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Australia Transportation

Queensland, Australia Drivers Set To Get Emoji Number Plates (news.com.au) 60

Posted by msmash from the it's-spreading dept.
The unusual move is set to be rolled out by Personalised Plates Queensland (PPQ) from next month, allowing drivers to adorn their number plates with a touch of emotion. From a report: Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ) spokeswoman Rebecca Michael said it was no different from allowing drivers to express themselves with other available themes like their favorite footy team. "For quite some time we've seen that you can support your favourite team or your favourite town with a symbol on your number plate," Dr Michael told 7News Brisbane.

"And using an emoji is no different." But before your mind goes straight to the gutter, no, you won't be able to completely replace the letters and numbers on your number plate with an eggplant or smiling poo emoji. The smartphone symbols won't be included in rego numbers and are simply decorative.
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Queensland, Australia Drivers Set To Get Emoji Number Plates More

Queensland, Australia Drivers Set To Get Emoji Number Plates

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  • Ugh (Score:5, Funny)

    by chinton ( 151403 ) <chinton001-slashdot@nospam.gmail.com> on Thursday February 21, 2019 @04:37PM (#58160324) Journal
    Isn't this one of the signs of the coming Armageddon?

    • If it is then the Armageddon is overdue. We've had these custom personalised plates for a while.

      • If it is then the Armageddon is overdue. We've had these custom personalised plates for a while.

        Who's we? Somewhere else in Oz? Here in the states, the wackiest symbols I can think of are on the California "KIDS" plates, which offer hand, heart, star or plus sign symbols, only one of which can be used only once on your plates. Many states also have specialty plates [wikipedia.org] with a variety of backgrounds, or with one special image printed on the plate next to the characters.

        • Who's we?

          Look at TF Headline to answer that.

          Here in the states, the wackiest symbols I can think of are on the California "KIDS" plates

          Personally I prefer the Marvin the Martian plates introduced close to 15 years ago to the current emoji they are rolling out.

          Many states also have specialty plates [wikipedia.org] with a variety of backgrounds, or with one special image printed on the plate next to the characters.

          ... This is precisely what we're talking about. There are no symbols in the plate themselves, which includes the emoji. It is purely decorative.

    • "Isn't this one of the signs of the coming Armageddon?"

      Too late, the truck-balls started that years ago.

    • It's a sign that maybe it's about time.

      We've had a decent, albeit unspectacular, innings. Let the ants have a chance, or maybe the cephalopods.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Isn't this one of the signs of the coming Armageddon?

      This is Queensland, they're already two sandwiches and a Maroon loss away from a situation called "Mad Max".

      Seriously though, I don't think this is going to be part of your actual number plate number, just an extra graphic. We've been able to have certain graphics for years already, things like this ancient plate with a map of Queensland on it [ebayimg.com]. This is just adding new options.

  • How dare you call it "footy". The proper name is "football".
    • Confusingly in Queensland it's footy and might refer to Rugby League if you're a Broncos fan, or Australian Rules Football if you're a Lions fan.
      In Perth, Melbourne or Adelaide footy refers to Australian Rules Football. Nothing else really matters during the winter.

    • It's proper name is footy. The game is not played with a ball.

    • I hope you're not Australian. If you are, turn in your BBQ and shrimp.

    • In Australia, "footy" is a proper subset of "football".

      Four different sporting codes can be called "football": Australian Rules, Rugby League, Rugby Union, and Soccer. Only Australian Rules and Rugby League can be called "footy".

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        Footy, 'eh', oh you mean Aerial pingpong http://www.koalanet.com.au/aus... [koalanet.com.au], yeah the gum suckers are really big on it, personally I find the sport repulsive, over saturation and a dislike of spectator sports beyond the initial learning period, repetition kills it for me.

        Back to emoji plates, is there an emoji for gullible sucker or egoistic victim of marketing. I mean to say between $160 and $500 for having it on the number plate, you could cover your whole boot with emoji stickers for way less than that,

  • I hope anyone getting a emoji plate also has to pay an increase in insurance.

    • Don't be stupid. If drivers get that distracted that actually looking at the car in front of them causes an accident then they are a Darwin award waiting to happen.

      That and we've had absurd personalised plates for the best part of 20 years.

  • "The smartphone symbols won't be included in rego numbers and are simply decorative." At least some sanity is currently prevailing, there. Though it's mostly likely due to IT systems that can almost handle ASCII correctly without exploding rather than any intelligence anywhere.

    • In truth it's the ALPR software limitations. They already can't differentiate between 0 and O, 1 and I. What chance would they have with several hundred new multicolour emoji?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      "The smartphone symbols won't be included in rego numbers and are simply decorative." At least some sanity is currently prevailing, there. Though it's mostly likely due to IT systems that can almost handle ASCII correctly without exploding rather than any intelligence anywhere.

      That or because if they didn't precisely match the allowed characters with the glyphs available in their license plate font, you could have a thousand "unique" license plates that all look like this:

      [] [] [] [] [] [] []

  • I'm in SoFla. It'd have to be a middle finger because "vete pa'l carajo!" is too long for any plate and wouldn't get past the censors. They're kinda uppity about what can be had on plates.

    But "420 TRY" did get past them.. how odd. Saw that a few years back on a beautiful pale blue bmw 335 ti.

    But since I like to roll without advertising a single goddamned thing about myself, I just have a stock standard plate, whatever the State deemed proper for my car.

    • I've seen FIGJAM driving around. and WOG BOY.

      And I own REVHED (was only allowed 6 characters on a steel plate when I got it).

      IH8PPL was on a local FB page as recently as last week.

      And in Western Australia, rego plates can have frangipani flowers on them, it's been an option for some years.

      Here's the full range of plate styles and options at the moment.

      https://www.transport.wa.gov.a... [wa.gov.au]

  • Insurance/Accident? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Officer I think the plate of the cart that hit me was smile, smile, wink, frown, tears, cheer .

  • My first thought on this was that anyone who wants this probably isn't old enough or mature enough to drive.
    After further reflection, that first thought is holding up quite well. As to their motive for offering this...

    Drivers who are keen for the emoji licence plates will need to fork out somewhere between $160 and $500 for the privilege, according to the 7News report.

    Oh right, of course. I'm sure many 8 year olds have an extra $500 to fork over for a personalized license plate. Great plan guys...

    • We're in 2019. In most countries, 18 years old is enough to get a driver's license. That means anyone born in the year 2000 or less is legally allowed to drive.

      Scary thoughts.

    • My first thought on this was that anyone who wants this probably isn't old enough or mature enough to drive.

      You don't understand people at all. Hell one of the most popular personalised plates is the one with marvin the martian on it.

      Oh right, of course. I'm sure many 8 year olds have an extra $500 to fork over for a personalized license plate. Great plan guys...

      Your 17 year old daughter however has $160, and if you think that emojis are reserved for the under 8s then ... well see my first sentence.

  • Plate # egg plant, water spray, o-face ...
    uh
    Never mind...

  • Lots of poop emoji's. Ha...

  • I for one welcome our six frowny face emoji overlords!

  • Misleading title (Score:3)

    by Red_Forman ( 5546482 ) on Thursday February 21, 2019 @05:09PM (#58160578)

    Title: Queensland, Australia drivers set to get emoji number plates
    Reality: emojis will not replace the letters and numbers on the plate. They will only be decorative.

  • So anyone could have put a sticker on their number plate all along? And why would I pay AU$500 for something that's just a glorified sticker, when you can just put a sticker on it?

    Here you can get a heart, star, hand, or + on the special kids plate in California, or you can get almost any punctuation in New Hampshire, or you can get little state outlines in places of blank spaces in New York and Texas.
  • I wanna get a custom license plate with an RLM in it...backwards letters for everyone!

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