Drivers in the Australian state of Queensland will soon be able to personalize their license plates with emoji. The state’s official license plate vendor, Personalized Plates Queensland (PPQ), is launching the option on March 1st, with preorders available now.
There are limits though. Drivers won’t be able to have plates that use only emoji. They’ll be constrained to just one emoji chosen from five options: a face-with-tears-of-joy (better known as the crying laughing emoji), sunglasses emoji, winking emoji, smiling emoji, and heart-eyes emoji. (So: no eggplants and peaches.) Prices start at 475AUD or around $340.
Given the difficulty that even the courts have the interpreting emoji, this isn’t an unwarranted fear. But PPQ says the emoji are purely decorative, and don’t form part of the registration number (or “rego”). In that case, they may even help identify drivers in emergencies. After all, it’s easier to remember a car with an obnoxious crying-laughing face on it than it is an alphanumeric.