So yes, I like some others have the new Digital license plate on my cars. Fun little toy but I discovered it now has new messages such as "Tesla - Made in the USA" and a few others including this one...
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MichaelP90DL
Active Member
PianoAl
Active Member
You have no control over those messages? Might they display ads for boner pills?
jkoya
NA2 NSX
Do they have the ability to display the CAV decal information yet ? I know it was talked about in late 2018 and early 2019, but haven't heard anything since then.
The two shops in my area that were authorized dealers no longer install them...
PianoAl
Active Member
I predict that those will become mandatory at some point. When manufacturing costs come down, I see huge savings for the state. Plus, no more renewal stickers. And the ad revenue!
Agree that eventually the cost will come down, but not sure about mandatory any time soon. If they would allow me to avoid dealing with the dreaded HOV stickers, though, I might be willing to pay up now. But they don't.
ElectricIAC
Good-Natured Rascal
Not sure if anyone has seen these yet, but I wanted to show off my new digital license plate on my M3P. I guess these just got approved to be used in MI last month. We are one of three states where they are allowed. The company told me I was the second person to activate one in MI so far.
I mainly got it because I've always wanted a black and white license plate to go with the black car. In the future you'll be able to change your plate design and text (other than the numbers) through the app, and also renew your tabs through it too which will then be downloaded to your plate.
They are pretty pricey and I guess unnecessary but I thought an electric car could use an electric plate, and I love the look.
I mainly got it because I've always wanted a black and white license plate to go with the black car. In the future you'll be able to change your plate design and text (other than the numbers) through the app, and also renew your tabs through it too which will then be downloaded to your plate.
They are pretty pricey and I guess unnecessary but I thought an electric car could use an electric plate, and I love the look.
It'll probably will not ever get that low, sadly. I suspect a good chunk of the problem is that it has an LTE transmitter in there. I imagine they do that so for the renew functionality (thus, no stickers). I suspect the only way a state DMV would allow these is if it had to be linked to their system; they aren't going to go let anyone just set their expiration date without some gatekeeping. The monthly fee is likely so they can pay whomever they are piggy backing off of for that LTE connection.
A Quectel LTE IOT module is $8 retail in single quantities.
BC65PB-04-STD Quectel | RF/IF and RFID | DigiKey
Order today, ships today. BC65PB-04-STD – Cellular GPRS, GSM, LTE Transceiver Module Antenna Not Included Surface Mount from Quectel. Pricing and Availability on millions of electronic components from Digi-Key Electronics.
Sure, and then there is the other hardware to integrate it with their hardware, and the software to drive it. Also note that the cheapest eInk reader (to which this has been compared) bottoms out around $100 (at least on Amazon), and then they have to work with the various state DMVs to integrate it into their systems. That stuff costs money, and of course there's the mark-up. When I say that the LTE transmitter is a "good chunk of the problem", it is because all that other stuff that comes with it also indirectly but substantially adds to the cost.A Quectel LTE IOT module is $8 retail in single quantities.
BC65PB-04-STD Quectel | RF/IF and RFID | DigiKey
Order today, ships today. BC65PB-04-STD – Cellular GPRS, GSM, LTE Transceiver Module Antenna Not Included Surface Mount from Quectel. Pricing and Availability on millions of electronic components from Digi-Key Electronics.www.digikey.com
As someone that works with electronics like this, the issue is volume.
It would be trivial to do this at $100 if you knew you would sell 25M of them, especially if you got any kind of per year fee for them.
The issue is that you won't sell 25M of them because most people don't care. 10% of people won't spend $100 for something like this. All products start with the user story, and this just doesn't have a strong enough one. $100 for some electronics that will break at some point, vs a aluminum plate that lasts the life of the car all just to not have to stick a sticker on once a year? Plus, the privacy issues of putting tech on your car that can be used to track you or make various enforcement ideas easier.
It's a niche/vanity/luxury product, and products like that carry significant premiums. In fact, that's likely the primary selling point right now, and a lot of people interested in it would become less interested in it as it became cheaper and more common.
But if this was legally required for all cars in CA? It would be $100 in two years, easy.
It would be trivial to do this at $100 if you knew you would sell 25M of them, especially if you got any kind of per year fee for them.
The issue is that you won't sell 25M of them because most people don't care. 10% of people won't spend $100 for something like this. All products start with the user story, and this just doesn't have a strong enough one. $100 for some electronics that will break at some point, vs a aluminum plate that lasts the life of the car all just to not have to stick a sticker on once a year? Plus, the privacy issues of putting tech on your car that can be used to track you or make various enforcement ideas easier.
It's a niche/vanity/luxury product, and products like that carry significant premiums. In fact, that's likely the primary selling point right now, and a lot of people interested in it would become less interested in it as it became cheaper and more common.
But if this was legally required for all cars in CA? It would be $100 in two years, easy.
lUtriaNt
Member
have had one for nearly 3 years now here in CA. good to see them getting approval in other states.
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