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Will the Digital License Plate become widely adopted?

Is the Digital License Plate, the wave of the future?


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    40
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I just had the new digital Rplate installed on my Model X. You either love it or hate it. The legacy metal license plates have been around for over 100 years and this seems like an evolutionary necessity in our digital world. What do you think?

 
I’m all for them but honestly doubt they will be adopted in the UK and Europe.

The law on use, placement, fonts etc etc here in the UK not to mention we’d need two of them and a set of two normal plates in the UK is about $30usd just don’t see it happening.

I’d love to see them but just don’t see it here
 
Unnecessary complication. Sometimes all you need is a stamped metal plate to display some numbers. Hard to improve upon that. No power required, can’t be hacked, can’t be damaged, extremely cheap, super reliable, etc.

Don’t see an issue with people using it if they wish, like a vanity plate, but can’t see it becoming the standard.
 
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Interesting thread, and idea. I agree with other posters that cost would have to plummet and the system would require being virtually impervious to hacking. The only advantage I can envision now would be enabling the authorities to change expired plate messages to a warning color and/or message stating that fact. Could also be a different color/message for any vehicle reported as stolen. Similarly for silver alerts and other missing persons scenarios.
 
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One reason legislators like the idea of a digital license plate is that they can control what the plate displays. Has your registration expired? Then they can flip a switch and your plate changes to indicate that. Car stolen or are you wanted for questioning? Your plate can be made to turn red to call attention to itself. Hackers can cause all sorts of issues and there's no such thing as unhackable.

There are potential uses, and misuses, of this technology, that are worthy of contemplation and concern. Overall, I'd rather stick with a stamped piece of metal.
 
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I just had the new digital Rplate installed on my Model X. You either love it or hate it. The legacy metal license plates have been around for over 100 years and this seems like an evolutionary necessity in our digital world. What do you think?


I have seen many Hyundai Ioniqs around LA that already have that plate. I wonder if there is some sort of partnership.

Just curious, what do you do for the front plate? Still a regular one or you don't need front if the back is digital?
 
It was the fact that they have access to it at all times and can track and control it that worries me. Yes, technically Tesla is also tracking your driving to some extent, and so is your phone, but it's not directly and it's not the government. I would feel uncomfortable with certain politicians here having that sort of access to my life if they were to get into power.
 
Insurance company hacks among others would love this data.
The "if you have nothing to hide" argument is overused by those easily defeated......don't use it on me. :rolleyes:

Maybe 2025 after they pass a special tax on Tesla owners to pay for everyone else's Rplate. Go CA!!!
 
I voted "no" because: if all the pieces come together to make this viable - cost, security, public perception - then those same pieces mean that there's no need for a visible plate at all.

The "turn the plate red for vehicle of interest" seems fundamentally flawed: it's not hard at all to make something that looks like a plate, say as a cover over the plate that's gone red, so for people who are prepared to put in trivial effort to defeat the system then you need a means to detect cars with the system defeated. For people who haven't defeated the system, you don't need a red plate as the car can simply grind to a halt, or drive along flashing its headlights or somesuch. Indeed, a system that's hooked into the car, even if not tamper-proof, is much better than a plate that goes red: the red plate can trivially be covered (if I go stealing a car for example), while the effort to disconnect an integrated system is at least a deterrent.

No plate at all is a plausible outcome, and certainly no variable plate information (stickers on the plate/plates changed annually etc) is already a reality in the UK: we used to have a licence disc (paper, stuck to the inside of the windscreen) which served the same purpose as annual stickers on the plate used in some other places - allowing a passing police officer/traffic warden/etc to notice cars with outstanding tax or lacking safety inspection. Now, that function is served by ANPR and a database - still needing a plate of course. If all cars were required to report their location then there'd be no need for this and enforcement could just go directly to where the problem cars are.

However, in the UK context at least, plates and ANPR seem to have sneaked into public acceptance in a way that "spy in the car" technology has not. There's long been talk of "road pricing" (something between a toll and a tax based on whether the extent to which you use "busy" roads), but a major objection has been the "spy in the car" box needed to do this. However, there are already an increasing number of places where simple tolls are achieved by ANPR - bridge tolls where conventional tollbooths have been replaced by ANPR and online payment, and things like the London congestion charge. So actually the pieces are already in place for road pricing via ANPR and the public would probably welcome a single national place to register to pay your tolls rather than the multiple independent systems we have now. Once you have that, a few more cameras gets you to almost the level of monitoring offered by the "spy in the car" box having side-stepped the privacy argument.

In a similar way, public transport which used to be entirely anonymous and un-tracked is becoming much less so due to smart ticketing, contactless credit cards used as tickets and similar things - again, the tools of the police state (if that's how you regard them) have sneaked in via the back door.
 
I voted no, that thing is FUGLY, costly, intrusive, requires a monthly subscription and won't be on any of my cars unless the DMV Nazi's demand it. I view this as another TAX, which I am against... frankly they should outsource the DMV to Smart Tag or EZ Pass, and be done with the old tags and go completely digital.

All cars since 1990 have an unique signature that can already track usage, right? Decoding What's Inside Your Car's Black Box | Edmunds and if you have a navigation system a simple subpoena can pull most of the data with today's connected cars. As anyone who has ever worked at an ISP/telecom company can tell you, they get them constantly.
 
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I voted no, that thing is FUGLY, costly, intrusive, requires a monthly subscription and won't be on any of my cars unless the DMV Nazi's demand it. I view this as another TAX, which I am against... frankly they should outsource the DMV to Smart Tag or EZ Pass, and be done with the old tags and go completely digital.

All cars since 1990 have an unique signature that can already track usage, right? Decoding What's Inside Your Car's Black Box | Edmunds and if you have a navigation system a simple subpoena can pull most of the data with today's connected cars. As anyone who has ever worked at an ISP/telecom company can tell you, they get them constantly.

"Black box data is difficult and expensive to get to, and interpreting it takes special training. Extracting the data after an accident involves using a data-retrieval tool kit that consists of hardware, software and a cable that plugs into a car's onboard diagnostics port. That's the same port mechanics use to identify engine problems and insurance companies tap as the basis for use-based insurance policies. Crash data retrieval tool kits aren't cheap, running $2,000-$10,000 and up, not including training costs."

Black box data is a far cry from all of your data being constantly telemetered via radio to central servers where it can be easily and cheaply mined and exploited.
 
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