Bermuda to RFID tag every motor vehicle
In what may be the largest implementation yet of wireless vehicle tracking technology, the island nation of Bermuda plans to slap RFID tags on every single car, truck, and motorcycle in the country, in an effort to exert more control over a road system which is said to carry the world's highest density per square mile of motor traffic. Consisting of vehicle-mounted transmitters and portable and stationary readers, the so-called electronic vehicle registration system promises to reduce the number of non-compliant vehicles on the road to below one percent while at the same time recouping some $11 million in fines that would otherwise have been lost over a five year period. To stifle privacy concerns, Bermuda's Transport Control Department mandated that the 3M-built tags only contain vehicle-specific data -- and not personal driver information -- although we can't imagine that authorities won't be using the system to track down carjackers, kidnappers, and other fleeing criminals. Either way, we sure wouldn't want to be cruising around the streets of St. George in the near future, because it sounds like unsuspecting motorists are about to get deluged by a torrential downpour of tickets and citations.
