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by jacquesm 3847 days ago
Toll transponders are optional but license plates are not.

Curious the downvotes on that comment, it's totally feasible.

2 comments

> Curious the downvotes on that comment, it's totally feasible.

I'm guessing that you got downvoted because the logic is ridiculous: LPRs are to be feared because bombs can be attached to them. That is true of every technology. Also, if somebody has your plate number and knows your driving patterns well enough to leave a VBIED there - they could find a much more certain and easily executed method of assassination.

A stationary car bomb has a lot of advantages over other assassination methods. For one it allows you to get away, you only need to plant the thing and it could go off hours, days or weeks later. The assassin could be a in a different country when the bomb goes off. You could put more of them at strategic points into a city not knowing anything about the daily routine of your target, just their license plate would be enough. You could drop a bunch of them ahead of time in random places and program all of them by remote to scan for new plates and so on. Not much you could do about it either, every parked car would be a risk.
I'm guessing that you're concerned about a place that has no parking authority, highway patrol, corporate security, nosey neighbors - because an abandoned vehicle won't last more than two days otherwise. There is a reason why assassins have historically chosen guns over bombs, and it isn't due to a lack of technology that places distance between themselves and the target. Like most important things, when assassinating somebody, you want to eliminate as much uncertainty as possible. That is pretty much the opposite of just leaving a bomb somewhere and crossing your fingers. Also, leaving a lot of bombs all over the place increases the odds of detection.
I think it'd be more effective against a class of vehicles... like if you have an agenda against Company XYZ, scope out their parking lot and build a database of their employees, then you can target those employees. Likewise, if you want to shut down the entire EMS system, build a database of police, fire, etc vehicles and target them and you can ground the entire EMS fleet.
It would, and a ball-peen hammer is better at mashing potatos than a baseball hat. Just attack the company parking lot or the city motorpool. This whole thing sounds like the darkest rube goldberg machine ever.
TPMS transmitters aren't optional, either...
How so? My car works pretty good without them.
They're legally required on current-production cars, so your car "works pretty good without them" in the sense that it also works pretty good without a license plate.

(I suppose technically the TPMS requirement applies to the manufacturer as opposed to the owner, though.)