Help me identify license plate on TeslaCam!

[SteveW25561]

Argh, My brand new Model S was backed into by a guy driving a raised pickup truck -- the high bumper caused a big dent in my trunk up high since his bumper is so obnoxiously high.

I'll end up paying for the deductible unless I can identify the license plate, but unfortunately, the side view camera plus the weather (raining) and evening light and video compression makes it very hard to see the plate clearly. If only the rear camera recorded something (a feature in V10 to be released).

I'm crowdsourcing this - I personally think I can make out the first 2 letters as the plate moves (at the 2 second mark), but so as to not bias anyone I won't say what I see. Please take a look at the video and let me know what you think the plate reads!

Unfortunately, I can only embed Youtube (I think) which likely compresses the video more, but hopefully it's still usable!

Thanks for any help!

 

[Alysashley79]

Any chance the building he parked in front of has cameras as well? Sorry I couldn’t see the plate.

 

[meomyo]

WOW what an asshole..he hits you then parks and goes into wherever that place is???? UNREAL!

One day i went to target with my 2004 mr2 spyder and parked pretty far away where no cars were. i came out and my bumper was hanging down and my rear end was hit. Man i was pissed.Luckily the lady left a note on my windscreen with her phone number and her insurance covered it. she backed her TAHOE into my little car. I was lucky.

 

[SteveW25561]

Actually I don’t think he knew it happened. I can see him walking away not even looking at my car. The rain, darkness and my black car along with the huge obnoxious redneck monster car stance probably meant he didn’t even think he hit me.

The raised tires means the bumpers are irrelevant for protection for other vehicles.
I’m irked that in my case ICBC (our insurance provider) will make me pay the deductible since they don’t have positive ID of the offender.

 

[cpa]

Your local constabulary (or whatever you BC'ers call the cops) should be able to identify the vehicle by the first two plates in their auto license database that is linked to the province's registration department. There should not be hundreds of identical makes and models with the first two digits the same.

Failing that, they have to have a technical department that can slow down and enlarge the video clearly enough to get an accurate plate number.

I would make an appointment to go into your local police station.

 

[ElectricTravel]

Your local constabulary (or whatever you BC'ers call the cops) should be able to identify the vehicle by the first two plates in their auto license database that is linked to the province's registration department. There should not be hundreds of identical makes and models with the first two digits the same.

To narrow it down further: From the taillights, you can tell that it is a 2017 or newer Ford F-250 or F-350.

 

[SteveW25561]

Thanks for the tips! I’ll be speaking with the adjuster Monday. Frankly I don’t think they care enough to do the extra work — she claims 2 letters and the vehicle make aren’t enough to make a match but that seems lazy or unrealistic to me, especially when they can also cross reference the image I have of the driver with the drivers license (assuming he’s the driver and owner) plus the fact it’s a raised bed truck - a casual visual confirmation would cinch it!

It’s so unfortunate that I didn’t reinstall my old front & rear dashcam since I was using the Teslacam function, and only last night did the v10 update come in - if it were only a week eserlier, I’d have gotten a great image of that plate!

our police here aren’t interested in spending resources to sort this small thing out, and the $300 deductible makes it tough for me to justify taking the time off to meet with cops etc. It just bugs my sense of justice that they will get away with this and the insurer isn’t interested in pursuing it much further.

 

[SMAlset]

I have read on here that YouTube as you indicated will compress video further. There was one post I read on TMC about a guy driving on the freeway where he thinks a bolt from some other vehicle or on the road flew up and punctured his car. Some people here were able to take the raw video file from his side cam and upload it to I think maybe DropBox and people were able to work better with the images there. Sorry can't tell you what thread it was or which members were able to do their magic but they were able to get frames of the bolt flying through the air so maybe same could be done to help you.

Glad you have insurance but paying the deductible for something like that stings especially when you can see the guy with his pickup truck.

 

[SteveW25561]

Great tip. Hopefully someone can help!! Especially among Tesla owners, I'm hoping we have a guru in image/video processing! My own eyeballs are convinced of the 1st 2 letters and maybe a hint of the last digit, but here's hoping others will chime in!

Here are the raw files:
Initial strike (video ends right when he hits, truck enters frame at 50 secs):
Dropbox - 2019-09-23_19-14-48-left_repeater.mp4 - Simplify your life

Truck pulling into spot: plate is visible but blurry:
Dropbox - 2019-09-23_19-15-48-left_repeater.mp4 - Simplify your life

The license plate format for trucks is
AA-1234
(1st 2 are letters, next 4 are digits)

 

[SeminoleFSU]

I'd love to see someone with video production or video forensic experience provide some pointers. I'm currently battling Walmart over damage one of their 18 wheelers did to our 6ft steel fence in the front yard. I've heard there is software out there that can enhance and clean things up but have never had much luck when I attempted it on my own

 

[gulbrillo]

Have a look:
2019-09-23_19-15-48-left_repeater07_1.mp4
Unfortunately the compression artifacts are dominating the license plate. Rain + darkness makes it even harder to recover anything. Sorry.
The only chance would be an AI algorithm that automatically tracks the 3D coordinates of the license plate based on the position of the back of the truck and then overlays the individual images to extract a higher resolution. (Google does something similar with their Smart Zoom feature on the Pixel phones). But... even if you find a tool that sophisticated, I doubt it would be able to make any sense of the messy video file.

Here are three consecutive screenshots from the above video file just to show how the patterns are 99% just random compression artifacts:

 

[gulbrillo]

Two more things:

1) It's a 2017 Ford Super Duty F-350 (Platinum): 2017 Ford Super Duty F-350 SRW Platinum USED in Aberdeen, WA | Aberdeen Ford Super Duty F-350 SRW | Rich Hartman Five Star Ford Lincoln

2) Just to take even the last bit of hope from you...
I wrote a Matlab script to calculate an 'average' image data of the license plate from 100 still frames. This does get rid of all 'Gaussian' noise and some portion of the artifact. I made sure to use only stills with individual key frames to minimize the impact of the artifacts. While I cannot do image tracking for the close by shot, I was able to use still images from when the car was parked - once with lights on, once with lights off.)

Just so you see how much this method improves image quality, here are two simple individual still frames from the raw video:

And here are the de-noised images. The quality improves dramatically - but it does not help a single bit with the license plate. :/

I'm not even sure if the few lines you see are actually there or just common artifacts from the TeslaCam compression algorithm. :/

 

[gulbrillo]

HA! (!!!)
Two attempts with motion tracking (Adobe After Effects) (only two-dimensional, no correction of perspective).
I think there is some pattern in the noise! (I do not think it's a Beautiful British Columbia license plate.) I am 90% sure it's a Discover BC Parks plate. The Purcell Mountains one to be exact:

This also explains the dark pattern on the images in the post from before (brightness in lower half of the license plate matches the Purcell Mountains). AND, (unfortunately), it explains the first letter (P[?]), which is common for all BC Parks license plates. The next one looks like an F?? and then a 5??? However: How many
- white
- 2017
- Ford Super Duty F-350 (Platinum)
have a Purcell Mountains license plate?

I would try my luck with the police. (PLEASE let me know if they take you seriously. )

 

[SteveW25561]

HA! (!!!)
Two attempts with motion tracking (Adobe After Effects) (only two-dimensional, no correction of perspective).
I think there is some pattern in the noise! (I do not think it's a Beautiful British Columbia license plate.) I am 90% sure it's a Discover BC Parks plate. The Purcell Mountains one to be exact:
View attachment 461678
This also explains the dark pattern on the images in the post from before (brightness in lower half of the license plate matches the Purcell Mountains). AND, (unfortunately), it explains the first letter (P[?]), which is common for all BC Parks license plates. The next one looks like an F?? and then a 5??? However: How many
- white
- 2017
- Ford Super Duty F-350 (Platinum)
have a Purcell Mountains license plate?

I would try my luck with the police. (PLEASE let me know if they take you seriously. )

View attachment 461671 View attachment 461672

Wow that’s really impressive work - I really appreciate the efforts you put into it! A deep dive into our local plate styles!

The second clip has a direct view of the plate as he pulls into the parking spot rather than the oblique view. Not sure if there’s a way to work your magic as it pulls away into the distance but it’s a much more direct view.

Dropbox - 2019-09-23_19-15-48-left_repeater.mp4 - Simplify your life

In a few frames I actually think I can see “FV” and I wonder if the last number is a zero but that one is blurry. I didn’t think of the specialized plates stone I didn’t see the color patterns.

The adjuster tells me they are very careful about these types of things because they don’t want to finger point and get it wrong. They also don’t want to use the resources to check the lead physically especially in a non injury minor case - I’d argue this truck is distinctive in the raised bed and wheels so it seems a no brainer to me but they really act like it’s just easier to make me pay the deductible - this is a public insurance system and they always complain about how they bleed money.

It turns out the body shop is probably just going to replicate the whole trunk - the dent is actually pretty deep and the metal under the rear Tesla chrome bar is actually torn - this isn’t going to be a cheap repair.

 

[gulbrillo]

Wow that’s really impressive work - I really appreciate the efforts you put into it! A deep dive into our local plate styles!

The second clip has a direct view of the plate as he pulls into the parking spot rather than the oblique view. Not sure if there’s a way to work your magic as it pulls away into the distance but it’s a much more direct view.

Dropbox - 2019-09-23_19-15-48-left_repeater.mp4 - Simplify your life

In a few frames I actually think I can see “FV” and I wonder if the last number is a zero but that one is blurry. I didn’t think of the specialized plates stone I didn’t see the color patterns.

The adjuster tells me they are very careful about these types of things because they don’t want to finger point and get it wrong. They also don’t want to use the resources to check the lead physically especially in a non injury minor case - I’d argue this truck is distinctive in the raised bed and wheels so it seems a no brainer to me but they really act like it’s just easier to make me pay the deductible - this is a public insurance system and they always complain about how they bleed money.

It turns out the body shop is probably just going to replicate the whole trunk - the dent is actually pretty deep and the metal under the rear Tesla chrome bar is actually torn - this isn’t going to be a cheap repair.

You need to be very careful with neural net (brain) image / pattern recognition. Humans see patterns everywhere. :/
I tried the one where he is pulling into the parking lot, however, this one requires XY, rotation and zoom tracking. And I could not convince my software to actually make that happen smooth enough. However, I was able to pull this guy the parked car (when it was not moving) - and you can "see" the "FV" in there.

When you overlay the Parks license plate at the correct position (I matched the license plate holes with a stock F350 rear image), it becomes clear that these two characters are the first two.

But that means that = if I'm correct about the Parks license plate = the first letter must be a P(?).

Side-images: I am terribly unsure about the perspective of the side-images. You would need a 3D model of the truck to get that correct. :/ So I cannot say for sure if the visible patterns are in fact the first two characters there.

But again: 2017, white, F350 Platinum, Purcell Mountains license plate. If this comes back with 5 cars, give up. If this is a single match, I'm sure you have him. (I would be as frustrated as you - because it's not right and super unfair - but I understand that the insurance company would not want to investigate. did you try the police directly?)

I need to go to bed.
Good night sir. ^^ And good luck.

 

[SteveW25561]

You need to be very careful with neural net (brain) image / pattern recognition. Humans see patterns everywhere. :/
I tried the one where he is pulling into the parking lot, however, this one requires XY, rotation and zoom tracking. And I could not convince my software to actually make that happen smooth enough. However, I was able to pull this guy the parked car (when it was not moving) - and you can "see" the "FV" in there.

View attachment 461696

When you overlay the Parks license plate at the correct position (I matched the license plate holes with a stock F350 rear image), it becomes clear that these two characters are the first two.

View attachment 461697
But that means that = if I'm correct about the Parks license plate = the first letter must be a P(?).

Side-images: I am terribly unsure about the perspective of the side-images. You would need a 3D model of the truck to get that correct. :/ So I cannot say for sure if the visible patterns are in fact the first two characters there.

But again: 2017, white, F350 Platinum, Purcell Mountains license plate. If this comes back with 5 cars, give up. If this is a single match, I'm sure you have him. (I would be as frustrated as you - because it's not right and super unfair - but I understand that the insurance company would not want to investigate. did you try the police directly?)

I need to go to bed.
Good night sir. ^^ And good luck.

@gulbrillo - Thanks soo much for your efforts. I sent the information you gave to the adjuster but they are very leery about moving forward unless we have more sure images or other reports.

I think the work you did is really cool and a testament to your skills! Thanks for levelling your talents at this!

 

[woof]

PA000A . (Or RA000A) But you said it should start with P.

"Enhanced" with "Sharpen" and "Edges" effects in Pixelmator (MacOS)

EDIT: Ah, I see, I was looking at the version with the example plate overlaid. Sorry!

 

[gulbrillo]

EDIT: Ah, I see, I was looking at the version with the example plate overlaid. Sorry!

yeah!

 

[gulbrillo]

@gulbrillo - Thanks soo much for your efforts. I sent the information you gave to the adjuster but they are very leery about moving forward unless we have more sure images or other reports.

I think the work you did is really cool and a testament to your skills! Thanks for levelling your talents at this!

Now I am as frustrated as you are. ^^ I am absolutely confident that it would be possible to find the car owner with that information... we should open a police department!

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Too bad you didn't have V10 yet, you would have had rear camera video in Sentry. Hope you manage to find this jerk!