X-Ray Car Scanning System at Border Controls

It's like having Superman and his X-Ray vision working for the border patrol on a regular basis. Cars passing through the checkpoint get scanned in real time and provide a very telling picture to “the good guys” so you can sleep better at night knowing that nothing illegal is entering or exiting the country.

This nifty gadget is right now in test form, being used at the US/Mexican border at San Ysidro, California, one of the busiest customs point in the continental United States. How busy? Well, the numbers speak for themselves: in 2005, 17 million cars and 50 million people passed through this checkpoint in either direction.

So it's in the best interest of all the people waiting in queue to enter or exit the country to speed up the process. The X-ray system looks on the outside like a regular car wash, but in fact it holds the elements which help the border crossing people scan your whole car in a matter of seconds.

Called the Z Portal, this huge “backscatter” isn't a safety concern say officers. The scanner emits the same amount of radiation as a regular medical X-ray for about a thousand trips, so unless you pass through the checkpoint back and forth more than 20 times a day, there isn't any risk to your health.

You can get an idea of what the officer will see from the picture we posted. Basically, it looks just like the X-ray you'd get at the hospital, except it's much much bigger, encompassing your whole car. The San Diego officials claim that this system has helped them seize over 3,000 pounds of drugs since it was first introduced. Now if only they could install one of these at every checkpoint and border crossing in the country, we'd be safe.