Month: October 2022

If you live in California, you’ll probably be happy to learn you are now legally allowed to put a digital license plate on your car. This becomes possible after the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) approved the use of digital plates. This is the culmination of a process that started in California back in 2013, while digital plates have been allowed in limited numbers in the state since 2018.

This new step granted by the passage of the Motor Vehicle Digital Number Plates bill (AB-984) increases the number of vehicles allowed to use digital plates dramatically. Until now, only 0.5 percent of California’s vehicles were eligible (roughly 175,000 vehicles) but from now on, all 40 million vehicles registered for use in the state will be allowed to legally change their traditional registration plates with digital plates.

Tech firm Reviver is the only provider of digital plates for now and it says about 10,000 vehicles in California have already purchased digital plates. These early adopters were part of a pilot program with the California Highway Patrol evaluating the operational capability and functionality of three digital plates before the statewide implementation.

“Californians are known to be early adopters of emerging innovative technologies. We welcome new opportunities to automate and integrate as many parts of our lives as possible, enabling us to streamline mundane tasks and stay connected. Our cars are no exception,” Neville Boston, Reviver co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, comments. 

Reviver’s RPlate is much more than just a digital plate. The product enables vehicle owners to connect with their vehicles for visual personalization, vehicle location, and security services, including reporting a vehicle as stolen. There are two versions of the product – a battery-powered one with a subscription of $19.95 per month and a hard-wired one, which is currently only available to commercial businesses at $24.95 per month. 

California is not the only state where Reviver’s digital license plates are legal for commercial fleet vehicles. Michigan, Arizona, and Texas also allow fleet vehicles to use digital plates and more than 10 US states are currently in various stages of adoption.

France has an established reputation for being rather strict when it comes to speeding. In 2018, the country implemented privately operated speed camera cars driven not by law enforcement, but by outsourced individuals. Their use has spread since then, and in 2021 these anonymous cars caught more than half a million speeding motorists in France.

Catching that many speeders require many more motorists to be monitored. According to The Connexion, 6.65 million vehicles underwent speed checks, resulting in over 500,000 fines totaling €76 million for 2021. That’s a hefty number, but it’s just 10 percent of the total fines issued for high-speed driving offenses in the country last year.

The actual cars are still government property, but the drivers are employed by a private company and as such, they don’t pull people over. Cameras and infrared tech are used to monitor traffic while the driver travels a predetermined route. The system does all the work, “flashing” a car that is speeding and logging the info for the fine. There’s no indication when vehicles are flashed or cited, and no information is given to the camera car driver. In this case, the person behind the wheel is essentially just driving an unmarked, anonymous speed camera.

Private companies stepping into the realm of law enforcement has long been a controversial subject, especially when money is involved. In this instance, The Connexion explains that drivers and companies are not paid based on citations issued, but on miles traveled and there is a specific limit. Each driver has a route to follow, and they are required to maintain normal speeds during their shift. In theory, this discourages baiting other motorists to speed by slowing down. Camera car drivers can get a hefty fine of their own if caught deliberately speeding up or slowing down to futz with other motorists.

The camera cars are also limited to a maximum of €194,000 in fines per car in one year. However, 450 are presently in use throughout the country, which means the French government allows up to €87.3 million in annual speeding fines to be generated by private companies.