New Electronic License Plates?

[CenTexMav]

I just read where they are going to start putting electronic license plates on cars....
https://www.motortrend.com/news/ready-700-digital-license-plate/

"Personalized license plates are out; digital license plates are in—at least in Arizona and California, where the technology is currently being tested. Rollouts in Florida and Texas are planned for later this year.

The new e-plates feature a multi functional display that allows the driver to manage vehicle registrations and renewals, access tele-metric information, and here's the best part—add personal messages to their plates. Well, if the California Department of Motor Vehicles approves it.

According to The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento is the first city to test the plates for its vehicle fleet. The electronic plates are sold through auto dealerships, not the DMV, for $699 plus installation costs, and there's a monthly fee of $7.


Reviver Auto is the maker of the 6 x 12-inch plates that also allow fleet managers to track vehicles, log trips, and add targeted marketing messages in the upper right corner of the screen—because we need more advertising in our lives."

.... Not sure I am a fan of this. A $700 fee for a tag? Plus a monthly fee? And the state can add messages to it? Someone tell me this is fake news or from The Onion. Why would dealerships control the license plates? How would that work for private sales of cars? How durable could these be?

wait... I just found this headline.. "Hackers Gained Access to California’s Digital License Plates"
Sounds like things are going to get crazy with license plates.,

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[MostlySafeBear]

As much as I love beneficial technology, digital license plates seem like a solution in search of a problem.

Plus I have a deep hatred of advertising, and go to extreme lengths to remove it from devices I own/use.

A friend of mine has this digital plate, and while I admit that it's neat that he can change the message on it that displays with the tag, that is not worth $7 per month and giving up my vehicle location and trip time/speed data to advertisers.

I will stick with metal license plates.

 

[CenTexMav]

As much as I love beneficial technology, digital license plates seem like a solution in search of a problem.

Plus I have a deep hatred of advertising, and go to extreme lengths to remove it from devices I own/use.

A friend of mine has this digital plate, and while I admit that it's neat that he can change the message on it that displays with the tag, that is not worth $7 per month and giving up my vehicle location and trip time/speed data to advertisers.

I will stick with metal license plates.

I'm just hoping this isn't something someone will try to push into law.

 

[fossil]

lol, if late on your renewal they will flag the cops

 

[Sykopompos]

While the idea of a digital license plate is actually a good idea for things like parking validation, stolen vehicle, etc is a good idea.

The advertising, clock, alerts, etc are all beyond stupid when everyone has a phone that gets alerts or has a clock on it.

Advertising is so the company gets more money which is absolutely greedy as hell along with the price and monthly fee, straight up triple dipping which makes me hope this goes up like a dumpster fire.

As far as functional digital license plate, a basic tft screen is sufficient enough for identification and things like stolen tagging on it, there is no need for telemetric or location data especially for fleet vehicles when simple OBD2 devices are cheaper and more functional.

Seems like a waste of a good business idea to screw yourself over with high manufacturing costs trying to capitalize multiple revenue streams when a basic device would have had large adoption for a solid consistent revenue stream but hey greed.

 

[CenTexMav]

While the idea of a digital license plate is actually a good idea for things like parking validation, stolen vehicle, etc is a good idea.

The advertising, clock, alerts, etc are all beyond stupid when everyone has a phone that gets alerts or has a clock on it.

Advertising is so the company gets more money which is absolutely greedy as hell along with the price and monthly fee, straight up triple dipping which makes me hope this goes up like a dumpster fire.

As far as functional digital license plate, a basic tft screen is sufficient enough for identification and things like stolen tagging on it, there is no need for telemetric or location data especially for fleet vehicles when simple OBD2 devices are cheaper and more functional.

Seems like a waste of a good business idea to screw yourself over with high manufacturing costs trying to capitalize multiple revenue streams when a basic device would have had large adoption for a solid consistent revenue stream but hey greed.

The signs themselves shouldn't be expensive to produce. Think about electronic signs in retail stores. Durability would be a concern. It probably ties into the OBD2 for monitoring. There is no doubt they will be a target for hacking as well. This could make it even easier for third parties to track and push opinions and advertising to you. There are a lot of red flags flapping around these.

 

[Joeneonturbo]

Looks real cool despite the high price tag and monthly fee. Maybe later on they will reduce the cost?

 

[gte105u]

Would love something that ties into vehicle to do away with inspection and help with registration renewal. Don't care much for digital places. Certainly don't care enough for $7/month and $700.

 

[Sykopompos]

The signs themselves shouldn't be expensive to produce. Think about electronic signs in retail stores. Durability would be a concern. It probably ties into the OBD2 for monitoring. There is no doubt they will be a target for hacking as well. This could make it even easier for third parties to track and push opinions and advertising to you. There are a lot of red flags flapping around these.

It's the extra stuff that adds additional costs like gps transponder, tracking, etc.

Added complexity increases cost to produce, increases power consumption, internal parts, etc

Most likely it is not OBD2 since that requires running wires and adds to the cost of customer installing, most likely standalone with battery and solar panel, maybe 12 volt but unlikely since you would want it self contained.

Probably tracks location and speed by gps.

As far as hacking, very likely, having any kind of receiving data like for stolen tags, etc would be ripe for hacking.

I agree that it is nothing but massive red flags, I was saying a more basic version with less complexity and limited function would be a much better option.

I sure would never put one of the ones in the article on my vehicle and definitely would not pay that stupid high price or a monthly fee nor be ok with advertising on it though

 

[CenTexMav]

It's the extra stuff that adds additional costs like gps transponder, tracking, etc.

Added complexity increases cost to produce, increases power consumption, internal parts, etc

Most likely it is not OBD2 since that requires running wires and adds to the cost of customer installing, most likely standalone with battery and solar panel, maybe 12 volt but unlikely since you would want it self contained.

Probably tracks location and speed by gps.

As far as hacking, very likely, having any kind of receiving data like for stolen tags, etc would be ripe for hacking.

I agree that it is nothing but massive red flags, I was saying a more basic version with less complexity and limited function would be a much better option.

I sure would never put one of the ones in the article on my vehicle and definitely would not pay that stupid high price or a monthly fee nor be ok with advertising on it though

The article mentioned it having to be installed.by the dealership. GPS and transponders would be pretty inexpensive to add. Some form or fashion of this idea might be doable.. as it is presented I would stay away from it.

 

[2020 GT500]

I just read where they are going to start putting electronic license plates on cars....
https://www.motortrend.com/news/ready-700-digital-license-plate/

"Personalized license plates are out; digital license plates are in—at least in Arizona and California, where the technology is currently being tested. Rollouts in Florida and Texas are planned for later this year.

The new e-plates feature a multi functional display that allows the driver to manage vehicle registrations and renewals, access tele-metric information, and here's the best part—add personal messages to their plates. Well, if the California Department of Motor Vehicles approves it.

According to The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento is the first city to test the plates for its vehicle fleet. The electronic plates are sold through auto dealerships, not the DMV, for $699 plus installation costs, and there's a monthly fee of $7.


Reviver Auto is the maker of the 6 x 12-inch plates that also allow fleet managers to track vehicles, log trips, and add targeted marketing messages in the upper right corner of the screen—because we need more advertising in our lives."

.... Not sure I am a fan of this. A $700 fee for a tag? Plus a monthly fee? And the state can add messages to it? Someone tell me this is fake news or from The Onion. Why would dealerships control the license plates? How would that work for private sales of cars? How durable could these be?

wait... I just found this headline.. "Hackers Gained Access to California’s Digital License Plates"
Sounds like things are going to get crazy with license plates.,

Just say NO.

 

[Sykopompos]

The article mentioned it having to be installed.by the dealership. GPS and transponders would be pretty inexpensive to add. Some form or fashion of this idea might be doable.. as it is presented I would stay away from it.

Most likely installing a power source and programming the license identification is what the dealer would do unless it is battery powered.

Tapping the OBD2 system beyond the only OBD2 port in a vehicle is more complex then just plugging a universal connector in.

That would be something at the manufacturer level to put specific outputs at license plate mounting points to be feasible for any kind of forced at the state level just because of cost.

Gps transponders are not that cheap, neither is screens, etc the costs add up, sure on a large scale getting a couple basic microprocessors to power things is cheap enough for basic units but for all the functions this has listed you are looking at expensive hardware like SoCs.

If it is battery powered then costs of batteries to keep something that complex running are expensive but I could only see that if that is only there to be charged cause you wouldn't want a license plate to be draining your battery.

I think the device in the article is a hell no.

As far as something of this fashion, something feasible on the cheap for a basic unit could run on something like a atmega, a cheap screen and a small battery with a solar cell could be produced on the cheap with a small scale of $40 in parts a plate, on a large scale though maybe $10 a plate to produce in parts.

Could even set it up to receive data to display stolen tag, registration date, etc since that is pretty low bandwidth.

 

[bbhaag]

C'mon bro these articles are from 2018.....

 

[inthecabin]

Yeah, no… paying a premium so they can track you easier… this is where I say go pound sand…

 

[MostlySafeBear]

C'mon bro these articles are from 2018.....

The bit about the company behind hem being hacked is from January 2023, and though they say that they have patched it, the fact is that a connected plate will always be more vulnerable than a hunk of metal with some characters embossed into it.

https://jalopnik.com/researchers-hacked-californias-digital-license-plates-1849966295

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