For people who just saw the title or have seen joke tweets on Twitter, it's a bit misleading. The article does a good job of outlining what's really happening. License plates have always been customizable to a certain extent (like, adding a sports team), the emojis aren't officially part of the license plate numbers. They're just an image, which happens to be an emoji, that can be placed next to the license number.

So, it's basically a glorified weather-proof sticker on your license plate. I guess you saved me a click.

That's pretty easy to guess without reading the article, by assuming the title is clickbait.

I wonder if you can use an emoji that looks like a number or letter (in a similar font to the rest of the number plate).

No, it's a strict subset of emojis, and they are not part of the actual plate number used for identification.

To combine phishing and swatting? Come up with a license plate that looks like someone else's license plate, then commit crimes so the police comes after them?

What if license plates could be used like QR codes? Some police already have such equipment attached to video cameras in their cars.

This is already a case for quite a few years in Queensland...

https://www.caradvice.com.au/539545/automatic-number-plate-r...

https://www.caradvice.com.au/539545/automatic-number-plate-r...