
California poised to implement first electronic license plates - coloneltcb
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/09/california-poised-to-implement-nations-first-electronic-license-plate-program/
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zaroth
Let's play a game called "Interesting Startup Opportunity in Article"...

“Large fleet owners do not have any more efficient process for renewing their
registration than you and I do for one or two cars,” Lites noted. “The talk
has been that the efficiency is to be gained in the fleets and let's start
there.

What market do you target? Enterprise market probably has the most cash on
hand to spend for this kind of service, so go where the money is. But,
enterprise also has a notoriously long and expensive sales cycle. SG&A is
likely to be 60%+ if you go enterprise route.

But is there even a product to sell to the lower-to-mid tier? Is there even a
consumer play in this? Disrupt: Car Registration!

Find the pain, and provide a way to kill it. It's a proven sales technique,
all you need is the _value proposition_.

In the end every idea comes down to answering one question -- will I save you
cost, or will I increase your revenue. The best startups, I have found, drive
revenue.

Everything is a revenue driver to someone, you just have to follow the money.
In this case, you could be a revenue driver to the state if you could actually
prove you increased payments. But now we're creating a startup which is
milking every last dollar and cent in car registration fees from hard working
Americans. WTF, right?

All things considered, it's all about the startup angle. I think the privacy
angle here is just linkbait. Right? right?

~~~
Amadou
_Is there even a consumer play in this? Disrupt: Car Registration! Find the
pain, and provide a way to kill it._

The real value play here (for citizens) would be for government to simply
eliminate the need for registration stickers completely. Nowadays the cops all
know if you are up to date on registration or not because they've got real-
time access to the database on the back-end. There is simply no need for
stickers at all - nobody else cares or needs to know if your registration is
up to date.

Unfortunately, dismantling an obsolete system is not an opportunity for any
one organization to profit.

~~~
ZoF
The stickers aren't mandatory to keep on the vehicle, I leave mine in the
glove box because people in the area have a habit of peeling them off...

I was stopped without registration earlier this year and it wasn't an issue at
all.

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rudedogg
This has to be insanely more expensive than metal plates, and in the event of
a hit and run the plate won't be left behind to ID the driver.

I'm guessing the 20 million they'll save on postage can be put toward the
billions it'll cost to outfit every car in California (there are 33 million
registered) with a display, mobile network connection (that hardware isn't
cheap). So even in fantasy land where these are cheap, lets say $25 a unit it
would cost the state $825,000,000. I'd guess the actual price is closer to
$100 a unit, so almost 4 BILLION DOLLARS.

What a waste of resources. How anyone can think this is a good and cost
effective idea blows my mind.

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wtracy
License plates go right into the middle of the strike zone for inter-vehicle
collisions. Current license plates will survive more compression than the cars
they're attached to, so this currently isn't a problem.

Will these plates survive a 25MPH fender-bender?

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frank_boyd
> In an example shown by a South Carolina vendor, messages such as “STOLEN,”
> “EXPIRED,” or something similar could also be displayed on a license plate.

Letting the government label you in public (someday maybe even whenever they
want and how they want).

What does that concept make you think of?

~~~
malandrew
Just wait until the sex offender's registry promotors see a practice like this
legitimized.

