Wired has a recent article about a company that has put together a national database of uninsured motorists. All states require motorists to carry insurance. Thirteen states require insurance to be tied to license plates. The article says one in six motorists on the road won't have insurance next year.
We have automated (machine vision) systems that can snap photos of every license plate and discern the license plate number in a fraction of a second. A logical next step would be to have the system do a lookup of license plates against the database of uninsured motorists. Right now there is a system set up in the I-394 toll lane that lets the police know if a vehicle has a toll paying transponder or not. We could use a similar system to identify uninsured motorists.
We have to be creative in raising revenues in the new economy!
