Why American License Plates Are Such A Mess - Cheddar Explains

As of 2020, there were some 270 million registered vehicles in the United States, each one adorned with a mandatory license plate or two. And while plates appear standardized within states, when you zoom out to the whole country, the system get well, downright chaotic.

European plates vary by country, but look similar. While that’s certainly less visually interesting, it's a whole lot more effective. Back here in the States, our lack of license plate standardization can cause real headaches.

Further reading:

TIME MAGAZINE

USA TODAY

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[joermnyc]

You missed why: all these special designs and vanity plates are HUGE revenue generators for the state DMV because they charge drivers extra for these options.

[commodorezelda]

Digital licence plates are about the dumbest idea I've ever seen. Even ignoring any security, hacking, or fraud issues, think of how much wear and tear a car gets on the road. Weather conditions, rocks and road debris, collisions--it would be so easy to break! If the casing gets cracked and then it rains or you go through a car wash, boom, your expensive tech is broken. And I'm sure vandals would love to break them for fun. The whole thing is a waste of money and materials.

[mewosh_]

I am from Europe and trying to decode the licence plate and guess where is the driver from is the best road trip game.

[alexdreFalke]

As a European, I've always been fascinated by the beautiful state representation and design philosophy of US liscense platea

[tehsin]

So, as a plate collector I have several issues with this video:
1. Only safety issue about Identifying plate would be not put the same word across state's various plate offering. This can be easily solved by DMV.
2. I do not see any problems having same number or vanity in different states because all state names are clearly labeled on 95% Of US plates. Bigger problem is people cover up state names with plate bracket (Often dealer ads or other association). therefore, harder to identify the state by a regular person. This issue was completely overlooked on the video.
3. Optional plates are huge revenue source for state and respective organizations. Why not support a cause if you can afford.
4. Most plates nowadays goes through testing by state and law enforcements. Chance of them being unreadable is low. Although I believe standardization of fonts (one for embossed and anther for flat plates) across country would makes thing little easier.
5. Optional Plates are only reason to keep plate collecting interesting. Only US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico have multiple graphics plate. Fun to spot and collect (only apply to collectors lol).
6. Digital is a big NO NO as explained in other comments.

[Finkelfunk]

"Hey, you know this metal sheet that perfectly does its job of displaying a simple string of letters and numbers? How about we make this an expensive, fragile electronic gadget for no fucking reason"

[jayayebee]

Digital plates sound like a solution in search of a problem. License plates are exposed to the elements and often damaged during accidents. Who wants a fragile device to replace them? Never mind visibility and security issues.

[iplop]

I'm surprised your video didn't cover the 2016 case of a Mr Tartaro who thought it'd be a good idea to get the custom plate, "NULL"
As it turned out, 'null' is what police around the country commonly input into their system when they're unable to find the plate number for crimes/tickets. Soon enough he ended up facing $12k+ in fines.

[leonhardpauli]

Hey I am Austrian, just wanted to say, that you normally remember at least the country, state and City where a car is from also from quite a distance.
Nevertheless if the police has to identify a car after a crash, or burnt out car how could they possibly do that with a digital plate?

[googleaccount]

I actually like the state specific plate system we have in the US. There’s such a variety of plates makes it interesting to drive and see the different designs.

[JonneBackhaus]

The eu plates arent standardised by size, they vary with country just look at the finnish plates against german ones. Also the numbering and lettering varies a lot from country to country. Ie: finnish plates use xxx-000 and estonian 000 xxx. The only real standard is the countrycode in the plates

[computernerdtechman]

Having a digital license plate would be a boon for criminals. They could use a homemade digital plate where they could change the plate number and state with a touch of a button inside the vehicle, thus avoiding police who are looking for them.

[alexlopez]

And yet cops and traffic cameras have absolutely no problem getting my license plate and giving me tickets

[cussmustard]

The stark contrast between plate designs is beneficial in the north east. When you’re in NY, orange plates are NY, blue is CT, yellow is Jersey, & white is PA. It helps in metro areas that encompass multiple states.

[daugh]

Don't fix something that doesn't need to be fixed. I've never heard anyone have a problem with license plates. People who like to collect cars don't want to have some stupid-looking box on the front or back of their car. But there is a problem with having the same tag on different design plates in the same state.

[stefangherman]

European license plates are standardized for EU members and non-EU members. For example Republic of Moldova license plates are the same size with Romanian license plates. And a license plates in Romania looks for example like this: NT 01 ABC; where NT is the county where is isued from (in this case county of Neamț) and the numer is the order of issuing of letters.

[Blowingmind]

It is true that you can get a myriad of special vanity plates but the vast majority of people just get the default plate the state offers which is usually very readable and understandable just based on the specific color scheme used for that state. I feel like this video kinda made a mountain out of a mole hill as this, to me, is kind of a non-issue. It was a good and interesting video, it's just I disagree that vanity plates cause any types of confusion with the exception for the most niche ones

[Nathaniel_E_Dearing]

A screen for a license plate?!? What domkop though that would be a good idea? Screens are fragile and all too prone to breaking, and furthermore, they don't work without power. Screen plates would make it all too easy to do something illegal. They should just stick to metal plates, they last for decades without fail!

5:08 Just a correction:
Usually it‘s a random collection of letters and numbers (the letters always are first), but you can also choose your own registration, for example „XX 0000“ if still available in the county or city.

[kaiseriv]

My license plate has a silhouette of a surfer dude with an ocean sunset behind him. The rest of the world can keep their boring ass plates but back off mine lmao