Digital license plates are rolling out in California allowing drivers and businesses to benefit from the use of new technologies.
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The Golden State put forward a digital license plate pilot program in Sacramento to determine whether this modern addition delivers greater value than conventional plates.
At a first glance, the modern plate looks like a large tablet that fits your bumper. It has a battery and a computer chip that resembles a designed inspired on the standard CA license plate in its generic form.
It also displays specific vehicle-related information including the vehicle’s identification number (VIN), the vehicle’s registration expiration date, the CA script logo, and a link that takes you to the DMV site.
In addition, drivers can modify the color of the fonts and background, and include messages below the VIN.
Motorists can also drag the registration number to the corner of the plate in order to create a larger message upon discretion.
The digital license plate pilot program keeps making progress
According to the Sacramento Bee, digital license plates offer drivers the opportunity to renew their registration without having to place an sticker on the of the vehicle’s rear license plate.
Similarly, law enforcers can also benefit from this new technology by being able to track a stolen vehicle but, what if an unscrupulous car thieve removes the plate from the vehicle?
It’s a situation to think about before implementation.
The success of digital license plates lays on the great use of technology, which makes it pricey for many users.
Reviver Auto, the California-based firm that created the plates, charges $699 for this innovative device.
I doesn’t include installation costs and the $7 monthly fee every user needs to cover to keep it running. Not to mention that you can only get the device from selected dealerships and cannot be sold at the DMV.
While the pilot program has already started, 11 new auto dealerships have joined the project, receiving permission to sell the digital license plates at their premises.
Those dealerships are located in areas including Sacramento, San Francisco, and in some other areas close to Los Angeles.
The same project will also take place in Arizona, but there’s still not information about its implementation yet.
Will digital license plates provide value to users and companies?
Although this new technology appears to be expensive, Reviver Auto founder argues that such an investment makes sense for certain motorists.
They also confirmed that other companies and local governments are planning to examine the proposal to administer their fleet of vehicles.
When it comes to marketing opportunities, the founder also mentioned that gives businesses a chance to make their brands visible by the use of this plates.
As a matter of fact, Sacramento officials have already purchased 24 digital licenses as part of the pilot testing to adhere them to future testing of autonomous vehicles.
Louis Stewart, the city’s chief innovation officer, commented:
The city envisions using this technology as a way to help the deployment of autonomous cars. If we can actually have a platform for us to see where the cars are operating, how they’re operating, and get reports back about vehicle miles traveled and locations, and we can actually geo-fence certain areas and restrict them to certain areas of the city; that’s how we envision using this plate.”
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