Australia is home to many great things in the automotive world: Supercars, Bathurst, Daniel Ricciardo. But now they’ve had to go and ruin all that hard work by allowing drivers put put emojis on their license plates.
Starting on March 1, drivers in Queensland will be able to add one of five emojis to their personalized license plates, according to the Brisbane Times. If you, like me are masochistic enough to wonder what those five emojis are, then allow me to enlighten us both: drivers can add the wink, heart, smile, sunglasses, or crying laughing emojis to their plates.
The only place this should be acceptable in is in hell, but nevertheless, Queensland is here to push the envelope and let really terrible people do really terrible things to their vehicles. Legally. Ugh.
The emojis have to be accompanied by a mix of three letters and two numbers, so you can’t just ask for three hearts and call it a day. There are some standards. However, some people are just as unhappy about this newfound fact as I am. Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts had the following to add:
Clearly the government is trying to sex up number plates, with a view to making more money, and I can understand that. 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?
How indeed? Personalised Plates Queensland claims that the emojis aren’t necessarily part of the actual registration number on the license plate. They’re just a decoration—and an easy to spot one at that.
The Australian state is known for its personalized plates. Drivers are already able to change the plates’ colors and themes and even add logos for sports teams. Emojis are just the next iteration of customization.
That doesn’t mean anyone has to enjoy that emoji plates exist. I hope we get a follow up study of how many road rage incidents involve gently rear-ending a crying laughing emoji-plated car.