Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
"GPS enabled"
Guess we don't have to worry much about license plate readers if folks are willing to have a(nother)* GPS attached to them at all times.
Do folks really not think about the alternate applications of such gadgetry before they welcome them with open arms ?
*Smartphone attached to your hip being the other one.
Too many people in IT think its about the Technology but IT is about the Information.
The project seems to connect registration with the tag yet most places let you type in a tag number and pay online. That is an expected information flow.
I also wonder how these will work in accidents. The tag numbers are usually the way of identifying the owners of the cars.
TFS makes things sound all unicorns and rainbows, but farther down TFA things get a little muddy -- which make me think the editors didn't read it through:
We also expect them to be targets for vandalism in San Francisco and Oakland. After all, it’s basically akin to putting Google Glass on one’s car, or, at the very least, a sign reading “Kick me, I’m the reason your landlord’s evicting you.”
The units are also expensive. ... a Reviver setup will run you $699 for the digital plates, plus about $7 a month in recurring fees. That’s a pretty steep gouge just to trade away what little privacy you have left in exchange for not having to check the mail and place a fiddly little decal on your plate once every 12 months.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
What a backward people you are.
We have one plate, on a car, it stays on that car pretty much for its life.
You then pay "road tax" (not actually true, but that's what it's called by people), online, verified with your recent vehicle test results, that you're insured on the insurance databases etc. and if you fail to do so, any police car with ANPR will flag you as you drive past, certain places (like London's congestion charging zones) will check your plate as you drive through, any traffic warden knows you're not up-to-date, and your car can be towed away.
No stickers. Nothing to "steal" / "forge". No new plates. No chips inside plates. No offline process necessary (but you can still do it in any ordinary post office like for the past 50 years).
I thought America was supposed to be at the forefront of technology and progress?