California Begins Trial Rollout of Digital License Plates (caranddriver.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Car and Driver: California is taking its first steps toward America's first digital license plate. Using display technology akin to the e-ink used in the Amazon Kindle, a Foster City, California, outfit called Reviver Auto has come up with a digital plate that is now available on a limited basis in California, with the first fleet trial taking place on a fleet of 24 City of Sacramento -- owned Chevrolet Volt cars wearing plates supplied at no cost by Reviver. The new monochrome units -- which were also just rolled out in Dubai -- comply with reflectivity standards and are GPS enabled, allowing owners to track a stolen vehicle or at least its plate.

Owners accustomed to an otherwise-paperless lifestyle will appreciate that, thanks to the Reviver's Rplate Pro, registration can be paid via the internet, assuring that one never has to make a last-minute trip to the DMV's no-appointment Hell Line. It should also be a boon to companies with large fleets. What's more, it's easy to upgrade to a special-interest plate if one chooses to do so.

Comments

Hackable?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder how long until someone hacks it with goatse.

Tracking and advertising

[bradley13]

Aside from the implications of the built-in GPS tracker, do note that the plates are designed to show advertising. They show the full-sized number while the vehicle is in motion, but when stopped, the number can be reduced in size, shoved in a corner, and the rest of the plate used to display ads. At the moment, for corporate fleets, the idea is for the corporation to display whatever they want. It won't be long before private plates also become advertising platforms.