway 6 days out 7, and on the 7th day drives to the same supermarket. Occasionally it moves to the next town, on days we have identified are when the weekly market is on"

Though I am reminded of the CIA-spying-on-everybody-via-the-web meme of several years ago along the lines of pitying the poor bugg3r in Langley wading though posts about last night's dinner, 50km bike rides and what I watched on TV last night...