Digital automobile licence plates will assist forestall automobile theft, scale back congestion at toll plazas – street security consultants

The e-plate system for digital automobile licence plates is not going to solely assist scale back congestion at freeway toll plazas, but additionally assist to curb automobile theft, The Star has quoted consultants as saying.

The digital automobile licence plates will assist enhance enforcement measures as personnel at roadblocks will solely must scan the digital plate to retrieve the automobile proprietor’s particulars, stated Universiti Putra Malaysia affiliate professor Legislation Teik Hua.

These will make enforcement personnel’s work simpler whereas additionally probably lowering site visitors congestion, because the chips within the digital plates might be linked to the automobile registration system which can’t be modified by the person, thus enhance automobile safety, Legislation added.

“The federal government ought to interact with automobile producers to work in the direction of this. Having built-in chip in automobile plates may even enhance the radio frequency identification (RFID) gadget adoption charge,” stated Legislation, who’s the pinnacle of the Highway Security Analysis Centre at UPM.

Digital plates might additionally curb vehicle-related crimes, based on Malaysia Highway & Transportation Security Affiliation president Nik Mohd Salim. “In some nations, toll gates is not going to open if the [number] plates and automobile sorts don’t match,” he stated, including that the e-plates will help authorities hint stolen automobiles in the event that they enter areas which require using digital plates.

Moreover, “e-plates may even enable the nation to step by step transfer in the direction of the MLFF toll system,” the affiliation president stated. Earlier this week, works minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi stated {that a} proof of idea (POC) for MLFF might be performed earlier than the top of October 2023 earlier than it’s carried out for all highways in Malaysia.

However, one problem that can face the roll-out of digital automobile licence plates is privateness considerations for potential knowledge breaches. As digital plate-equipped automobiles are used, their knowledge together with journey historical past might be uploaded to an internet database, and anybody with entry will have the ability to discover out the place the automobile has been, Legislation stated.

The subject of standardised licence plates in Malaysia dates again quite a lot of years. The street transport division (JPJ) acknowledged in 2016 that’s was aiming to have a standardised licence plate system in place by 2017.

An analogous thought was mooted in 2017 the place the licence plate would have an embedded chip containing data on the automobile proprietor and driver, in addition to automobile particulars such because the engine and chassis numbers plus the color and mannequin. Subsequently, the police proposed e-plates in 2021 with the intention of standardising the identification of all automobiles within the nation.