Drivers in the Australian state of Queensland will soon be able to buy personalized license plates with emojis on them. Yes, really.
Drivers will be able to purchase the plates from Personalised Plates Queensland (PPQ) starting next month and have five emojis to choose from: laugh out loud, winking face, sunglasses emoji, heart eyes, and the standard smiling face emoji.
Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ) spokeswoman Rebecca Michael says the emojis are simply a way for motorists to express themselves.
“For quite some time we’ve seen that you can support your favorite team or your favorite town with a symbol on your number plate. And using an emoji is no different.”
Drivers will be limited to just one emoji on their license plates (what a pity…) and the actual symbol will be purely decorative and won’t form part of the vehicle’s registration number.
“Clearly the government is trying to sex up number plates, with a view to making more money, and I can understand that,” Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts said to The Brisbane Times.
“But the purpose of number plates is for the police to be able to identify vehicles. How do you write down the emoji in your number plate after an accident?”
Personalized license plates are nothing new and some of them cost a fortune – or five. In April 2018, a businessman named Saeed Abdul Ghafour Khouri paid $14.3 million (52.2 dirham) for the local license plate “1” at an auction in Abu Dhabi!
Compared to other countries, Australia has quite flexible laws when it comes to personalized license plates. You can choose a custom combination of letters and numbers, select virtually any color you want, and even have the option of different sizes.
The emoji thing, though, is really a missed opportunity. Why restrict the number to just five, which are too plain to boot, and not roll out the full monty? Heart eyes are so last year decade, let’s bring in the poop emoji and its friends. Next time, try harder, will ya mate?