I wonder how long before they just put mandatory tracking chips in cars, rather than monkey patching it with expensive OCR machines on the road and in patrols vehicles.
Chipping the license plates would make more sense -- those change regularly, regardless of vehicle age, and might prove harder to shield. Likewise if it was an E-ZPass style RFID transponder on the back of your front windshield registration sticker.
I'm in a driving study right now that installed a black box (plus a couple of cameras) in my car, to see how people drive. The study took care to make sure that the recorded footage and sensor data can't be accessed during any incident; it's encrypted, they resist requests from the police, etc.
In a related note, I can't cross US borders until the driving study is over; the border police are Not Amused at being recorded, and the researchers really discourage trying to cross a US border in the car that the gear is installed in.
