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Why? Digital License Plates

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1. some drivers want to be as "cool" as possible.
2. it's another way to increase state revenues.
3. thinking things through is not one of our strengths
 
There’s also a safety factor. If the car is stolen the rear plate will display “Stolen”. Can’t do that with a piece of stamped metal.
 
But people won't see "Stolen" if it's removed from the car.

Check out the monthly cost, and the monthly service fee, for the digital plate.

eek
 
So, will prison inmates need a degree in computer science now?
 
NutmegCT said:
But people won't see "Stolen" if it's removed from the car.

Check out the monthly cost, and the monthly service fee, for the digital plate.

eek
Click to expand...
If it’s removed that just means you’ll be pulled over for no plate.
Makes registration easier too. Pay your fee and the current year is displayed.
 
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I don't like it at all. Do you really trust those in charge when they say
"We won't share that information with anybody"?
Most young people are so eager to embrace the latest technology
that they don't question it.
 
Too much faith in "the computer is always right" for me. Too many places for things to go wrong (like accidentally having your car flagged as stolen, your plate cancelled electronically by mistake or software error, get bumped in the car park and instead of just having a bent plate now its illegally unreadable). And the GPS tracking is just completely frightening - will they use that to automatically issue speeding tickets if the GPS says so? Will your insurance company get the GPS logs and try to charge you more because you took a long trip? The GPS says you didn't come to a complete stop at that 4 way?

This could also be a baby step toward starting to charge a per-mile tax on alternative energy vehicles that don't pay the traditional fuel tax (which may be valid but they should be transparent about it). And if you don't pay the monthly service fees to the company operating all that you lose the ability to legally drive your own car (even if your registration is current and valid). Seems like an extra tax being paid to a non-government entity (which answers to stockholders not taxpayers). Really bad ideas all around...
 
Around the St Louis area a missing license plate won’t get you pulled over. That goes for expired temporary tags and regular plates also.
I don’t know the practice in FL.
 
If you bought a car in the last 3 years they already have tracking devices built in. Lots of info sold to insurance companies and others.
Stop at a Dunkin Donut on the way to work?
They know that too and it won’t be long before you’ll start getting coupons on your cars infotainment system.
 
Interesting topic. Most cars these days have "built in" GPS systems, which we usually use to find our way. The DoD's satellite GPS system is obviously keeping track of us - that's how the system works.

But is the GPS system also collecting personal data from our connected smartphones? Is the GPS system also giving/selling our locations, our contact lists, our browser history, etc.? The DoD operates the satellite systems.

Inquiring minds want to know!
 
Gliderman8 said:
If you bought a car in the last 3 years they already have tracking devices built in. Lots of info sold to insurance companies and others.
Stop at a Dunkin Donut on the way to work?
They know that too and it won’t be long before you’ll start getting coupons on your cars infotainment system.
Click to expand...
I won't own a new car, and I like to leave my phone at home.
 
Telemetrics modules transmit data whenever the ignition is switched off. There’s big bucks being made when YOUR data is sold.
I bought a new 2019 car. About a year after I purchased it the manufacturer came out with a software update. When I took it to the dealer I was informed that they could not upgrade the software unless I agreed to having their telemetrics module installed at no-charge first. I declined and subsequently I never got the update.
 
How does that telemetrics data send work? GPS itself is a receive-only system, a basic GPS unit by itself doesn't have the kind of power necessary to transmit data back up to space (and satellite bandwidth is too limited for the satellites themselves to be able to receive information from every car/phone/plane/boat/hiker/golfer/biker etc with a GPS). So there has to be some other mechanism that receives the various telemetry data. Does anyone know what that mechanism is? It would have to be something pretty localized because the size of the units doesn't lend itself to having a high powered transmitter.
 
Here's Verizon's method:

1572380799-how-telematics-works.png
 
Gliderman8 said:
If you bought a car in the last 3 years they already have tracking devices built in. Lots of info sold to insurance companies and others.
Stop at a Dunkin Donut on the way to work?
They know that too and it won’t be long before you’ll start getting coupons on your cars infotainment system.
Click to expand...
What's worse is that your health insurance will ding you for having donuts.
 
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