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But - I'm relieved they're still being stamped.

Shame on all the states that just print them now. Cheapskates.

@TechConnectify Yeah, but look at all the REALLY COOL plates you can get in Arizona now! Seriously, I do think some are awesome and it's an easy way for the state to make money.

Now if only the other states could catch up and get rid of the front plate too!

I'd like to see something replace plates altogether. They have a lot of flaws.

@weiln I disagree so hard on the front plate thing.

Several hit-and-runs get solved every year because the front plate fell off and was left at the scene. I really do not understand the aversion to putting another $1 piece of metal on the front of your car other than aesthetic preferences, and when we're dealing with machines that can kill people aesthetic preferences like that can go eff allllll the way off.

@TechConnectify The one downside I’ve seen with front plates in Portland, because they also have registration stickers, is that they get stolen and re-used as illegal back places on similar-model cars. But that seems like a minor downside and ultimately fixable if the front/rear plates had distinctly different design elements.

@BrianEnigma @TechConnectify The US system for plates is weird. replacement plates or stickers every year? That seems just a bit dumb and backwards. It's all on computer already, so why not deal with it there? You didn't pay this year? They'll already know, and could flag your number.

@fuzzysteve @BrianEnigma I don't know. It seems pretty reasonable to me.

Here, the sticker changes color every year. So when you see a car with a sticker that's two colors old, you know at a glance that driver hasn't renewed their registration. No need to look anything up.

In fact, I would rather have mechanisms like that then require a bunch of cameras and or manual lookups.

@TechConnectify @fuzzysteve @BrianEnigma in the UK car receive a registration plate when it's initially bought. It identifies the car until it's scrapped, unless an owner gets it changed for a vanity plate. Mandatory front and back, front and back are different colours white front, yellow back). As they don't usually need to be removed, anti tamper screws are used. Doesn't stop them being removed, it happens, but I guess makes it harder.

@TechConnectify @fuzzysteve @BrianEnigma Tax and yearly mandatory vehicle testing information stored in databases. Vehicles that aren't taxed need to be declared as off road. Registration information held on cars which must be updated to the new owner when sold. Information such as vehicle colour, make and model also held on the registration database. If you respray the car a different colour, you'd legally need to get the info updated.

Not sure if it's better or worse, maybe just different...

@MWelchUK @fuzzysteve @BrianEnigma personally, I would say that something that exists only in a database doesn't functionally exist.

For many things this doesn't matter. But for something like, say, this car is driving around unregistered and you don't know for sure whether or not the driver of that car should actually be driving that car, having a flag for that that's immediately visible without needing to look something up seems important.

@TechConnectify @fuzzysteve @BrianEnigma Um, enforcement vans have cameras with OCR and a network connection to the database. I believe any officers stopping a suspicious car can call in a check too.

@TechConnectify @fuzzysteve @BrianEnigma there's definitely a very different social acceptance to databases of "things that can kill people" in our countries. Since there's a legal requirement to tax and have vehicles pass a yearly road worthiness test here, I personally have no issue with a database that attempts to make sure all vehicles are complying with the rules in an as efficient way as possible.