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Digital License Plates Are Now Allowed in Michigan (theverge.com)
Digital license plates are now allowed in Michigan thanks to a new state law. It will join California and Arizona as one of the few states in the US that allow digital license plates, allowing drivers to register their cars electronically and eschew old-school metal plates. From a report: To be clear, digital license plates consist of displays covered in glass that are mounted onto a frame. They come with their own computer chips and wireless communication systems. Some of the benefits of using digital licenses versus old metal ones are the ability to display Amber alerts or stolen vehicle messages when needed, but they could also make it easier to digitally renew license plates over the years. That comes at a price, though. Currently, they cost $499 for a basic version, and $799 for a premium version that features a GPS navigation add-on.
I'm keeping my license plate analog. If my license plate were to have discrete letters and digits, that would just make it easier for cops to identify me.
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Seems like the ability to always know your location and/or shut off your ability to legally drive if you have unpaid tickets, warrants, or some other infraction is the only real advantage. I am sure banks will use this for people behind in payments too. I see no consumer advantage to this at all, but we get to pay extra for it.
I have yet to see a single coherent argument for digital license plates. They cost a ton, have wireless (means they can be hacked), batteries will die....just so many many reasons. They are totally WORTHLESS for displaying amber alerts. Whichever idiot came up with that should be shitcanned now. You can't read license plates half the time right now because of dirt or covers or - reasons. Now you're what - going to obscur my license plate number and flash different colors? And you think the guy behind me is going to give a shit? Or read it?
I could go on and on. But pretty much everyone agrees this is a horrible idea that has it's roots in yet another way to track people.
Some of the benefits of using digital licenses versus old metal ones are the ability to display Amber alerts or stolen vehicle messages when needed
Not to seem callous but why would I pay (a lot) extra for the ability to display Amber alerts? And there already are pretty good and more affordable solutions for stolen cars.
Currently, they cost $499 for a basic version, and $799 for a premium version that features a GPS navigation add-on.
WTF could these things do that would possibly justify such a price point? I already have GPS in my car and my phone so that's a non-starter, especially given that it wouldn't probably be integrated into the car's infotainment system. If my car gets stolen that's what insurance is for and shockingly my insurance appears cheaper than these things. I'm all for doing things a better way but I don't see any meaningful benefit here.
Keep it simple, old plates last forever, are more durable, can be recycled, and are cheaper. There is no point in changing your license number. This is just stupidly wasteful.
In Belgium you get your license plate once. You take them with you when you get a new car. When you do not need them, you bring em back i.e. drop them off at the post office.
It is just there, so they can check the database. Plenty are 20+ years old. No need to recharge the batteries.
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They are totally WORTHLESS for displaying amber alerts.
Typically, the police are looking for a particular vehicle during an Amber alert.
They idea is not to show that Amber alert on other people's cars. It's to make the target vehicle's license plate blink/flash/otherwise draw attention to the vehicle.
Primary use is for tracking.
Presumably but I don't seem much reason to buy one for that since it doesn't benefit me in the slightest. My phone doing it is bad enough already.
Some countries are considering it to assess road taxes.
Which would be idiotic. Tax fuel (gasoline, diesel, and/or electricity) at appropriate levels and you accomplish the sensible goal of taxing in close accordance with utilization. The bigger the vehicle and the more someone drives the more fuel they will use. Trying to track mileage via a plate is idiotic.
The other reason is to enrich government and its cronies.
Probably closer to the truth.
So all we have to do is get all the kiddie fiddlers to buy $500 plates. Well on second thought, brilliant!
The Amber alert angle is designed to sell the plates to the state government, who would then mandate them on cars. Or as a reason for someone like GM to integrate them into the car for OnStar's "we stop the bad guys" angle.
If they were mandated, presumably the cost would be lower due to the large volume produced. For now, it's a very niche product so it's expensive.
So all we have to do is get all the kiddie fiddlers to buy $500 plates.
So the next obvious step is to mandate all sex offenders registering in the state, must in fact buy these plates... who would vote against that?
Then from there you do felons, then from there anyone who gets arrested for any reason, then from there everyone.
You can see it coming...
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I have yet to see a single coherent argument for digital license plates.
Here's one: The implementation will probably be so shitty they will be hackable by the owner to display whatever you want. I'm sure a certain segment of society could find that useful.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
I think they're trying to be pro-active, and tax on mileage, for when electric cars become predominant, and don't generate gasoline tax revenues.
Taxing mileage is idiotic and needlessly complicated. You can accomplish raising the necessary revenue by taxing electricity in pretty much the same manner you tax gasoline today. Cross reference the registration with the electric bill if you need to know exactly whose car it is to bill properly. The increase in electric use will correspond nicely with the increased use of electric vehicles and you can adjust the rate to the amount needed to maintain the roads properly.
Hell, they're trying to do this already due to the better economy that cars/trucks are getting, that it has caused a decrease in tax revenues already.
Only because we have idiots in elected office who refuse to raise tax rates even when its a good idea. (and yes sometimes raising taxes is the correct policy) You are aware you can change the tax rates right? They aren't set in stone and we can adjust them based on fuel economy if needed. As EVs become more common you can adjust the electric rates as well.
They are totally WORTHLESS for displaying amber alerts.
Typically, the police are looking for a particular vehicle during an Amber alert.
They idea is not to show that Amber alert on other people's cars. It's to make the target vehicle's license plate blink/flash/otherwise draw attention to the vehicle.
That makes no sense -- if that have this remotely accessible device that they can set to flashing mode, why don't they just ask the device to report its location and then the police know exactly where it is, no need to wait on other drivers to report it, or turn them into vigilantes that will try to apprehend the driver themselves.
The registration number on a car here in Europe rarely changes, certainly never is the vast majority of cases. The registration number belongs to the car, and stays with the car for its life.
One of the reasons the number might change is when a car is exported and thus re-registered in another country (e.g. in Ireland it's much cheaper to buy a used car in the UK and import and re-register it than to buy a lower spec used car here).
Another is vanity plates, which aren't available in all countries. I think they still are in the UK, but not in Ireland -- Irish registration numbers have the year of first sale, the county, and a sequential number, so, say 191-D-1234 is the 1234th car registered in Co. Dublin in the first half of 2019 (192 for the second half). It's possible to reserve a number in advance, though, so you could reserve 191-D-80085. That's as close to vanity plates we have. Numbers above 120000 are reserved for imports, so a car originally purchased in the UK in 2010 and re-registered several years later in Ireland would get a 10-D-120000+ registration number. (The 3rd digit attached to the year didn't start until 2013, partly to boost latter-half sales by having 2 "years", and partly to avoid having 13...)
Anyway, a registration plate is about â20 or less. Why would anyone pay â500 or more?
So all we have to do is get all the kiddie fiddlers to buy $500 plates. Well on second thought, brilliant!
Over half of Amber alerts are not "kiddie fiddlers" but a parent on the wrong side of a custody dispute.
I can see that statistic changing quickly: over 90% of people pulled over (at gunpoint, goes without saying) for having a flashing 'Amber Alert' digital plate were on the wrong side of a dispute ... with a hacker.
There was an excellent review by the Evening Standard's Debbie Barham of the cuecat scanner years ago, and the line that stuck out is "it fails to solve a problem which never existed."
That applies here.
Do you have ESP?
So, criminal buys fancy license plate so state knows they've got one.
Uses maker skills (theirs or someone else's) to make plate visually identical (for considerably less money, as the price of this thing is crazy, but anyway...) then programs it to display license number YRT387 as per usual.
But on Tuesday, alters plate number to HFG221. Does crime. Drives off. Alters plate number back to YRT387. Cops are looking for HFG221.
Yes, these are definitely a great idea. /s
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