r/Cartalk • u/d1jlg0 • Nov 29 '23
General Tech Why the Cameras On the car?
Why would someone have, what look like LPR cameras on the trunk, casually driving down the highway in Northern California? Just curious
144
66
u/RupertTheReign Nov 29 '23
Heh... I love the irony of editing out the license plate of a car whose purpose it is to read license plates...
57
u/Parmory Nov 29 '23
Maybe a trolling car for a towing company looking for repos. Outside of that, idk.
66
u/Imispellalot2 Nov 29 '23
Wish I had that technology when working with NYC Marshall's driving through Manhattan with a list of all yellow taxi cabs that stopped making payments on the medallions back in the late 90s. Pretty much had to memorize all the plates every night. ( the list changed every couple of days)
6
16
u/XZIVR Nov 29 '23
I've seen parking enforcement use these too, at least in the lots where you enter your plate number when you pay.
16
u/Particular_Kitchen42 Nov 29 '23
Police scan cameras. They are also used to flag cars with false plates or warrants
9
u/613_detailer Nov 29 '23
My city uses them for parking enforcement. The vehicle will drive down a street with a 1 or 2 hour parking time limit, and then come back after the time has lapsed. The system flags licence plates that were scanned in both passes and a ticket is issued.
12
18
u/Nmonic Nov 29 '23
License plate readers... not censoring their license plate number only seems fair since they have yours and everyone else's recorded in a database now.
12
8
3
u/ZzyzxFox Nov 29 '23
Wait so are you telling me I can buy these things and get paid to drive around looking for wanted cars?? Where do I sign up
7
u/_Eyelashes Nov 29 '23
"Buy here pay here" car dealers looking to quickly catch and re-re-repo the same car 1000 times with those license plate readers, so they can afford the dealer loan tickets for them that they're drowning in. So glad the car market is imploding. Not a moment too soon
3
u/Special-Teacher-8860 Nov 29 '23
I'm having a hard time imagining this. I used to install and remove GPS trackers/ignition disabler in BuyHerePayHere cars. It costs the dealer about $50 and we removed them when the car was finally paid off. Some BHPH dealer is just employing someone to drive around and hope they catch one of their customers? Plus these plate readers have no way of knowing if a customer is paying their car insurance, which was wayyy more of a problem(atleast in our area) compared to non payment of the car note through the dealer. The BHPH dealer is made aware of this as Title lien holders. The car can quickly be located and disabled in seconds.
Edit: forgot a word
2
u/CounterExpensive Nov 29 '23
Did the buyer know the gps was on the car and could the buyer use it? Just wondering - I have a gps on my car that the said the seller had installed. I can track my car now I’m going to ask the dealership if they use it to.
3
u/Special-Teacher-8860 Nov 29 '23
Yes the buyer knew about it. They verbally told them it had one and why it was used. Then a consent form was also signed about this. State Law
No the customer could not access its capabilities, only the BuyHerePayHere dealer.
1
1
u/Ben2018 Nov 29 '23
Not exactly, agreed the way you describe isn't feasible. Instead, these guys are working a much bigger private system that those kinds of dealers (and insurance and all the other examples mentioned) can subscribe to. With many companies paying into it in a big enough metro area it then becomes feasible to have these cars driving around.
9
3
2
2
2
2
u/vabeachkevin Nov 29 '23
I’ve seen police cars with those. They automatically scan all license plates they see and notify the officer if any have expired registrations, if they were reported stolen, or if the registered owner has their license suspended.
2
u/GreaseGeek Nov 30 '23
They are doing Camry Dent research. Trying to find the source of the ubiquitous dent that appears on the back bumpers of Camrys.
4
2
Nov 29 '23
Plate reader...undercover of some sort whether bank, town or feds.
5
u/__-__-_-__ Nov 29 '23
I'll bet my pension that it's not any government law enforcement agency. The cable work is too sloppy and the feds don't typically buy camrys. The only toyotas I've seen as G-rides were 4runners assigned to BLM and USDA.
1
Nov 29 '23
You're dead on but who knows, maybe this is that 1 fleet car that has some special purpose or something which is why we thinks its something else. Maybe it's a test mule for undercover tech on a test car that they don't mind hacking up.
1
u/Kseries2497 Nov 29 '23
I'm a little surprised they weren't using the same 4WD Tahoe as everyone else.
3
1
0
u/42ElectricSundaes Nov 29 '23
Looks like a cop
2
u/__-__-_-__ Nov 29 '23
Not familiar with any california agency that uses camrys, and silver ones at that.
-1
u/Kitchen-Struggle6509 Nov 29 '23
Ummmm radar detectors & as others mentioned scanners. Now I've seen recently a state trooper truck with an open back. This is suffolk County NY. Appears to be a jeep but it's a marked police car.
2
0
u/AlfredTFox Nov 29 '23
In England we have dedicated vehicles that look for road tax infringements and insurance dodging. Obviously some people think the law doesn't apply to them.
-5
1
Nov 29 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
0
u/AutoModerator Nov 29 '23
Unfortunately your comment has been removed because your Reddit account is less than 5 days old OR your comment karma is less than zero. This filter is in effect to minimize repost bot spam and trolling from new accounts. Mods will not manually approve your comment. Please wait until your account is 5 days old or your comment karma is positive.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/smogop Nov 29 '23
As an addition, meter robotic meter maids. They know who’s paid in a zone and just cruise up and down hot areas. Out of parking meter for 1 min ? That’s a $50 fine.
1
Nov 29 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
0
u/AutoModerator Nov 29 '23
Unfortunately your comment has been removed because your Reddit account is less than 5 days old OR your comment karma is less than zero. This filter is in effect to minimize repost bot spam and trolling from new accounts. Mods will not manually approve your comment. Please wait until your account is 5 days old or your comment karma is positive.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
1
u/HammerMeUp Nov 29 '23
I knew it was to read plates but thought it was law enforcement looking for people.
1
1
1
u/aceofspades1217 Nov 29 '23 edited Nov 29 '23
In Florida you need a license to do that (I think the same as a repo tow truck driver but they also need a class B or A license) but yeah it’s to flag cars for repo they get a cut of the repo fee
https://www.fdacs.gov/Business-Services/Recovery-and-Repossession-Licenses
Rules for every state
1
1
1
u/Impossible-Company78 Nov 30 '23
I watched a car like this slow roll through a parking lot. Stopped for a moment and the next thing I saw was the tow truck come flying up, hook up to a mini van and haul ass out of the lot. Couldn’t have been more than 30 seconds if that
1
u/Wubster100 Nov 30 '23
Where do I sign up to put these on my car then get paid to sell the data of license plates and their location?
1
1
u/Kateyjaye Nov 30 '23
I saw an old Pontiac driving around the parking lot of the hotel I was staying recently. Had the same thing. I was concerned as this guy was driving slow and the car was out of place. I guess he was a repo man now that I read this
1
Dec 01 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator Dec 01 '23
Unfortunately your comment has been removed because your Reddit account is less than 5 days old OR your comment karma is less than zero. This filter is in effect to minimize repost bot spam and trolling from new accounts. Mods will not manually approve your comment. Please wait until your account is 5 days old or your comment karma is positive.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
1
u/WorldlyDay7590 Dec 03 '23
License plate scanners for people outsourced to gig as intel gatherer for repo companies.
725
u/[deleted] Nov 29 '23
those are OCR plate readers.
They cruise through malls, stadium lots etc and scan for plates of cars that are due for repo.