A new social networking tool is trying to turn your vehicle’s license plate into an all-in-one identifier that acts as an E-mail address, phone number, shopping rewards card and even an IP address.

Bump.com, the brainchild of entrepreneur Mitchell Thrower, uses license plate recognition technology to allow businesses and government services to connect with drivers and drivers to connect with each other. Thrower says it should be in a public beta by Thanksgiving, just in time for drivers stuck in holiday traffic to send messages to one another.

“The license plate has never given the consumer anything,” said Thrower, who calls the automobile the “last wall that separates us from a communications standpoint.”

That wall may be coming down, as drivers who “claim their plate” at Bump.com will soon be able to sign up for a roadside assistance and rewards program called Bump Advantage (Thrower calls it a “younger, hipper, AAA”) and might even get a targeted rewards coupon on their Bump-enabled smartphone when they pull into the mall parking lot.