A license plate that can be controlled by the authorities, for only $19.95 a month? By Grabthar's Hammer, what a savings!

Where I live they ditched expiration stickers 20 years ago (along with front plates). Maybe they make more sense in places with police that do foot patrols. Whenever a driver gets pulled over the officer punches the plate # into their in vehicle terminal to check registration status. And now an increasing number of police cars are equipped with plate scanners.

ANPRS has been used for years in the UK. A police patrol car computer can constantly scan vehicle plates, query the DVLA records and alert the police in the car to any anomalies. There is also fixed surveillance recording vehicle movements. Very 1984.

With only the occasional mowing-down of children

to be fair, that's ONE bit of 1984 i am ok with, all it's doing is checking if the person is licensed, taxed and insured.

-> all it's doing is checking if the person is licensed, taxed and insured

The person? No. It checks if the car is taxed and there is insurance for it. It does not identify the driver.

But that is not all it is doing. Movements of your vehicle are being kept for how long? It is mass surveillance.

Hello mate (the police rarely say "sir" or "madam" or "miss" these days). Just wondering what you are doing as your car has not been around here before. Mind your effing business.

Never understood places with no front plate requirement, how does that work visiting a place where front plates are required?

Whenever a driver gets pulled over the officer punches the plate # into their in vehicle terminal [face of the driver].

Or gets tasered, or worse

well... so can my metal one? And I doubt the eInk display is really all that robust. And it cannot be read under wide lighting conditions. I just don't get it.

It does seem a lot like a solution looking for a problem...

Your metal plate is clearly unfit for purpose and inadequate; for the very simple reason that someone can't charge you $20+ per month for it.

You're just not thinking in a 21st-century mindset.

Here we go: what's the betting someone figures out a way into these (after all, they're hardly likely to get updates that often) and we find half of the plates in CA start displaying nothing at all....or suitably rude/advertorial messages.

Again, this is putting tech in places just for the sake of it. I can't imagine the license plate needs to change so often that having the ability to vary the display will be a major advantage - certainly not when you look at the cost of having one. Also, e-paper will have issues in the temp range / lighting conditions that a metal plate copes rather well with: this is a problem that didn't need solving, surely.

Boy, I can hardly wait for an opportunity to blank my plate (or have it show some other number) when passing under the ever-increasingly ubiquitous toll roads' license plate readers.

Here in France, the government picked quite a different solution: the plate doesn't change for the lifetime of the vehicle.

That is recent history. You used to have to change the registration every time the car was sold. Or if you moved to another département.

That's been the case in the UK (with a very few exceptional edge cases that I personally have never come across) for as long as I can remember.

"the plate doesn't change for the lifetime of the vehicle.".

I think that is the case in several European countries.

this is 100% normal in most of the civilized world

Some countries make you change plates when you move cities

Here in California, the plate doesn't have to change once issued, unless the vehicle owner decides otherwise. I have cars and trucks that were first registered before I was born that have their original plates on them (in some circles, this increases the value of the vehicle). Likewise, I can choose to get another plate (custom or generic) any time I like. Or, I can pay to have an extra plate in my name, and use it whenever, as long as the DMV is notified appropriately prior to use. In theory, I could have plates that differ according to season, and pay to legally swap them as I see fit. I do not know of anybody doing this.

Most drivers in California only think about their plates once per year, when they put the new validation sticker on the back plate. These new plates only offer one real benefit to the driver ... SHINEY!

They offer many benefits to the company making them, and the politicians getting bribes kickbacks the manufacturing facility built in their district. And to advertisers, of course ... The local news was showing the plates flipping through advertising. Joy.

Personally, I want nothing to do with digital plates. It's only a matter of time before miscreants figure out how to fuck with them. And they will, once there are enough of them about. If they haven't already. It'll hardly be rocket surgery.

I understand some states require you to renew your plates at intervals, but it's hardly a daily hassle. Handy if you want to display a false number, I guess.

It's the modern implementation of the James Bond rotating-numberplate thing that every single driver everywhere has, at some point, fantasized about having.

Would be handy for those annoying car parks with ANPR enforced nazism

I can see a kid hiding a small transmitter to change all the plates passing by to read "I AM BRIAN!".

Or "DRINK REAL ALE!" ... One wonders if the display is scrollable. What OS do they use?

This sounds like a bad idea. How do you keep a person from changing the number on their e-ink plate? The device is in complete control of the end user, even if they use some kind of key to verify operations, this is ripe for exploitation. E-ink doesn't need constant voltage and as far as I know doesn't provide feedback of what is displayed. Just disconnect the screen, 'flash' the display to a fake reg number. Even if there is cryptographic information on the plate, you might be able to selectively flash the screen.

the question is WHY?

Seriously, I know you guys still use measurements from the "dark ages", but why have such a antiquated method of whatever they do.

Heck, even us "behind the times" Brits dumped tax discs several years ago, MOTs have been digital for ages and insurace checking is at most just a click or call away or fully automated for much of the police (ANPR).

Also the line at the end of the article.

It does make an exception for personal cars, though: those can be tracked by employers, but only during business hours and only "if strictly necessary for the performance of the employee's duties."

Why does an employer have any need to track your personal car. Sorry dumb plates are a better idea (this coming from a Brit).

You see, changing our units of measure to the (far superior) Metric system doesn't make money. It would cost us money, so we'll be stuck with a weird archaic system that has little logical reasoning... forever. But make a registration plate that is mostly a novelty because it uses technology, a person can make a buck off that.

The so-called "license plates" exist purely as a revenue generator. The cops don't pay much attention to them, except as a first-glance approximation. What they go by is the vehicle ID number, or VIN.

Our measurement system works fine, for the most part. That's why you lot still use it, too. For example, how many miles would you drive to get that perfect pint, instead of jogging to shed the couple stone you picked up in these sedentary Covid Times?

A license plate you *rent*? No thanks.

For just $20 a month, we'll ensure your plate remains visible.

Isn't that how a protection racket works?

"A license plate you *rent*? No thanks."

All plates that pay a yearly license fee are rented.

For 20 bucks a month...

As as long as whoever is renting this is refered to repeat 3rd grade, then maybe it would work as a stupidity detector and we could get those people the help they need.

I'm out.

I'm looking forward to e-ink numberplates which can change what they display when around speed cameras. BMT216A to 4711-EA-62 to LU6789 in a fraction of a second.

or "; DROP TABLE offenders;--," ?

[1]Mrs Roberts? Is that you?

[1] https://xkcd.com/327

Quote: It does make an exception for personal cars, though: those can be tracked by employers, but only during business hours and only "if strictly necessary for the performance of the employee's duties."

So, *not* personal?

That language is included for people who use their personal cars on company time. It's to ensure the employee is not ripping off the employer on mileage and/or time.

Personally, as an employer, I either trust my employees or I fire them. On the rare occasion that the Government requires an exact accounting, they use a company vehicle. Easier that way.

I'm looking forward to grabbing one of these for a pittance on EBay when the business goes titsup. Quite a nice piece of hacking real estate.

Fondle slabs are a dime a dozen on flea bay. I suspect these things will be delegated to the dustbin of history.

I think the UK is an exception in Europe (may be wrong) whereby trailers must display the reg of the towing vehicle - most/rest of Europe trailers have their own reg. Potentially something like this could work for UK trailer rentals, but at $20/month I think not!

yes, always seemed odd to me as a brit, having trailers with a separate license plate number, it's not a vehicle, it's part of the towing unit

It's not married to the towing unit, trailers can be quite promiscuous and swap towing partners freely.

Not everyone has access to the UK technology of "a bit of cardboard with the tow vehicles number in marker pen"

Is this the modern equivalent of the revolving license plates on Bond cars of old?

Does anyone make an e-ink vinyl wrap for full getaway-car stealth?

I literally have no understanding of what the fuck this is for. you yanks are proper crazy.

All it adds is rental. Whyi isn't it a wireless transponder that suitably equipped roadside and vehicle mounted units can use to identify vehicles without needing ideal viewing conditions?

I can't personally see a use case (from a UK perspective). Is it to stop them having to have prisoners stamp out license plates?

Presumably these can be manufactured by Chinese prisoners at lower cost

The "company" that has a monopoly on the metal licence plates must be gutted.

What's the advantage? Not having to put a sticker on your plate every year? Is that such a task for operators of commercial fleets that they'd rather rent a plate for an extra $20/month? How does the plate get the information that it has been updated, does that happen automatically via 5G or something, or does it require a manual process no less labor intensive than applying a sticker?

Since there is only one supplier of this technology, it sounds like the standard political grift we see everywhere. Just like DeSantis got a big contribution from the guy who operated his massively overpriced kidnapping of asylum seekers from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, no doubt Newsome has received or will receive a huge contribution from the guy who owns this company. $240 per year times the millions of fleet vehicles in California adds up to a big chunk of change towards a future presidential campaign.