California may soon begin testing electronic license plates that can be wirelessly updated to display messages like “STOLEN,” “EXPIRED,” or “AMBER ALERT,” Ars Technica reports. A bill that would authorize a small pilot program — limited to 0.5 percent of all registered vehicles — has passed both the Assembly and the Senate, and is headed to California governor Jerry Brown to be signed. The pilot program will likely focus on companies with large vehicle fleets like UPS or FedEx. Ars Technicareports that the switch to electronic plates could save the state of California up to $20 million in postage on license plate renewal stickers alone, but Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has expressed privacy concerns over the program’s potential for location tracking
via Laughing Squid
