A few days ago, the Sunday Times revealed plans from British government officials to fit all cars in Britain with personalised spy-chips. The micro-chip will automatically report a wide range of offences including speeding, road tax evasion and illegal parking. Roadside sensors will be able to monitor all private cars wherever they travel.

But plans for Electronic Vehicle Identification (EVI) are not limited to the UK. The European Directorate General Energy and Transport aims to develop a standardised electronic, unique identifier for motor vehicles, interoperable all over Europe. In December 2002 the Commission gave a grant to the umbrella organisation ERTICO (made up of different stake-holders in the field of implementation of transport telematics systems and services) to do a feasibility study. Results are expected in the summer of 2004.

In February of this year an EVI workgroup was formed, consisting of the Ministries of Transport of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK, as well as ACPO (UK), KLPD (Netherlands), RDW (Netherlands), Q-Free (Norway), EFKON (Austria), TNO (Netherlands) and ERTICO.

Both the Directorate General and the EVI workgroup seem confident that they will overcome public resistance against the plans. According to the website of the DG Energy and Transport, 'there are not only the political and strategic decisions to be taken, (but also ...) societal issues to be tackled such as privacy and security.' The EVI workgroup describes 'socio-political aspects like general acceptance' as a relevant non-technical issue.

Goodbye speed cameras, hello a spy in every car (subscription - 24.08.2003)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-790512,00.html

Commission workingplan Electronic Vehicle Identification
http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/road/roadsafety/its/evi/index_en.h...

EVI workgroup
http://www.ertico.com/activiti/projects/evi/home.htm