The American Spectator : Billy Mays Here...On Your License Plate

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Billy Mays Here...On Your License Plate

By Eric Peters on 6.23.10 @ 6:06AM

Only in California could someone come up with this version of digital divide.

Just when you thought it wasn't possible to find another way to try to shove pushy advertising down your throat, the DMV comes up with a new one.

California may be about to turn your car into a moving billboard via something called Digital Electronic License Plates that display revolving "messages" (read: annoying ads) for the edification of the motorists stuck behind you.

Oh, and just so "the children" aren't left out, the e-plates "could be used to broadcast Amber Alerts or traffic information" -- when they're not assaulting you with grating peddlers of the Billy Mays variety, demanding that you BUY! Now!

These devices of Satan are the brainchild of Democrat State Senator Curren Price of Los Angeles. "Were just trying to find creative ways of generating additional revenue," he croons. "It's an exciting marriage of technology with need and an opportunity to keep California at the forefront... "

Yeah. The forefront of state-sponsored exploitation of helpless California motorists.

It's real exciting.

Price has put forward a bill (SB 1453) that would authorize the CA state DMV to "contract directly" with "interested advertisers," whose dreck would then be routed to your car's license plate, for all the world to see. SB 1453 has already passed the CA State Senate -- unanimously -- and will soon be considered by the Assembly's Transportation Committee. (See here.)

Governor Ahhhhhnoooold has not come out pro or con yet, no doubt waiting to see whether the public will rise up in fury or (as usual) supinely accept this latest outrage as it has accepted so many others.

The motivation for this, of course, is das geld.

California is staring down a near $20 billion deficit and the usual methods of financing state boondoggles, such as jacking-up business and other taxes, have become politically untenable. So apparatchiks like Price are scrambling for ways -- any way -- to gin up new sources of "revenue."

Enter the e-plates, which would open up appx. 40 million new sources of "revenue" (the estimated number of registered motor vehicles in the state) to the hungry maw of Sacramento.

Expect other cash-strapped states to follow California's lead.

Of course, none of this "revenue" -- an estimated multi-million dollar jackpot -- would go into the pockets of the motorists who will be forced by law to have their cars turned into advertising vehicles (literally!) for the pecuniary benefit of politically connected businesses.

It's yet another piece of pavement on the fascist highway we're headed down. Big Government and Big Business morphing into a single entity -- with the police power of Big Government used to extract profits for Big Business. Maybe we don't have the operatic elements of a strutting Il Duce (yet), but the economics are essentially identical.

And of course, no one seems to be concerned about adding yet another element of distraction to the driving environment. Just like the state lottery, it's okay if the government does it (and makes a bundle off the transaction) but if you, as a private individual, do the same thing, then it's ticket time (or worse). Let's recall that California is one of the most belligerently aggressive enforcers of cell phone bans -- on the grounds that talking-while-driving is unsafe.

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About the Author

Eric Peters is an automotive columnist and author of Automotive Atrocities: The Cars You Love to Hate (Motor Books International) and a new book, Road Hogs.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (36) | Leave a comment

Darin| 6.23.10 @ 7:16AM

If motorists are forced to carry billboards, doesn't that be definition mean the motorist is legally entitled to advertising revenue? Or are motorists to be treated as serfs and FORCED to display advertisements?

What if the motorist objects to the ad or company? Having a bumper sticker implies endorsement. Can liberals be forced to display ads stating life begins at conception? Can conservatives be forced to display ads supporting Planned Parenthood?

Denver Todd| 6.23.10 @ 7:57AM

Right to associate yourself with an idea and the right to not associate yourself with an idea is all over the constitution. First amendment, anyone? I think there isa problem with the plate idea.

Curly Smith| 6.23.10 @ 8:22AM

The state is merely reinforcing its understanding of personal property - there is no personal property, everything belongs to the state. You don't own your house but you can occupy it as long as you make property tax payments and the state can't generate more tax revenue from a
politically connected business. So, it was inevitable. You don't own your car, the state just allows you to drive it as long as you pay the registration fees. Sieg Heil!

P. Smith| 6.23.10 @ 8:53AM

I would assume that these plates will require a power source to operate, so I guess the owner of the car will be subsidizing the state and the company the ad represents by providing “free” energy.

PolishKnight| 6.23.10 @ 9:58AM

For starters, I sympathize with the author's objections to the state making creative tax grabs to avoid cutting their own spending. That said...

It's my understanding that the digital plates would only be activated when the car isnt moving so, in a way, the ads would function as brake lights and actually enhance safety.

In addition, I have also read that owners of old plates would be allowed to keep them. I remember a similar controversy when the new white CA plates came out and owners of the traditional dark ones considered it a matter of pride of not moving forward. Some people may even LIKE the new plates. I'm not apologizing for the state's actions, just making an observation.

Finally, it will be quite amusing to watch these plates get hacked. SOMEONE will take one of them apart, figure out how they work, and then broadcast their own message, perhaps even offensive, to other cars. SPAM on license plates!

Tom| 6.23.10 @ 10:00AM

This site blocks messages with web links but if you google "California Considers Digital License Plates With Pop-Up Ads" you will find further information on this proposal.

The proposal is not as bad as it seems here. Vehicle owners would have to opt in before their plates would play commercials, the owners would have the ability to choose what commercial play, and they might receive monetary incentives from advertisers to play those advertisers ads. Still an enormously bad idea.

Ray| 6.23.10 @ 6:38PM

It's a dumb idea on the part of the state. Who would be willing to pay the additional "fees" this type of plate would force on the owners when those owners cant even control the message and won't get any of the revenue the "ad plates" would generate?

I don't know about you, but there's NO WAY I would pay an additional 100 dollars or more for an electronic "personalized" plate that I can't personalize myself and would be used to generate money for someone else, even my home state!

TomSwift| 6.23.10 @ 9:31PM

"...vehicle owners would have to opt in before their plates would play commercials..."

Because we all know that voluntary government programs never become mandatory programs...
This is how the government gets people to accept that's it's getting bigger. So don't worry, it will be mandatory in a decade :)

Maddox| 6.23.10 @ 10:35AM

Sounds like a dangerous distraction to drivers to me.

John Navratil| 6.23.10 @ 10:46AM

Leave it to a hacker to broadcast kiddie porn on Perez Hilton's plate.

David| 6.23.10 @ 11:30AM

I wonder how many cars will be burned by unhappy liberals when the hacked plates start broadcasting NRA, right to life, and Obama is a jerk messages..... :-O

bill carson| 6.23.10 @ 11:44AM

What a waste of time article. These plates are fun to argue over but will never be put into use. Do you think people will pay to have the electrical system of their car changed to power these plates? What about "poor" people who claim their cars are incapable of sending power to such plates? The complexities of carrying something like out will be far too difficult.

Tom| 6.23.10 @ 12:07PM

California is the biggest market in the US for automobiles, if they mandate that all vehicles have some sort of plug to power the plates then the manufacturers will make cars with plugs. Also, all cars have lights illuminating their rear plates, I do not know if it would supply enough power but it is possible I suppose.

John Navratil| 6.23.10 @ 12:18PM

Or simply plug the plate into the light socket in place of the license plate light. There is no reason to think that fluorescent lamp illuminating the plate will draw as much as a typical tungsten filament.

Starmanmpls@hotmail.com| 6.23.10 @ 10:33PM

I don;t know about that! My 13 inch computer lcd monitor draws over 45 watts of current. A automotive light bulb of the type that illuminates a licentiate draws about 8. I would estimate that you would need at least 20 watts to run a lcd back-lite license plate of the kind we're talking about here. And that doesn't include the electronics needed to receive and "compose" the variable messages.

Ray| 6.23.10 @ 10:34PM

Opps, that should read "license plate" and not "licentiate." My bad!

Rich| 6.23.10 @ 4:07PM

We already pay to have annoying bells ding, ding, ding if we don't get our seat belt fastened quick enough. We pay for a black box in many cars that can be used to show your liability if in an accident. The poor, you say? Why, there will be a tax credit, of course, for the poor who can't afford this type of license plate, after all it would be cruel to exclude them. Label them as poor, don't you know, if they don't have an advertising license plate. How complex can it be? GPS can track your vehicle to within a few feet of where you are and OnStar can unlock your doors and knows if your air bag has been deployed. A stupid idea but a stupider State. Only on the Left Coast.

Forever Marine| 6.23.10 @ 12:16PM

I have 3 words for the deficit spending California government. "Cut the spending!"

EvilLibertarian| 6.23.10 @ 2:38PM

You can't do that! What will all the "poor and disenfranchised" people do without their free handouts? Asking people to take responsibility for their own lives and choices is ridiculous!!! ;)

A lot of people are shouting illegal immigration is the problem in California - but that isn't the problem. It's the incentive we give people to come here and leech off a system that rewards slacking and mediocrity.

SCM| 6.23.10 @ 12:27PM

Note to Eric Peters:
Il Duce currently resides in the White House.

tdiinva| 6.23.10 @ 3:30PM

That's not fair...to Mussolini. Il Duce, a title he received when he was head of the Socialist Party, was quite literate (he used to recite from Dante's inferno when doing his "community organizing"), was multi-lingual (Obama is not) and wrote all his own material. Obama does not measure up to the late Italian dictator.

Ed| 6.23.10 @ 12:47PM

I agree with PolishKnight; someone will figure out a way to hack these things. Also, what are the odds that a govt-supplied device will work more than six months under field conditions?

If worse comes to worse, just place the plates in a microwave oven and "nuke" them for a second or two, the EMP pulse will fry the circuits. California will go broke replacing defective plates.

Dixie Pixie| 6.23.10 @ 1:00PM

A few years a local grocery store decided to increase ad revenue by mounting video screen devices on shopping carts. These devices were computer controlled displays similar to the devices described in the above article.

It never occurs to the executives approving the advertising projects that the combination of video electronics and rain will destroy the electronics. The first time the ad displays shopping carts were left out in the rain the ad displays were destroyed.

The project described in the article will be a failure simply because there is no maintenance program that can keep up with the failure rate of the ad displays. Within 6 months the displays will be useless junk and the project a well known laughing stock.

EvilLibertarian| 6.23.10 @ 2:40PM

Another failure of common sense. It could cost twice as the supposed revenue increase to distribute and maintain these things. But I wouldn't put it past the CA government to make residents flip the bill for these godawful things.

JP| 6.23.10 @ 1:58PM

Don't think other states aren't watching how this plays out. Of course, the idea of mandatory advertsing appliances being affixed to your automobile is very unconsitutional (For starters the driver is now an unpaind corvee of the state; secondly, as many people have already stated, what if you have moral problems with what is being advertised?).

This is where liberalism has gone. One part greed, and two parts fascism.

EvilLibertarian| 6.23.10 @ 2:28PM

I wouldn't mind it if I could hack it and make it say: "F*** this government" 24/7.

This brand of state-sponsored corporatism makes me insanely furious! But what can you expect when you live in a country where corporate welfare is commonplance (bet those ex-banking CEO's are still enjoying their private island resorts)?

Dope and Chains| 6.23.10 @ 4:41PM

It will start with Amber Alerts, but it won't end there. Before long, they'll be used to identify the vehicles of sex offenders, drunken drivers, tax deadbeats and scofflaws. Next up? They'll be used to brand real lowlifes like smokers, meat eaters and Republicans.

Joe B| 6.23.10 @ 5:15PM

How will e-plates be any less distracting for drivers than cellphones, Ipods, and buxom female pedestrians? I predict a surge in rear end collisions and traffic jams.

Ray| 6.23.10 @ 6:28PM

Who's going g to pay for for this crazy scheme? The "display" plates will cost ten times to twenty times more just to produce (you can't get much cheaper than a painted, pressed steel plate) and there would necessary need to be a network of transmitters set up to "send" the ads to the plates. The advertisers aren't going to pay for that, so the State, aka the tax payers, will be stuck with the bill. That's a stupid idea!

Bob| 6.23.10 @ 8:22PM

I assume they would use existing cell phone networks. It would be like strapping an ipad to the back of your car. The thing is, just like they can triangulate the location of a cell phone, they will be able to know the location of your car at all times, and have a permanent record of everywhere you're driven!

Ray| 6.23.10 @ 10:37PM

Great, now everone's car will have a phone number! "Car 54, where are you?" takes on a whle new meaning!

Ray| 6.23.10 @ 10:43PM

Expanding on this technology and what it can "offer." I wonder how long it would take California, or any place else that institutes this type of remote control "on demand" changes in a car's electronic capabilities (and that;'s what the "plates" actually offer), to force the manufactures to include a remote controlled, cellphone operated "kill switch" in the car's electronics that will enable the police to call the car and shut it off during a high speed pursuit, or even a routine "traffic" stop", kinda like what On Star is able to do today when your car is stolen?

Tony in Central PA| 6.23.10 @ 9:45PM

Did they get the idea for this from " Idiocracy " ?

Carmudgeon| 6.24.10 @ 12:09AM

Look at the safety aspect:drivers will keep more space between the front of their own vehicles and the rear of the others in order to read the adverts.