Gatsobait wrote:
Um! What about hire cars and courtesy cars and biometric means?
No problem. The biometric would identify the driver. Next time you pass an Automatic Plate Recognition System, the car would tell the sensor who is driving it. The computer would run the name against the driver/insurance rights database and get a hit if there is a discrepancy. If the car or driver is on a watch list, send a network request to a cop car to hunt it down, else just pop a summons in the post. No problem.
Gatsobait wrote:
And this family are insured to drive each other's cars as well as their own!
Same applies. No problem. The insurance database would list drivers and thier rights. So if a driver was insured to drive a specfic car or cars belonging to him or (say) a family member, and any car not belonging to him, that information would be incuded in the check. The database would not be key'd on plate, because the person is insured, not the car.
Gatsobait wrote:
Would not really be that easy to administrate. And we could get called to a false call - thus wasting our time! Computers are not that reliable - you know!
There would need to be systematic cooperation between the camera owners, the DVLA, the insrance companies and the cops. I don't think these stakeholders talk to each other yet.
I once maintained system for the Canadian Space Agenecy that ran satellite passes. It ran 24 hours a day for 9 years and never missed a single pass. So proper systems are robust. But many of our goverment offices are run by second class administrators. That needs changing for many reasons. As I say, for cars or drivers that are not on a watch list, just pop a summons in the post. You would get the odd false call, but the system could be improved to reduce that rate to the minimum possible, and anyway, you would be getting a lot more strategic hits.
Gatsobait wrote:
There is no easy solution - but a disc is step in correct direction and ANPR at petrol stations would help us track and trace more quickly - as all cars need diesel or petrol!
Right on - this ANPR idea seems good to me. It embodies some of the database/plate recogntion and takes us some of the way to a good solution.