Ford to Offer Digital License Plates
License plates are an ever-present part of our vehicles’ exteriors, but they aren’t always in the best shape and aren’t always visible. Some states have introduced digital license plates as a way to combat poor legibility, and now automakers are jumping on board. Ford and Reviver, a digital license plate manufacturer, have teamed up to install the technology on new vehicles at the dealer.
Reviver’s plates are in use in California, costing drivers several hundred dollars and an annual subscription fee. Ford dealers in states where the plates are approved can install them at the point of sale, or buyers can order the plates online.
Though they come at an extremely high price, digital license plates have several benefits over their analog counterparts. Vehicle owners can renew their registrations online or set up automatic payments to avoid expired plates. Some of the plates come with built-in GPS, helping track stolen vehicles, and some offer drivers a small space for a personalized message.
Beyond the cost, another downside is that the Reviver plates are only for use on the back of vehicles, so drivers in states that require front plates will still be rocking the old-school numbers up front.
Digital plates will likely become more popular as states look for ways to reduce clerical costs and improve road safety. Some have already mandated changes to more legible license plate types, especially in places that get bad weather, as the old-school plates can chip and fade over time.
[Image: Reviver]
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Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
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If government officials, and voters, could, like, read and, like, count and, like, stuff: They'd take the opportunity to replace fixed license numbers, with random publicly available keys derived from a non-public private key known only to them and the vehicle's owner. The plate's displayed number would be undecipherable to every slimeball out there with a plate reader who is selling people's whereabouts and movements, since it would change every day/hour/minute. Yet any cop with a proper warrant and a plate scanner, could decipher it just as easily as today.
To say that this is a a benefit to drivers because plates get old and faded/chipped is ridiculous.
I would take a painted or vinyl covered piece of metal any day as a more reliable solution than a digital plate left in all elements.
Let's see this for what it is. A consumer funded way to track and tax drivers (hence the GPS that they say is there for stolen vehicles, like any crook wouldn't know how to remove it, while every honest person would be left with it tracking them).
In addition, it gives officials a way to remotely invalidate a plate the second it is no longer registered, and then advertising that delinquent status not only to other drivers and passers-by, but also to the authorities.
Taxation and shame. And you get the benefit of paying for your own noose. That's the game here. Nothing else.
"Vehicle owners can renew their registrations online or set up automatic payments to avoid expired plates."
I can do that now with metal plates. My jurisdiction stopped using stickers to show the registration date years ago. When police look up the plate (whether manually or using automated plate readers), it tells them whether it's current or not anyway.
"Some of the plates come with built-in GPS, helping track stolen vehicles,"
Many cars have this built in now, and if not, I can get that in a separate product that costs less, and with more choice in the service provider.
"and some offer drivers a small space for a personalized message."
So... like the metal frame I can put around my metal plate?
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