California RUNS OUT of LICENSE PLATES soon!

[@TwoScoopsofDestroyer]

Allowing the prefix to be a letter would give you 3.6x as many plates. Plenty of time for next to no effort or change.

[@Omalleypike]

That would also make sense from a computing standpoint, as you could follow the hexadecimal system

[@6yjjk]

Have to watch out for four-letter words, though!

[@bbgun061]

Allowing numbers and letters in every position would allow for 78,364,164,096 combinations.

[@RyordanPanter]

just do Letter, Number x3 Letter x3@@bbgun061

[@flinx]

@@bbgun061 last century I figured part of the point for numbers and letters in clumps was making it easier for crime witnesses to remember partial plate info and report to police. I suppose nowadays that's less of an issue with so many cameras around, and criminals driving with no plates or in stolen cars they abandon soon after. Although now California sends phones Amber Alerts for missing children with a vehicle description and the license plate to look out for.

[@swissmediastuff]

Getting cited by the police for waving around a sign stating “The End Is Near” on the Golden Gate Bridge? Now that's what I call dedication!

[@RoadGuyRob]

Not the first police officer who has told me off for media stuff. But when they first stop me, the "oh shoot" butterflies still never fade. It feels like getting pulled over for a speeding ticket.

[@PrograError]

@@RoadGuyRob well at least he's lazy enough for you to just get the heck out of there... ( something paperwork something)

[@michaelmccarthy4615]

I always thought the hi-viz vest gave an official look that allowed some leeway in roadside reporting

[@My_name-is_Skylar_White_yo]

@@RoadGuyRob yeah I've talked to my fair share of cops, they are a curious bunch

[@Tb0n3]

Now that's what I call the first amendment violation.

[@djgraysoundandmusic]

The enforcement officer telling you not to hold up a fake protest sign is San Francisco politics at its finest

[@combusean]

The bridge district is different from the city and has its own rules.

[@tehlaser]

There’s a bit of “use it or lose it” legalism going on here. If the rule is not enforced when it’s a harmless, “fake” joke protest, now you’ve got a world where an offended official drunk on power gets to go “that’s not funny!” any time they like and oops you’re in jail. And if it’s ON CAMERA that it’s not being enforced when it’s funny enough, well, now you’ve got evidence suggesting that the written rules are not the real rules. Of course, the result of all of this being “just be hyper strict and ban everything then, no subtlety allowed, especially when there’s a camera around” is rather unfortunate.

[@SamuraiBonesie]

tbf, the bridge is windy as FUCK! Imagine a sign larger than 2'x3' (or the largest poster board you can purchase at staples) flying across the road, and getting stuck in front of your windscreen while driving on the Golden Gate... not exactly the safest "safe" protest.

[@tyreek.6815]

Buddy. The Constitution literally says you can’t do that shit in areas that will cause chaos. So doing it on one of the most used bridges in the world is fucking dumb as hell💀💀💀

[@lukedstaten]

Just don't hold up a fake protest sign lol

[@joeym5243]

The black background with yellow text was probably the coolest looking classic plate.

[@ネメシス-h1z]

You can still get it

[@XianTC6]

A couple weeks ago I started noticing newer model cars with “9” prefix plates. I wondered what would happen once there were no more plates available and questioned the history of the CA plate’s numbering convention. Today I came across this video. So cool!

[@eaglescout1984]

Hearing that California may have to rethink a 7 digit combination is mind-boggling when you find out Rhode Island switched to 6 digits as late as 1996.

[@comicus01]

I used to be in the military and moved to Delaware in 2001, I had a SUV and got issued a plate with a P over a C symbol on the left, then 5 digits. I did see some 6 digit plats. But I also saw lots of vanity plates that were 4 or 5 letters (on new cars). So it looked like if you wanted a 5 digit plate, you could easily get one.

[@ranchocommodorereef]

That's what happens when a state has a huge population.

[@cathybarber357]

I’ve been pretty obsessed with CA plate combos since I got my license in the 1980s. A great plate I was was 2HYW066. As you see, not a vanity plate.

[@TheFreeBro]

Increasing a plate by a single alphanumeric increases combinations exponentially not linearly

[@SHSPVR]

Just change the prefix to characters, symbol or special characters to continue In total there are 254 characters minus 10 at least you 244 characters and of course there's always the option for barcode license plate

[@ShervinsGarage]

Hey Rob, excellent work. As a a California license plate collector/enthusiast/expert/historian, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I'm currently working on a database of California plate sequences organized by month and year, and I have over 1,000 catalogued so far. I haven't put it online yet, but I plan to soon. I have a few small corrections to add, which are minor but noticeable to sticklers like me: - The first vanity plate was "AMIGO", issued in 1970, not 1972 - The Golden State plates came out in December 1982, not 1980 - The sequences of the seven-digit plates started at 1AAA000, not 1AAA111, and they weren't exhausted all the way through (they ended at 1SWC999)... the later series like "1U" were reserved for specialty plates that came out later, like the Lake Tahoe plates Other than that, fantastic job. My favorite part was the sign waving on the Golden Gate bridge at the beginning. About that: in 2018, I spoke on the phone with a DMV clerk who had 30 years of experience. Her name was Robin, and she was based in Sacramento where these plates are all made. I asked her what was going to happen when we reached 9ZZZ999, and she told me that she didn't know, but that all of the "9" series plates had already been manufactured. That was in 2018! I'm almost certain the DMV actually knows what the next sequence will be by now, but that they're being coy. Robin's theory was that they would flip the characters, which I tend to believe as well. As an aside, I also own several samples, blanks, and prototypes that the DMV never released to the public (I bought them from collectors and estates of former DMV employees). I have downsized my collection by over 100 plates over the past year, but I still think I have too many. Oops. Keep up the great work!

[@Rhaspun]

I don't remember when this had happened. Maybe back in 80s. But for a period of time the license plates were fading very quickly. When the state checked into the problem it turned out the prisoner in charge of painting the plates had finally reached the end of his prison sentence. He left and the new guy apparently was doing something different from the previous prisoner. The state did something to fix the problem.

[@comicus01]

I'm from CA and I bought my current car brand new in July 2017, my license plate begins with: 7Z So I apparently have one of the last before they started issuing plates beginning with an 8. My parents bought a new car 2 or 3 years ago and it begins with an 8. I find it a little hard to believe they would have manufactured all of the 9 series plates before then and put them all into storage. Storing that many plates would be expensive. Sounds like a wild rumor to me. Just simply manufacturing 15,000 a day would keep the prison factory pretty busy. Also, while I can't remember for sure, I think the return address on the envelope containing my plates was the state prison in Folsom.

[@Ducky69247]

You may also note that trucks (including private pickups) use only one letter on the plate, second to last position (As in 99999Z9)

[@stillmoon145]

Was it a Mazda?@@comicus01

[@comicus01]

@@stillmoon145 Which car are you referring to? I have never owned a Mazda, if that answers your question.

[@lifeteen2]

Hi Rob! When you're trying to demonstrate the retro-reflectivity of the plates, remember that it reflects the light back in the direction of the light source. That's why it works when you're sitting right behind your headlights at night. If you want to demonstrate it with your phone like that, put the light right next to the camera lens and turn the light on and off to show the difference.

[@jovetj]

Yup! That's what _retroreflectivity_ means! (He should know that!)

[@AD-tn9rj]

“1ZZZ123” combination type plates have already been used extensively until 2015ish. They’re LIVERY plates for transport buses, limos, TCP vehicles. So we might run out a little sooner than projected.

[@mspears_bobobuddytheseniorcat]

Ever since I was a kid I've always liked to see different license plates and had fun on summer road trips seeing different states designs. The blue with yellow writing was the first California plate I remember and also loved the Golden State design!

[@darkridge]

I've seen a few of the new digital license plates and they are TERRIBLE! They're much less visible in any lighting condition, and in low light situations (like at dusk), they are virtually unreadable (even with the mandatory license plate light). I'd like to say that I had no idea what the lawmakers in Sacramento were thinking when they approved them, but I'm pretty sure it was something along the lines of "Digital good!"

[@txviking]

They were just seeing dollar signs.

[@rocksfire4390]

more along the lines of "money money money money" as with most things that's how things get approved.

[@crherniman]

Not only that, they can remotely deactivate them. No thanks.

[@TheGor54]

To promote crime, of course.

[@josephoberlander]

It could be worse. They could be printed like in Texas. It honestly looks like that it is - plain paper with some sort of coating applied. Basically a laminated sheet of junk. They wear out quiickly from that I hear. Plain back on a white background - looks like a "Fancy" temporary plate. Ick. Nevada tried something similar but went back to stamped plates as they last nearly forever in the heat by comparison.

[@DCAdamB]

My favorite California license plate number is “2GAT123” - used in many Hollywood productions including Modern Family and Curb Your Enthusiasm. That plate number is unassigned in my jurisdiction and I’ve considered paying the vanity fee to get it, but honestly it’s a very obscure reference that (by design) won’t be recognized as anything out of the ordinary by nearly everyone

[@crherniman]

I always laughed at this seeing it on the show "On the case with Paula Zahn" It always the killer/suspect license plate.

[@gavinthecrafter]

Who knows, maybe one day you'll meet one of the... 3 other people who get that reference and have a great conversation about it

[@charley9050]

#4! I saw it on Modern Family and recognized it.​@@gavinthecrafter

[@legatus9081]

The sticker registration is very interesting! Never knew even license plates were taken for the war, they must be very rare nowadays

[@leonb2637]

I think in some states during WW II issued plates made of soybeans or some other non-metal product. Some state of Mexico, besides a metal plate, used to use a sticker to be place on your back window of a vehicle with the license number.

[@bearworldwide101]

Illinois plates in 41 to 49 were some type of cheap wood fiberboard with little tabs since you were only issued one plate for a long time. Wasn't til the 50s til they went back to metal plates.

[@RaymondLin]

Having bought a car recently and getting my plate two weeks ago, I can say that we’re actually already past HJ - my plate is HKV

[@PlutoniumDG]

12:58 good luck remembering the license plate of a hit and run

[@SiY11]

This guys videos are better than anything TV could produce in the same category!

[@indridcold8433]

What, do you not like Kartrashians, Real Housesluts, and here comes HoneyDooDoo?

[@WaLa5262]

Great Video. Love the history of the CALIF plates. The CA commercial plates, which are also issued to regular pickup trucks, just experienced the same thing of running out of combinations a few years ago. They went from 1A12345 to 54321A1. Essentially just flipping the order. They will probably do the same with the current plates for cars and go from 9ZZZ999 to 999ZZZ9 just like you mentioned at the end of the video. The sunrise plate was also my favorite. Great video again!

[@doujinflip]

I'd bet on a flip to 123ABC1 also. Likewise I think the sunset scheme is the best one so far, my old 2XXXnnn car has that type of plate 🌅

[@Bruce12867]

My guess is the next sequence would be A111AAA, which is also a reversal of sorts. This sequence would take almost three times as long to exhaust.

[@repurpbus]

@@Bruce12867 There is talk about not using Q in future road legal plates. Q plates would be used like 555 phone numbers in Hollywood productions. As a police officer, I know when it should be a 0 or O in the sequence.

[@SkyQuest2K8]

@@doujinflip That's the type of flip they did with the commercial plates as seen on pickup trucks.

[@SHSPVR]

@@Bruce12867 With 26 letters I think it'll take away bit longer than that as can just switch symbol or special characters to continue or go the way of barcodes which I doubt they will use this simple fact is it'll be a lot harder to emboss or stamp into a licensed plate that means they will have to switch to some kind of an fool proof electronic license plate which will most likely just get hacked anyway but more than likely by that time we may be in self-driving vehicles of some sort or maybe flying vehicles.

[@RogueNationVideos]

I really love this video, the geeking out, the humour of it -- from one license plate fan to another, thank you so much for turning this "on the spectrum" interest into something so entertaining!

[@parodylover999]

it's such a shame that i'm sure a lot of states probably aren't like oregon , where they have no time limit on renewing decades old plates

[@michael.barlow]

Massachusetts is. The current base has been standard since 1993, before that, the 1978 green-on-white base was still in use. They are still road-valid, and they are coveted, because they were issued as singles, meaning you only need the rear plate, whereas the current base requires a front and rear plate. I have a 5 digit green one on my car and I will hang onto it until they make me take it off. I have a pair with the same number on the current base but I won't put it on until they make me @@parodylover999

[@mr.j6304]

The problem with reflective plates though is that they do not show up on surveillance cameras and traffic cameras sometimes and so you get this reflective material so when you have somebody doing a crime you can't get a proper plate and even computer enhancement doesn't work very well if at all. Run into that all the time with my job with security with license plates in the state I work at. If they didn't put the reflective stuff on any of the plates or made the plates not so shiny the cameras would be able to pick them up a lot better.

[@Cody-Bear]

Doug DeMuro would've been a good person for this video

[@RoadGuyRob]

I don't have any contact info. Haven't met him (yet). Perhaps someday. ("THIS.... is a collaboration")

[@Vehicles-And-Stuff]

I agree.

[@J.C...]

​@@RoadGuyRobBoooooo! that's no excuse 😉. I'm sure you could Google "Doug demuro email" and pull it up lol. But then, I'm not a youtuber so I don't know youtuber etiquette. Can you email someone you don't know and have likely never spoken with and ask them to do a collaboration? Or is that only acceptable to do when you've actually spoken to a person previously?

[@orangejjay]

​@@J.C...Yes. Many KZbinrs have a website to promote their channel and on it is contact information. For larger channels like Doug's, they'll have staff to respond to messages. There's entire production crews that go in to the major channels like Doug's.

[@tmlashomb]

Funny thing is, his Olds Aurora video is directly below this.

[@dawson3089]

Thanks for providing such great content, Rob!

[@karenperry3168]

LOVE this!! My family has been playing "The License Plate Game" for years in CA - keeping track of the most current plate we see and who can get "Leader" status. We've predicted the 7s to 8s to 9s, very fun! FYI our current clubhouse leader is 9HKK, so that beats your J! Thanks for the awesome reporting - Yes, you are a real News Guy!

[@gabesmath105]

i'm in oregon and i'm into it also. we're at P, who knows when Q will show up. i saw an article from 2016 estimating another 20 years to max out, and i'm like nawww, nope. even 10 years is pushing it, in my opinion.

[@friendly_sitie]

I've been confused about license plates for a year now. This video answered all my questions and more. Thanks!

[@orangejjay]

You know it's going to be a good week when Rob releases a video and it's a Monday morning. ❤

[@boggull]

Iceland has already gone through something similar. When the new plates were introduced in the 90's, they consisted of 2 letters and 3 numbers (AA 111). Around 2008 we ran out of combinations, so the combination was changed to 3 letters and 2 numbers (AA A11).

[@jackb1803]

In Oregon, the 6 digit format is AAA 111. And when we ran out of numbers, it changed to 111 AAA. That's 35,152,000 combinations.

[@lzh4950]

Meanwhile when Singapore ran out of license plate combinations for motorcycles & light goods vehicles (

[@Vixtorz]

There are 62 cars in Iceland and 2 pickup trucks.

[@fhdogs]

I was a teenager in California but n the 90s, and after flipping coasts a couple times now live in Nevada. I see 8/9 series California plates regularly, and it shocks me after seeing only 1s as a kid. Makes me feel so old.

[@brentsnocomgaming7813]

Here in Texas license plates are formatted AAA-1111 (note the dash is actually a little Texas) My grandmother got a new car a year ago and it starts with RYG, we may have hit S by now.

[@wildfyr89]

One of my favorite things about your videos is how you show the ways in which these tiny inane bureaucratic decisions made by various government agencies ripple out over decades in our daily lives. So cool! Makes you care more about local government.

[@SeanLamb-I-Am]

I was able to keep the blue plate from my first car. It's one of those 999ZZZ pattern plates. And I still remember the plate number that was on our family's 1977 Econoline, also in the same pattern. We also kept the plate from the last car we drove out of California in 1992, which started with 2R. That was replaced with a Wisconsin collector series plate when we arrived here. Regular Wisconsin plates are now following the ZZZ9999 (three letters and four digits) pattern, with new plates starting with A right now.

[@gabesmath105]

the 3 letter-4 number format offers over 175 million before running out

[@hancocki]

In Ontario, our government issued plates are a sequence of 4 letters and 3 numbers. This has been in place for the last 20?? years since the last sequence (3 numbers and 3 letters) ran out. Literally just yesterday I saw the first plate in this format to start with the letter D. I knew this day would happen. If you think the TN-shaped TN plate is weird, plates in the Northwest Territories are shaped like a polar bear.

[@04smallmj]

Saskatchewan has a Saskatchewan shaped plate (albeit sideways) 😉

[@mjm2203]

I have an old Nunavut plate when they became a territory and they were still polar bear shaped. Always thought those were awesome.

[@legojenn]

Now the Nunavut licence plate looks like a Jackson Pollock painting, though it's supposed to be a polar bear, an Inushuk and the northern lights.@@mjm2203

[@LoveClassicMusic0205]

Didn't Ontario also recently change the color of their plates? I'm from Michigan and have seen only a few of them. Most I have seen are still the old style.

[@04smallmj]

@@LoveClassicMusic0205 They did but messed it up big time because at night they were unreadable. They recalled all the new plates and reverted back to the old design.

[@sainaro2335]

You seem so happy when presenting! It's almost contagious

[@shrimpwithaknife3381]

This may be the happiest "The End Is Near" sign wielding person I've ever seen. Happy to see happy people in California. With all the current problems staying happy is hard. Glad you're doing something you enjoy.

[@Jessassin]

I know it's a small thing, but the animation of the license plate numbers ticking up was really nice. That officer interaction was top notch also, kudos to him. Great video as always man, keep up the good work!

[@notthatcreativewithnames]

Just to boost the algorithm a little bit, license plates in Bangkok, Thailand are in the 1กก1111 format, using 44 Thai alphabets instead of 26 Roman alphabets. Therefore, there would be 44^2 × 10^5 = 193,600,000 plates for Bangkok in theory, compared to 26^3 × 10^4 = 175,760,000 plates for California. Of course, certain letter combinations with "awkward" meanings such as ศพ (corpse) or ตด (fart)​ are omitted. Thanks for poking my nerdy bit, Rob!

[@sion8]

Why just Bangkok?

[@SeanNicholsEh]

@@sion8 Because in every other province Thailand uses the format "กก1111". If that series runs out in a given province, the present solution is to prefix it with another digit, resulting in the format "1กก1111". So far that has only happened in Bangkok.

[@robgronotte1]

Now I really want a personalized plate that reads "CorpseFart". Too bad it won't fit on a US plate.

[@sion8]

@@SeanNicholsEh Huh? Do Thai provinces have unique plates for their jurisdictions instead of a national one?

[@notthatcreativewithnames]

​@@sion8Not really. Thailand is a unitary state, and licence plates are pretty much the same. However, each plate displays the alphanumeric in large letters and the name of the province where the car is registered. There is a Department of Land Transport office in each province where cars can be registered. It is just that Bangkok is so damn big. There are more subtleties regarding Thai license plates. Taxis exclusively use "ทx"​ and "มx" on yellow plates, and some other leading alphabets are also restricted to particular types of land vehicles such as tractors or tuk-tuks. Motorcycles have their own separate series. Buses, some other public transport vehicles, and trucks/lorries have another separate series with just "XX-XXXX" (all digits) and province names. There are even special plates with repeated (such as 5555), palindromic (4224),​ or any "nice" patterns (but not 420 or 69, sorry, maybe 6969 or 6996) that can only be obtained at auctioning events.

[@kstricl]

The Province of British Columbia recently caught up to Cali sequences from the early 70's in the 2010's. Alberta just added an extra digit around the same time and has already gone through the A's and B's and is well through the C's. From an IT process standpoint, I think you've already called it on what Cali will do with swapping the sequence; starting it with a letter should take essentially zero change to the processes already in use, other than setting the system that tracks production of them to begin on "A". On a side note, I would be fascinated to see the actual pressing equipment in use in various jurisdictions.

[@LoveClassicMusic0205]

Some states don't have raised letters anymore. To me, those plates look like they're printed on cardboard. Michigan still has raised letters, but Indiana does not.

[@WerewolfLord]

In BC, we're already up to T in the new sequence A11 1 AA (T6 at least). I suspect the next sequence will be AA1 11A, and I give it a year, 2 tops, to get there.

[@Billquinn25]

Rob, you should check out license plates in Delaware. They have a unique history. Delaware still issues porcelain license plates. License plate numbers can be passed down between generations and vehicles. I've had two vehicles with the same plate number. Plate numbers can also be sold between individuals. Some low-digit plates sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Numbers 1 & 2 are reserved for the Governor and Lieutenant Governor. Check out The Delaware 3000 for more information.

[@brentboswell1294]

When I was a kid in the 1970's-1980's, you could tell what state a car was registered in by the colors of the license plates. Texas, my home state, was boring (black letters on white, unless you had a vanity plate, which had red, green, or blue letters depending on the year that the vanity plates were issued). But now, so many states have plates that have white backgrounds. My note to state DMV's: for the love of God,, choose a color other than white!!! 😢

[@Rocketsong]

Take a look at Arizona's plates. They have a green landscape background. We also have dozens and dozens of "affiliate" plates.

[@brentboswell1294]

@@Rocketsong much as I like Arizona's current plate (only 1 required per vehicle 🙂 ), the 1980's version rocked, with the brown background, white embossed letters, and a Saguaro cactus (also embossed) as the letter/number divider. Arizona also required a front license plate until the mid 1990's 😎

[@TheMrMe1]

Iceland ran out of its AA-123 series around 10 years ago. They subsequently introduced the current AAA-12 series. I wonder what they'll do next

[@nicelogin2]

Here are a few more things to notice about California plates. - #AAA### sequence only applies to personal vehicles. - #####A# and #A##### sequences apply to commercial vehicles. - ####### sequence applies to government vehicles (CA Exempt plates). If you see an umarked vehicle with all numbers, it is more than likely to be an undercover police vehicle. - The 7-digit numbers shouldn't run out soon as long as DMV knows how to utilize every possible sequence. - Californians have a tradtion to scrape off the white areas to avoid camera detections. They usually leave the characters in a perfect condition. This is only possible in California. Oh, and then, there are tons of vehicles without plates running on the streets.

[@suvarnan3743]

Hello Road Guy Rob, my 8 and half years old son is a great fan of yours. He started watching your KZbin channel around 4 years old. We live in Texas and he really wants to meet you in person. Please let us know whenever you visit Texas 😊 Thank you

[@harrymcintosh2940]

California is the only state (so far) to allow people to buy a peel-and-stick license plate from a certified vendor and use it in place of the metal plate. The advantage of this kind of plate is that when used on the front of your car it reduces aerodynamic drag, which save a little bit of gas or electricity.

[@Darkk6969]

I should look this up. Although we should drop the front license plate altogether. I've seen people around CA without it despite law saying they need it.

[@harrymcintosh2940]

@@Darkk6969 The same thing (not having a front plate) happens a lot here in Colorado too. I would lean toward agreeing that we should all drop front plates, but I'm guessing that police would disagree with that, and maybe they could make a reasonable case for it.

[@Rocketsong]

@@harrymcintosh2940 19 states don't use a front plate. So clearly not really necessary. TX may drop their requirement soon, making it 20 states.

[@fitybux4664]

@@Darkk6969 in many (most? all?) states, not having a front plate is a secondary crime. So, never get pulled over for other crimes, and you'll never need a front plate.

[@jul1440]

That's why you have several dozen plate designs each with a different numbering scheme.

[@robbyc408]

I'm in my 40s now... but when I was a kid my brother and I would play a game on "spotting the next sequence" I think we started at 2U. There was always a sense of excitement when we spotted our first 3A, 4A etc... I've continued this game w my kids now and it keeps them somewhat engaged when driving around. Will be exciting to look for whatever the new sequence will be....

[@feliciagrady7220]

We really appreciate the research you that you put into all your videos, to make them informative and interesting!

[@PeyotZET]

That was actually hilarious. Very professional interaction between the both of you.

[@AbyssalTenacity]

I wanna compliments to SFPD for great conduct!

[@andrewb3122]

It is 2:55 AM in Phoenix AZ, I have class in a few hours, great video! It's interesting that California started with a number, WA (where my car is registered) uses the same number/letter sequence but in an AAA#### format that gives them more options before they run out. As far as I know we about midway into the C series.

[@TheKoakuma]

Here in Brazil there was a similar problem (well... not for Brazil but for Argentina that had cars from AAA 001 to ZZZ 999) where we used the AAA-9999 serialization. When Mercosur decided to unify the license plates we swapped to AAA0A00, flipping the second number to its corresponding character, this made the system go from 175M plates up to 456M without the need of changing all plates at once

[@gianluccasimao]

and we got a few interesting possible sequences, such as CUF 0F00, or MEF 0D33 and BAR 6E15

[@TheKoakuma]

@@gianluccasimao mas perdemos outras como o famoso Jeep Rosa GAY-0024

[@luke.415]

better reporting than most news agencies

[@Domthedominator7]

My home state of Massachusetts, the first state to issue license plates, still uses six characters with some combination of 1-3 letters and 3-5 numbers. Passenger plates that aren’t specialty plates always start with a number and commercial plates always start with a letter. The last number in the plate is month of expiration: 1-9= January-September, 0= October. All vanity plates expire in November and all commercial plates expire in December. Finally, green number plates are still valid and there was only a rear plate in those cases.

[@michael.barlow]

Yes, I have a green 5 digit number plate on my car. I'm only 35, but as a reserve number it was available and I requested it from the Special Plates Dept - after buying the green one from someone. Lol. The two red on whites they sent me are on my wall.

[@michael.barlow]

I should add that it does give me a sense of nostalgia - when I got my license in 2005, I had my car under my parents name for the first few years, and so it was a standard issue green in the Lxx series. I had to get reds when we switched to my name, so I was happy when I was able to take the opportunity to both get a low digit number and a green plate again, at the same time.

[@ErinS06]

In my home state, we started at ZZZ-9999 and going backwards. Apparently it's because one of our vanity plate designs started with AAA-1111 and they didn't want to overlap with it or something along that line. Also some fun facts: 1. In Virginia it is still possible to see plates issued in the 70's on cars. There used to be a car in my neighborhood that had the Bicentennial plates from 1976 on their car until about a year ago. I also see the occasional 80s plate on a car or two here. 2. Our plates have been basically the same since the early 1970s, albeit with some font changes, serial changes, and some other minor things. The only major change was the font & serial change in 1993. 3.We have the highest % of people with custom plates, with over 20% of drivers having one, as you can get a custom plate for 15-25 dollars but it's added to your registration so it's yearly.

[@Rocketsong]

AZ is $25 a year, plus a one time $25 when issued. Honestly kind of expensive.

[@JamesOKeefe-US]

So frickin good! Rob you are a presentation master 🤣 Never thought I'd be so interested in DMV activities 🤣🤣🤣

[@ginrummy426]

It brings me great pride knowing a senator representing my hometown is partly responsible for what are plates look like. C-Town 925

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

Since when is that sign "law"/"ordinance" even constitutional?

[@RoadGuyRob]

I'm no attorney. My guess is the bridge is more like a building than a street? For instance, I can protest on a sidewalk outside of a courthouse, but can't protest inside the courthouse. The police officer recommended two or three places adjacent to the bridge I would be OK "protesting" from.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

@@RoadGuyRob: I don't see how a bridge could be considered a "building" instead of a basic road, meaning a limited public forum (the inside of the building) vs. a traditional one (public sidewalk or park) . But thanks for your replies and comment love on this and others of my threads!

[@arjunyg4655]

10th amendment, probably

[@xAciasx]

@@HelloKittyFanMan There are many bridges that aren't roads.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

Which you believe applies in what way(s), @@arjunyg4655?

[@ScottWallace5]

Excellent video as always Rob, and as a lifelong Californian myself, I always thought the license plates were just a random sequence. But what I wish would would happen in 2027 when they runout, is a new license plate design, as I think it's been long overdue (has the current plates been the longest in use so far?). But what would probably actually happen, is they just flip it again...

[@famitory]

sadly for barcode plates they need to be human readible for various reasons, mostly crime reporting.

[@gabesmath105]

that's why i hate the "messy" arrangements of some states like 11A111A or 1A2B1A

[@MrBnsftrain]

My grandfather collected Kansas license plates and hung them on the garage wall. We still have his collection tucked away in our shed attic. Kanas license plates only got stickers beginning in 1976. 1943, 1952, and 1953 were the only years to use metal tabs. Kansas plates were shaped like the state prior to 1956, but when the standard size was adopted, they just made the top right corner the same color as the characters until 1980 In 1988, Kansas plates began using the ABC 123 format until April 2007, when they became 123 ABC. I remember seeing our van's new dark blue plate come in the mail when I was in 1st grade, and that plate has been used on three different vehicles we owned. The plate for my own car was one of the first in Kansas to have a flat, printed serial instead of an embossed one. In late 2023, Kansas moved to the 1234ABC without finishing the alphabet and even skipping O and Q. I'm surprised such a change didn't occur with a new plate design, which will be issued this March. 1975 was the first year of personalized plates in Kansas, but my grandfather didn't have much of those on his wall and no organization or veteran plates except for antique vehicle plates.

[@steshu87]

Thanks for the great informative video! Having worked for the largest corporate fleet vehicle leasing company in North America, I have always been curious what would happen when the sequential order was reaching its limit in California. Maybe you can do another video sometime of a compilation of other states around the country too how had the same issues? Thanks again and producing these great videos!

[@ryanparkhurst5718]

Steshu87 what do you think will happen when California runs out of licence plates in 2027 ?

[@steshu87]

@@ryanparkhurst5718 Thanks for the reply. I think they will go to an eight digit license plate then. To do that, they will have to stack two letters in a smaller font in one character space on the plate. Take a look at some license plates for Maryland currently that do that but only for seven digits.

[@FischerRestoration]

Haha.. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Jack Mendenhall's museum.. Jack was a hoot! Lol I live right down the road use to take my 34 Ford to the "Gas-up" every year back in the late nineties. Good times! Thank you for the video!

[@NoZoDE]

Munich, Germany is currently running out of license plates. In Germany we have the license plate format of [city code] [1/2 letters] [3-4 numbers] The city code "M" for Munich doesn't have much capacity left so now they are trying to give residents the option for the city code "MUC"

[@legojenn]

I love trivial problems and this was a fun video with no relevance to my life. Thanks. Here in Ontario, the province ran out of six digit plate combination in the 1990s so now, we have the weird pattern of four letters and three numbers. It does mean that they'll have licence plate numbers with the same pattern for 200 years, but they have to skip a lot of four-letter words. It would be funny if they didn't. Supposedly, we can move licence plates from car to car, but nobody does because by the time we replace the cars, the lamination on the plates has peeled off. When my dad died, I must have turned in 15 sets of junk plates going back to the 1980s. Hopefully California with nearly three times Ontario's population, can at least get another 75 years of a single pattern if they add a letter. That being said, I don't understand our North American obsession with fancy licence plates. I like how the Europeans do it: plain wide plate with large numbers & letters, and the registration authority is on the left side. This means no mottos or colours other than white or yellow. Also, if the state wants to save money on licence plate costs, just issue one instead of two.

[@jspihlman]

In Maryland when you get rid of your car (sale, scrap, etc.) you have to return your plates to the MVA (our DMV equivalent) and I assumed that meant they could then re-assign those numbers and letters. I could be wrong, but could this not work? Or would it just lead to too many headaches with like mistaken identity, thinking plates are stolen, etc.?

[@Rocketsong]

Last couple of plates I got in AZ only had 6 letters, and we have been on a 7 letter scheme for a decade. We clearly re-use old numbers here.

[@carterpritchard5063]

Hold up you need a permit to protest? That’s seems like a violation of my first amendment right of freedom to protest and freedom of speech and is most definitely unconstitutional

[@nicolaschasteler]

Fun fact from a toll road data analyst: The alphanumerics of license plates is commonly used in toll roads for automatic plate determination and helps filter out incorrect automatic plate results. When California rolled over to starting plates with the number 9 (first one started appearing around 1.5 years ago), some of the older configurations of the violation enforcement system (VES) cameras started rejecting the automatic plate numbers as being an "impossible" which resulted in more images being sent to manual review. Newer systems account for plate sequence changing as the automatic license plate recognition across the whole toll road industry has gotten much more robust with tighter government requirements.

[@fitybux4664]

Lesson: Don't buy an ALPR reading system without a yearly service fee. And guess what, we're not paying that year if the system stops working! 😀

[@Chuck1284-]

C'mon, it's DMV - they won't have ANY idea what they'll do about license plates until they actually run outta numbers. California is where bureaucratic ineptitude & incompetence is it's hallmark.

[@imjody]

Rob, have you spotted any cooler plates than Canada's Northwest Territories, shaped like a polar bear? 😊 That man's collection is awesome!! I can only imagine what he paid for some of those plates. O_O

[@MikeV8652]

The NWT plates still conform to the standard 6" x 12" footprint and standard hole patterns. When Nunavut split off from the NWT as a separate territory in 1999, it also issued polar-bear-shaped plates until 2012, when it moved to a rectangular graphic design.

[@jfwfreo]

Its interesting how they do number plates and registration in various states in the US. Here in Australia, you get one set of number plates that you kept forever, either the standard combination or some personalized option. Registration used to be a sticker that went in the windscreen but with police vehicles now being fitted with cameras that can read number plates automatically and flag anything special (stolen, expired registration or whatever) states have abandoned the window stickers.

[@magnemoe1]

We had stickers for an long time here in Norway to you can still see them on older cars. Plates in Norway follow the car, once you got new plates then you registered the car for an new owner but they dropped that to save money. System is a bit interesting in that plates is AA-ZZ then 5 numbers and letters says who registration station the car was first registered at AA is far to the south and ZZ is north eastern in Finnmark. But you can also select your own starting letters, but you can select your own for an fee so most ZZ are not from Finnmark

[@katrinabryce]

It was the same in the UK. And the window sticker was also abolished a few years back.

[@laurencefraser]

New Zealand still uses the window sticker for registration last I checked, and the plates follow the car as well. wasn't all That many years ago we changed from AA 111 (or was it AA 1111?) to AAA 111 style plates. Vanity plates are a thing too. (also used to use white/silver on black, these days it's black on white. The colour change had nothing to do with the number sequences though, pretty sure it was just a reflectivity thing.) Of course, NZ in its entirity only has around five million inhabitants, so...

[@Dratchev241]

Indiana the number is tied to you so if you get rid of the car and get a new one the plate follows you. unless you request a new plate.

[@Dodozen]

I really like these videos. They feel like TV back in the 2000s.

[@fearsomebeard4290]

I did my part several years ago and ordered the sequential black replica plates for my 3 cars. I get to keep them and move them to any new car I buy.

[@hdhdhdh4944]

In NY the first 3 characters are letters and the last 4 are numbers. That gives you 102,515,625 vehicles that can be registered excluding the custom plates.

[@lynxraide]

simple: break away from the 3 number/3 letter combo. Here in NSW they are running 2-2-2 6 digit plates, like AA00AA, so you could apply the same system

[@nychold]

Barcode license plates seem cool, until you're struck by a car. Then, with the plastic holder, you can't see the number of the car that hit you. Get out of jail free cards for hit-and-run drivers.

[@fmachine86]

I love how you made a California video and then an officer came up and made California California.

[@Zeyev]

1) It wasn't the City and County of San Francisco that told you to stop waving the sign; it was the Golden Gate Bridge Authority. Once years ago, the day before Bay to Breakers,, my running club ran across the bridge and one of the woman was wearing fake buttocks. Yep, the police pulled up and told her she was distracting motorists. We still laugh about it today. 2) Although you mentioned the need for two plates on cars, there is a controversy today. Many new cars, especially EVs, do not have any place for a plate on the front. There are kits available but few use them. IMHO, one solution would be to ditch the front plate (I don't like that choice) and the other would be to join other States in requiring that the dealers figure out a way to mount an ID on the front of the car. Supposedly, the DMV is looking into allowing the services of a company that makes a stick-on facsimile of a plate. Have you looked into this issue before?

[@kjdinoc]

Hysterical. You can rob a convenience store, Nordstrums, LV, etc. and no one cares but carry a sign that's the wrong size and the police show up right away.

[@lourias]

In Texas, my plastic-type sticker was stolen from my plate back in about 1984. I am so glad that Texas now has the yearly registration sticker INSIDE the vehicle. The plate number is printed on that sticker, so one cannot steal it and easily get away with using it on another vehicle.

[@oh2sail]

Oh boy when I saw that “protest” I thought, man, I hope no one crashes. The bridge is VERY narrow and it’s extremely difficult to keep in your lane. The last thing we need while driving it is to see even a brief distraction. Could have caused an accident for sure.

[@chrisg8995]

I always really liked the blue plate with the yellow characters. Wish they’d offer it again.

[@ElonMuckX]

California was running out of DL#’s in the 80’s, so they added a zero behind the first letter in the DL# sequence. Edit: Examples Before - A101010 After - A0101010

[@Davez621]

We had reflective plates here in Australia since 1977 :)

[@RC-fp1tl]

The Cop was so surprised that you were a respectful human being haha! Don’t get too many of those in SF!

[@sweeneylens]

This was so interesting to watch! When you were on the Golden Gate Bridge I immediately thought about film permits. The reason being: I'm planning to visit several national parks for videos I plan to publish and am reaching out to all of them because I learned that film permits are required at certain parks. Hopefully I'll be able to film at each park without any interruptions.

[@eklektek5032]

Wow, they stop a man on a bridge with a sign but don't give a shit about people stealing.

[@Bailey.465]

Typical San Francisco.

[@Delta132]

Honestly I thought this was a TV production, great work!

[@Typical.Anomaly]

Fun thing to do: While stopped at a red light, use a mirror to reflect the sun at the street signs. They'll flicker like crazy and people won't know why.

[@NancyD2]

I haven’t been up there for APPARENTLY longer than I thought, but the DMV is looking FRESH. It’s had a facelift!

[@mudpuddle8805]

With all the people leaving California, there will be many available plate numbers soon, if not now. Fun side note, I purchased a used car from out of state that was pre-smog, 100% stock, 100% legal. California refused to license the vehicle. Thanks California!

[@noelaguirrechavez4462]

Mexico is working on changing the license plates too. Years ago we went from three letters and four numbers, to 3 letters, 3 numbers and one final letter. The way I think it works is that a combination of three letters is assigned to each state, and from then now the final letter changes whenever they run out of combinations of the 6 other positions.

[@johny1220]

Wasn’t expecting a history run tbh, this was actually kinda cool, not really something you think of you know. Well done man!

[@ThatLad685]

Im baffled at the fact that they shut down a protest on public property

[@thecactusman17]

So the current solution is that different vehicle registrations use different plate styles with different combinations of numbers and letters. Private passenger cars are using the number-3 letters- 3 numbers. Commercial vehicles are number-letter-numbers and was recently flipped to numbers-letter-number. Exempt vehicles (police, fire, etc) are just numbers and are reassigned as government vehicles are rotated out of service. The only thing really unusual is that passenger car plates aren't typically reassigned, and that's mostly because a private passenger car is considered a long term investment.

[@volundrfrey896]

The problem with the barcode is that regular people can't record the car that hit and ran them. That's actually the most important part of a license plate.

[@AbrasiveHippo]

road guy rob is the most respectful man in existence lol

[@mikemiller659]

I found a box of 9 sets new CA plates in their envelopes, dumped at my neighborhood dumping area..park ! I brought the box home & called Oakland police & made a report..its late the following day and no visit from OPD yet.

[@mikemiller659]

Update, the OPD did call me @ 2:30am. two days after I called them, leaving a message as I didnt hear the ring. So I drove to the opd. sub station and was told to take the plates to DMV. Even though there were 3 business checks in the box too. So I mailed the checks to the name & address printed on them,And drove to DMV on 85th. Ave Leaving the box of plates at the entrance door way. Surly someone will have brought it indoors calling attention to it. Not taking it home with them.

[@apocalypticpioneers2116]

36 ^ 7 is 78,364,164,096, we'll never run out of plates

[@palladini9718]

Ontario Canada uses a 6-digit plate, newer ones have 7 digits, and they always have letters, a crown, then numbers and we can get vanity plates also

[@erdmannelchen8829]

German License plates are fairly clever as it is very unlikely that they will ever run out. In Germany the format is XYZ AB 9999 where XYZ is an area code which consists of 1-3 letters, then follows a letter code, which can be custom requested consisting of 2 letters followed by up to 4 digits. This allows for 6.7 million licence plates per area (minus some illegal combinations). And not even Berlin, the largest city, has that many inhabitants, only having 3.8 million.

[@rj7855]

The Netherlands ran out several times (14 times to be exact) out of numberplates combinations. They just switch the position of the letters and numbers or add another character. They started with plates with 2 letters followed by 4 numbers When they ran out they switched to 4 numbers and two letters Now it's 3 numbers, 2 letters, 1 number

[@c0d3warrior]

Crazy idea from Europe: Use a prefix or suffix based on the county where the car is registered. It's quite fun to see a license plate from your home town when you're at the other end of the country. 😁

[@Samstercraft77]

can confirm it is quite fun

[@michael.barlow]

Some US states do this where the county is baked into the serial, others have it stamped or a sticker on the bottom. My state, Massachusetts, does not, but normal issue plates are coded by month of expiration. The last numeral is the month regardless of its position. For example, 597 HL4 ends in a 4 expires in April. 1688 RN expires in August. October ends in zero. November is reserved for vanity plates and December is for commercial and motorcycle plates. This allows them to stamp the month into the upper corner of the plate along with the serial, and then you just add a sticker with the expiration year. Kind of a smart system, I guess. @@Samstercraft77

[@anthonyjensen5524]

I love how san fransisco has resources and a cop to stop people from showing signs on a bridge but doesn't do anything about people shitting on the streets in front of children...

[@KeoniPhoenix]

NYS will recirculate plate combinations that go unused for more than 10 years. And its entirely possible to keep really old license plate numbers so if you encounter a license plate in the format AA-111 in New York state, they were issued way back in the 1960s for a short time by the city the car was registered in and lower number combinations are kept in a family by paying the money to keep them as custom vanity plates.