The California pilot program that allowed Granite Bay digital license plate company ReviverMX Inc. to offer its products in the state has been made permanent.
In California, the company has been working under a pilot program the Department of Motor Vehicles started in 2013 to get more connected technology associated with vehicle registration and renewals.
“It affects a lot. It now opens access to how we are able to communicate with the state,” Reviver co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Neville Boston told the Business Journal.
As a pilot program, Reviver had been sharing spreadsheets with the DMV and the California Highway Patrol.
With the permanent status, Reviver can now share data with the state through an application programming interface, or API, which makes the most efficient use of the company’s digital technology.
The change in the state program was a result of the passage of Assembly Bill 984, which was signed by the governor Sept. 29.
The company’s plates can collect data, but that is for the vehicle owner’s use, and it is not shared with the state.
For Reviver, the permanent status is exciting because “it gives us access to everyone in the state. That’s 40 million vehicles,” Boston said.
The company has sold more than 10,000 plates.
Reviver has also gotten approvals completed for its plates for cars sold in Michigan and Arizona. It is also currently approved in Colorado, Georgia and Illinois, but the systems still need to get integrated in those states. Reviver is close to integration in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and its plates are available in Texas for fleet vehicles, Boston said.
The company anticipates that once the largest car-buying states go digital, all the rest will follow, Boston said. “Everybody is interested in going digital.”
Boston said Reviver has set up model legislation for additional states to accept digital plates, and it has set up a law enforcement liaison to work with state police or highway patrols in other states.
The company is also looking at working with countries in the Middle East, which are interested in the technology, he said.
The digital plates make registration updates automatic and digital, which eliminates a lot of paperwork and postage.
Reviver sells its license plates directly to customers, and it also sells them through new car dealerships and to fleet operators.
The digital plates automate annual registration, feature geotracking, and they can display custom messages. The Reviver plate uses a bistable digital screen, which requires no flowing electrical current to show an image.
The RFleet Rplate offers fleet managers real-time vehicle tracking, geofencing, trip logging and speeding alerts. The plates have a mode that flashes "STOLEN" if the vehicle is stolen. And Reviver is adding functionality including automatically paying and tracking bridge and road tolls, which will be software that can be updated to all existing Rplates in the next few months, Boston said.
He declined to disclose the company's revenue.
The 2009 startup moved to Granite Bay from the East Bay in 2020.
Boston has said that he started the company because he thought smart cars should have smart plates. He worked with the DMV and CHP to get the pilot program started.
“I’ve enjoyed working with the state," Boston said. "They have smart people, and they are innovative. California has innovative government."
