Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren bog Obam here. The state of Vermont could
Speaker 1: soon be giving its license plates and upgrade. The plates,
Speaker 1: which currently have white lettering on a leafy green background,
Speaker 1: are some of the most basic you'll find anywhere in
Speaker 1: the United States. Even Vermont's special interest plates, which signify,
Speaker 1: for example, the motorists fondness for Ham radios or affiliation
Speaker 1: with the National Ski Patrol, feature the relevant logo on
Speaker 1: the side of the plate like an afterthought, and the
Speaker 1: list of special interests that motorists can choose from is
Speaker 1: shorter than in many other states. They can't even buy
Speaker 1: a plate to boast about their favorite national sports team
Speaker 1: because Vermont doesn't have any. In other words, when it
Speaker 1: comes to license plates, the Green Mountain State is traditionally
Speaker 1: all business. Until now. That is, Vermont has a new
Speaker 1: bill that would let motorists add one of six yet
Speaker 1: to be determined emoji two new license plates. The bill
Speaker 1: was introduced by state Representative Rebecca White and passed onto
Speaker 1: the state's Committee on Transportation in late January. Of the
Speaker 1: emoji would be in addition to the standard letter and
Speaker 1: number combination. Either assigned by the state or chosen by
Speaker 1: the motorist, rather than replacing any of those characters. That
Speaker 1: means the letter number combo will remain the official plate number.
Speaker 1: In other words, it's unlikely that Vermont State troopers will
Speaker 1: be calling out eggplant or sunglasses emoji over the radio
Speaker 1: in much the same way they don't identify special interest
Speaker 1: or other special types of plates. However, that's just speculation.
Speaker 1: Weirder things have happened, and by recording time, Representative White's
Speaker 1: office did not respond to our requests for comment. Believe
Speaker 1: it or not, there's already precedent for what seems like
Speaker 1: this pretty off the wall idea. Queensland, Australia has had
Speaker 1: emoji license plates since five. Emoji are available for the
Speaker 1: plates faces with a laugh, a wink, sunglasses, heart eyes,
Speaker 1: and the standard smile, and as in the proposed Vermont plates,
Speaker 1: they're not part of the identification sequence there. In addition
Speaker 1: to three letters and two numbers, in Queensland, motorists also
Speaker 1: get to choose text and background colors and from a
Speaker 1: variety of background designs, including scenic landscapes and cartoon character logos.
Speaker 1: Certain plates can also be inscribed with custom captions to
Speaker 1: Motorists can even buy duplicate sets of plates with different
Speaker 1: designs and swap them out on a whim. If the
Speaker 1: Vermont bill passes, it would be the first state in
Speaker 1: the US to offer such an option, though it's a
Speaker 1: little too early to let imaginations run truly wild. Pricing
Speaker 1: and other details have yet to be worked out. As
Speaker 1: for whether will eventually see a plethora of emoji license
Speaker 1: plates across the country is anybody's guests, but we certainly
Speaker 1: hope that other states catch on and lighten our moods
Speaker 1: in traffic jams. Today's episode for Certain by Shery's three
Speaker 1: Wit and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is production
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