Minimum car insurance is required in almost every state. How come it’s so difficult to require all insurance carriers to employ some uniform format/signature so that all official entities can easily scan and see if you’re driving around uninsured? One would think it’s as easy as issuing an EZtag or EZpass etc along with your policy, or maybe even just issue some extra code associated with the insured vehicle’s VIN or plate.
In: Technology
A lot of other countries do exactly this. You do not actually need any additional technology as number plate scanners are good enough to enforce it. The problem is that there are strong laws against government surveillance in the US and a lot of political opposition to any form of government surveillance. So number plate scanners which can automatically read all the number plates and enter them into a central database is not easy to get approved. Even just a full database of all the vehicle registrations in the US currently does not exist and they certainly does not have things like insurance information.
It is easier for private companies to do this because they are not the government. You mention EZtag and EZpass but they are opt-in, which you can not do for insurance enforcement. The repo industry have adapted license plate scanners and even central databases but this is not legal everywhere. And it would not be legal for any government to do the same.
Another approach would be something like a tax sticker. Either demanding proof of insurance to get the tax sticker or a separate insurance sticker. However tax stickers are not easy to enforce at all. It is hard to read the little sticker in a hurry. So police only check it if they already stop the vehicle and at that point they will usually have to ask for proof of insurance from the driver anyway. All the countries that adopted license plate scanners stopped issuing tax stickers either at the same time or before the scanners.
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