Digital license plates now available as option for Arizona motorists
Arizona drivers now have another option for their license plates, one that the tech savvy will love - electronic digital plates.
The new plate option is called Rplate Digital License Plates. According to the Arizona Department of Transportation, they are LTE wireless connected devices similar to a tablet. The license plate number is constantly displayed, and the technology allows for added messages such as "invalid," "stolen" and other notifications if needed.
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Arizona Drivers Can Now Use Digital License Plates
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:47AM (5 children)
Why would I do anything voluntarily, god forbid even pay for something, that would make it easier for the State to apply force on me?
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:27AM
And pay extra for the version with tracking (though I presume the entry level version has tracking, just not tracking the user can access).
(Score: 1, Disagree) by fakefuck39 on Sunday February 17 2019, @06:49AM (3 children)
0. no need for temp plates, no need for getting plates. you buy a car, register it at the dealer, and drive it off - you're all set.
1. no need to update registration sticker and no way to have yours stolen
2. ability to remotely make the plate say "stolen" if your car gets stolen
3. regular plates are damn ugly and have to be bolted on. this one can be built into the car - looks nicer on a benz.
4. the "apply force" problem is one I have not once encountered in my 40 years of life. exactly what "force" and what use case are you thinking of here?
you don't need to answer that. it'll be some useless potential thing that never happens to anyone, and would probably happen with a regular plate too. just not interested in your ideas.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @07:36PM
what a stupid fucking slave. we're going to remember all you suck ass motherfuckers when this shit starts hitting the fan.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday February 19 2019, @05:43PM (1 child)
1) hacks plate to display license number of local chief of police
2) robs bank, using this for getaway car
3) changes plate back to its original number
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by fakefuck39 on Tuesday February 19 2019, @11:14PM
yep, you're right. hacking the plate is the easiest way to put a different plate number on a car. screwdrivers are a black hole of confusion - which way do I turn that shit - I can never figure it out. and while we're at it, those fucking ATMs at the 7/11. I keep seeing them just spit out money whenever a hacker walks by. and the parking meters w/ that 3g connection - someone keeps charging parking to my car! let's bring back the pole full of quarters! hackers!!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by krishnoid on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:50AM (4 children)
I kind of doubt anyone wants this. Now, I've seen people who've had their license plate's whole left two inches (with the current year registration sticker) tin-snipped off, and a solution for that would be appreciated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:39AM
A tech-savvy person will find a way to hack it.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:23AM (2 children)
I moved to Florida. Inspections were discontinued about a decade ago. Nobody will check to see if you sold the airbags and catalytic converter. You can roll coal. You can mis-aim your headlights. You can cut pit toilets through your seats. You can weld the doors shut, entering and leaving via the windows.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:36AM
Nothing unusual for Floridians.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:43PM
Yeeee-haaaaw!!!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:55AM (14 children)
I can't quite tell from the pictures, do they have blue LEDs? That would explain it.
I did hear some "its good for the planet" type retards bitching about ohhh how so much metal the "old" license places use. As usual, completely ignoring how much non/more difficult-recyclable shit is in these electronic things. The license plates around here have been made from recycled plastic for some time.
Electronically renew you car tag? What? It's not like the REALLY old days where you had to replace your license plate every year. You just put on a little sticker and you are good to go. My current license plate should physically last for at least 20 years. These idiots are basically bolting a tablet computer on to the back of their car in the open elements. That won't last more than a fucking year. Oh, look, were back to square one because progress.
Track if a car is stolen? There have been other ways to do that for ages, usually built in to cars. Flash alternate messages? I think these shitheads should be PAYING drivers to put these on their car because you all know DAMN WELL the real purpose, as always, is to display advertising!
So, aside from giving consumertards a woody from throwing electronics where they don't need to be, what the fuck is the point?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:29AM
I guess the display is an HD display. Whoa boy, it's gonna be fucking awesome when people start hacking these, whether it's an affluent criminal switching plate numbers for a dope deal or some lonely nihilist who wants to configure some hapless sucker's license plate to reading "NIGGERS" . We all know the security for these kinds of things sucks major shit and you wonder how many chunks of gravel they can take before the screen cracks and you're out another $500.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:45AM
FoxNews has the Video Link(Fake). But the Editor, unfortunately, completely re-did this story. The new Digital looks TOTALLY INCREDIBLE in the Video. Except, no color!! youtu.be/1hbt78OC0ho [youtu.be]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:20AM (2 children)
Ohhh, that's easy. Wrap it up in some spin about how citizens benefit or some crap, and then lobby like hell for the sweet government contract to provide one for every vehicle in the state. Considering that is more than likely millions at the low-end (even Rhode Island), so the payday can be immense. Not to mention since this is electronic, you have service and maintenance contracts for the platform. It's attractive because it gives police and marketers the ability to detect consumers movements with a fucking identity beacon.
You've also forgotten some of the other incredibly stupid bullshit considering we have the Internet and databases these days. Why the fuck do you even need to put a registration sticker on in the first place? It's tiny as hell and redundant as fuck. The point of it, is if you exist currently in the state of being registered for that vehicle, not whether or not you have a piece of plastic attached. Now we have LTE connected police cars FFS. Why the hell does a private vehicle need anything electronic or extra? Put a damn QR code on it or something, and then look up all the metadata. Like registration state, is it stolen?, make and model, etc.
The best situation we could have for our privacy is an actual number that has to be read by the police officer into a system. After that, the officer should easily be able to tell if there is anything wrong or illegal driving that particular car before moving on to traffic violation.
Being forced to pay for all the dumb registration bullshit to support the stickers is offensive enough, paying an order of magnitude higher at least for electronics is just a pork project to get the rich richer.
ON TOP OF THAT, add the IoT security nightmare with this bullshit. How many different scenarios of pwnage can you think of? Not to mention becoming invisible for by forging your license plate with false identities. How fucking stupid would it be in 15 years when the infrastructure for water and power was taken out by an organized attack using license plates, blenders, and margarita mixers?
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:55AM (1 child)
The cops already have plenty of beacons. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/05/forget-scanning-license-plates-cops-will-soon-id-you-via-your-roof-rack/ [arstechnica.com]
A small increase in the computer power available to an officer on the highway will enable him to identify your vehicle a dozen different ways, before he ever pulls you over. Body damage, bumper stickers, stick figure families https://ugc-02.cafemomstatic.com/gen/constrain/740/1500/75/2014/06/05/15/4f/is/phcpjw8k6c1.jpg [cafemomstatic.com] and more. A stolen plate is more than obvious when it doesn't match make/model, much less the crumpled fender or the Reese towbar.
(Score: 2) by etherscythe on Sunday February 17 2019, @10:13PM
So in addition to being hard to reverse-engineer, our vehicles will inevitably have to have cosmetic descriptors documented by licensed service technicians to be street legal? Because that's the only way you'll have the database usefully up to date. Not that the criminals won't find a Jiffy Lube patsy to bribe, the way they already do for state inspections.
Burning Man is going to start getting a lot less interesting. Land of the free, indeed - all mired in red tape, and free only in theory.
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:30AM (6 children)
It's not so much tracking a stolen car, as if the car's license plate displays STOLEN in big red letters, the thief isn't going to be able to travel half a dozen blocks without getting cops called on his ass. It's also much easier for cops to identify stolen vehicles, until we get AR goggles that can identify stolen vehicles by license plate recognition in real time.
Of course there are workarounds, but as I understand it, most car theft is opportunistic crime so it's possible that this makes stealing cars much less appealing.
The assumption here is also: police do not have trackers installed in all cars and police do not have trackers installed in the digital license plates either. Presumably the LTE location data would require a warrant in the same way as regular LTE data.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 5, Funny) by SomeGuy on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:08AM (5 children)
Driver: "I'd like to report a stolen car."
Operator: "Ok, what is the license plate number?"
Driver: "The license plate number is S-T-O-L-E-N."
Operator: "Shit, we didn't think this through at all, did we?"
(Score: 1, Touché) by fakefuck39 on Sunday February 17 2019, @06:53AM (3 children)
I don't see your point. you conveniently left out step 0. it's the police, already knowing the car is stolen, sending a signal to it's gps-transmitting radio to make the plate stolen. the only one who didn't think this through at all here is you.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:24PM (2 children)
You make the assumption that the system is set up and working as designed - which, experience shows, is often not the case. You also assume "the police" give a flying fuck. Sometimes you will need to involve people who don't have access to this magic high-tech system.
Not that anything about these digiduhl license plates makes the slightest bit of sense, so we could sit here all day finding holes in the alleged use cases.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:44PM
I bet you could get the cops to care if you hack the plate to flash "DRUGS" in big red letters.
(Score: 0) by fakefuck39 on Monday February 18 2019, @03:27PM
so let me get this straight - you Don't want your license plate to read "stolen" if your car is stolen, because some cops "don't give a flying fuck?" It's not for the cops retard. It's for the robber, who absolutely does not want to drive a car with a plate that says "stolen," and it's for me, who thinks a built-in license plate makes the car look better, and no longer needs to worry about putting a sticker on it every year.
no one cares what you do on your farm tractor. most of the population has demand for this product, as do I, making it a good product.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:03AM
The license plate number is not needed, only the location. The cops will be able to tell which car it is by the license plate obviously. It doesn't even have to be the car the caller saw, the cops may well nab two or three STOLEN cars all at once.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:44AM
TFS doesn't exactly say so, but it implies that the consumertard has control over the messages displayed. Some messages could be useful. "Help, I'm being carjacked" or kidnapped, or similar. "Help, I'm having a heart attack". "Help, my husband's farts are killing me!" "Dim your lights fuckwad!" "Undercover vehicle, don't pull me over 'cause I'm on official business" "My other ride is an F-22" and a myriad of other important/meaningless nonsense.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday February 19 2019, @05:47PM
My state has permanent plates. One plate for the life of the vehicle. If it's older than 11 years, you don't even need to get new stickers. I fail to see how this is a huge envirodisaster compared to a tablet gadget that probably won't much appreciate the environment cars exteriors are exposed to -- heat, cold, wet, salt... and might last 3 years.
Oh, wait, you're supposed to replace the whole car every three years, just like you do a Dell PC. Problem solved!
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:59AM
Which of you clowns ordered this?
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:01AM (1 child)
You can get an iPlate from Apple.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:24AM
The base model is 500 bucks, the pro model is 800 according to the article. The obscene markup for what it is is definitely Apple-certified pricing scheme.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Arik on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:03AM
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If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by coolgopher on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:36AM
I would certainly find it amusing (but I am definitely not condoning, encouraging, suggesting or otherwise instigating such activities) if someone started posting messages on these that drew the attention of law enforcement. You know, fun trendy things like "kids get free candy here", "allah akhbaru", "not a dealer ;)", "cops sux" etc.
Only by making it a serious inconvenience to opt in to this extra tracking can we realistically stave it off universal roll-out.