The seven-character pattern California has used for 45 years will finally run out of combinations in 2025, two years earlier than expected. But America's largest car market has a plan.
Just changing to a new numbering system when they run out.
I think you’re grossly exaggerating the difficult of memorising alphanumeric number plates:
GL7KKUQ
THUP701
23WD2C1
WWQG21A
P92BTQY
These were randomly generated and really not that bad to remember. Especially if the system is designed so that you only need to remember the first/last four or five digits. Compare to these (found at random on the Internet) number plates under a mix of the two current schemes:
752EPS4
7WMT513
9AYE877
648GDG6
Edit: What I really mean to say here, is that random number plates makes memorising the entire number plate unnecessary. You can get away with just remembering the first four digits and the car’s make, model, and colour. As long as fewer than 1 million (32^4) cars of the same model and colour are registered, this system guarantees that a car is uniquely identified by its colour, model, and first four of its number plate (i.e. “I was hit by a red Tesla Model X whose plate starts with EL0N”)
If you don’t have time to get a photo you probably don’t have time to get the make. I’ve seen plenty of hit and run news reports where the witness just says “dark colored SUV”.
License plates need to be easy for humans to read and remember.
In hit and run accidents, human memory is what needs to be supported by the technology.
Therefore license plates should be designed for maximum mnemonic potential, not CPU efficiency.
I think you’re grossly exaggerating the difficult of memorising alphanumeric number plates:
GL7KKUQTHUP70123WD2C1WWQG21AP92BTQYThese were randomly generated and really not that bad to remember. Especially if the system is designed so that you only need to remember the first/last four or five digits. Compare to these (found at random on the Internet) number plates under a mix of the two current schemes:
752EPS47WMT5139AYE877648GDG6Edit: What I really mean to say here, is that random number plates makes memorising the entire number plate unnecessary. You can get away with just remembering the first four digits and the car’s make, model, and colour. As long as fewer than 1 million (32^4) cars of the same model and colour are registered, this system guarantees that a car is uniquely identified by its colour, model, and first four of its number plate (i.e. “I was hit by a red Tesla Model X whose plate starts with
EL0N”)If you don’t have time to get a photo you probably don’t have time to get the make. I’ve seen plenty of hit and run news reports where the witness just says “dark colored SUV”.
License plates need to be easy for humans to read and remember.
Random number plates are still likely to reduce the number of possibilities to just a few, likely visually distinct, cars.