Solving Problems that Don't Need to be Solved

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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California is rolling out a digital license plate to take the place of metal license plates on cars. Don't worry though, when it gets stolen, it has a tracking device in it to send out a search party to go find it. And of course that tracking device would never be used by the state to monitor your location. These $700 license plates, will surely be heralded for saving postage however. California still requires two plates on your car, so to bask in all the savings and convenience, you will need to fork out $1400 for both plates, but the savings does not stop there. There is also a $7 monthly service fee. I don't know, but something tells me this is more about tracking vehicles, than about savings and convenience. And of course every little fender bender is apt to leave your car without a plate that can be read as well, but surely you would not be ticketed for no plate while waiting for your new one to show up. But the plates can show advertising while the car is parked, so there's that. Thanks cageymaru.

A company named Reviver Auto makes and sells these R Plate Pro tags. It has yet to be determined who his brother-in-law in the California government is.


Under the pilot program rules, the state can allow up to one-half of 1 percent of the state's 35 million vehicles — or about 175,000 vehicles — to use the plates during the test period.
 
It's also going to spike the cost of e-readers, as CA gobbles up all the panel production to roll out 60 MILLION+ of these things.
 
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This is just a stupid product.

I don't know, but something tells me this is more about tracking vehicles, than about savings and convenience.
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I'd like to think that if it wasn't for the ridiculous pricetag and expense. Unless they're taking the "hey, people will pay to bug their houses, maybe they'll pay for us to track their vehicle" idea.

Who is this marketed for? Rich people that love vanity plates?

Fleet vehicles don't need to update their registrations but once a year, the labor on that is a lot less than the cost of these plates + monthly fees for a fleet even if amortized over a long period.

Heck, the labor on replacing batteries is going to be the same labor as it'd take to put a reg sticker on.
 
Suppose this would conflict with the data privacy plan that is proposed three headlines down?
 
Thinking about this a tad more, but I think a good target market might be the criminal enterprise. Since these use similar tech to a Kindle, you can likely hack one of these (maybe just reuse the screen + your own MCU) so that there's no data/GPS, and you can push plates to it. Create a revolving license plate that changes every time you turn off the vehicle.

At the least, you can screw with the license plate readers at parking structures.


NeghVar said:
Suppose this would conflict with the data privacy plan that is proposed three headlines down?
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It's government, they tend to exempt themselves from such things.
 
kju1 said:
Plus now your license plate can get hacked. Imagine driving along when swat pits your car because it has a plate # and looks like a car that was used to rob a bank...
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or even better.. hack the plate to read

IMADICK

or such
 
0.5% × 35,000,000 × $1400 = $245,000,000 (245 million)
Your CA tax dollars at work...
 
kju1 said:
Plus now your license plate can get hacked. Imagine driving along when swat pits your car because it has a plate # and looks like a car that was used to rob a bank...
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Had a buddy of mine that had a purple 458 with a plate that said GRAPE on black background. One of the guys used electrical tape, and blotted out the G. We were on rally and he got pulled over for doing a buck fifty. The RAPE plate did not go over well.
 
Keep it up CA between this crap, your bullet train to nowhere and a Seattle head tax, pretty soon you won't have a state left to worry about.

You are even putting the state prisoners out of business now.
 
Danny Dawg said:
Keep it up CA between this crap, your bullet train to nowhere and a Seattle head tax, pretty soon you won't have a state left to worry about.

You are even putting the state prisoners out of business now.
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Seattle is in Washington State...
 
Saves me the hassle of this POS plate flipper.. also .. totally less expensive than installing a GPS tracker!

license-plate-flipper.jpg
 
Yep, but you have the liberals in CA state government now looking at the Seattle head tax for applicability in CA.
 
Oh California. Just the other day in the news for doing the right thing. Now you want to make out of state vehicle registration more popular....
 
DigitalGriffin said:
As much as I hate to say this, it's likely true.

Remember the ACA (Obamacare)? There was a rider in there that hotels and resorts had to HAVE those chairs the lift handicap people into the pools. They are known as Hoyer Lift chairs. A basic one is $800 that is all manual. The average one is a couple thousand.

They did a study and found the hoyer lifts after they were installed were used < 1x/year/hotel.

When something smells like bad spending, trace the money back to it's source.
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Clearly one of Obamas friends needed a new car?

I never heard of these...never saw them at any hotel either (yet).
 
Spidey329 said:
Fleet vehicles don't need to update their registrations but once a year, the labor on that is a lot less than the cost of these plates + monthly fees for a fleet even if amortized over a long period.
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California now has a 'Permanent Fleet' program if you have 50 or more vehicles, and stick your name on the left and right side of the vehicle. You get a monthly invoice for registration, and permanent stickers to put on the plates, and it costs an extra $1 per vehicle.

This program is amazingly stupid, I'm going to pay $1400, plus $7/month so my car can show ads when I'm parked? Shouldn't they be paying me?
 
Nimisys said:
CA Dems have been wanting to go to a per mile use tax for a while now. This will allow them to do that. Can't afford it, good. Go take mass transit.
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Isn't this easier to do by requiring odometer readings with the yearly registration, and penalty of death* for lying / manipulating the odometer? Smog checks could record the odometer, if they don't already too.

* Death defined as dieing of boredom while waiting for your appeals to go through.
 
Nimisys said:
CA Dems have been wanting to go to a per mile use tax for a while now. This will allow them to do that. Can't afford it, good. Go take mass transit.
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The tax built into gas prices is the per mile tax. I mean if they want an usage based tax, why not just add more tax to that?
 
M76 said:
The tax built into gas prices is the per mile tax. I mean if they want an usage based tax, why not just add more tax to that?
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Because that would be raising taxes which isn't politically viable. Maybe this is a way to sneak it in the backdoor? hehe I said sneak it in the backdoor.
 
M76 said:
The tax built into gas prices is the per mile tax. I mean if they want an usage based tax, why not just add more tax to that?
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What about all the electric car? All the regulations to car makers to reach a certain high mpg for a reason. Once most cars that still use gas and getting 50+mpg they will drop the milage tax on us every where. It is going to start at something like 2c a mile then slowly raise it. Now they are getting a lot more per gallon. Then will require played like these and wouldn't surprise me if they will run ads on them and still charge insane prices for the plates. while keeping track of you at all times. They going to market as a convince thing like using them for you till pass and stuff and people will fall for it accept it with out a fight.
 
In the video they said one of the goals for this was autonomous vehicle tracking and geofencing of them to specific areas of the city. If they can restrict vehicles to certain zones they can take the next step and keep other vehicles out - all while tracking you and charging you for the privilege.

And driving in CA is bad enough, now people will be distracted and offended by messages/ads popping up on license plates too?
 
kju1 said:
Because that would be raising taxes which isn't politically viable. Maybe this is a way to sneak it in the backdoor? hehe I said sneak it in the backdoor.
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I think raising an existing tax could go down better, than adding a brand new one on top of everything else. Not the mention the additional logistics and costs of collecting it.
 
Nimisys said:
CA Dems have been wanting to go to a per mile use tax for a while now. This will allow them to do that. Can't afford it, good. Go take mass transit.
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This would be an extremely regressive tax - the middle class tend to live much further from their jobs than the wealthy. It's already a tough state to live in, this would crush those in rural areas and people who commute into the large cities.
 
You guys are acting like they are going to force people to use these plates.
READ THE DAMN ARTICLE!
"Motorists who choose to buy the plate can register their vehicles electronically and eliminate the need to physically stick tags on their plates each year. They also may be able to display personal messages — if the DMV decides to allow that."
See the word "CHOOSE" ... god damn you people are getting in an uproar over nothing...

if you don't want it, you don't have to get it.

Why do you kids always bringing politics into situations that are not political. This is not a tax, this is for people who want to be on the cutting edge of technology.
 
I give it 2 maybe 3 months tops before there is a kit to let people change the license plate and disable the tracker. Even animate their message on the license plate when they so choose. And then about 3 months after that before people start going to jail for it. (Specifically impersonating a police officer by having exempt digital plates.)
 
M76 said:
The tax built into gas prices is the per mile tax. I mean if they want an usage based tax, why not just add more tax to that?
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Because at the same time they push fuel efficiency. That means people burn less gas (a good thing) and therefore less taxes to support the infrastructure. Electrics completely avoid it. Many states are considering a mileage based system to offset reducing revenues with gas taxes. That said, They don't need a GPS tracking system to do this. If they are anything like most states, annual inspections record vehicle mileage. They already have this data.
 
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