PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — A small design detail on Pennsylvania’s new license plate celebrating America’s 250th birthday is causing big problems for automated plate readers – and headaches for drivers.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission says some plate-reading systems are struggling to distinguish the redesigned zero from the number 8, resulting in a handful of motorists receiving the wrong bill.
“There are some confusions between the number zero and the number eight. This is an issue not only impacting us in the tolling industry, but agencies that use license plate recognition software in other ways,” said Crispin Havener, a communications specialist for the Turnpike Commission.
Kimberly Zera, who works at Conshohocken Auto Tags, said she has already seen customers dealing with misread plates. “I have had a customer come in that someone got the wrong plate reading,” she said.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission says some plate-reading systems are struggling to distinguish the redesigned zero from the number 8.
PennDOT, which issued and designed the new plates, released a statement explaining the reasoning behind the updated characters:
“The new plate design meets PennDOT production and legibility requirements and was developed in consultation with PA State Police (PSP) and the PA Turnpike (PTC). The addition of the slash through the zero was intended to help differentiate between the zero and the letter O, which both the license plate readers (LPR) and human eye have had difficulty differentiating on past registration plates. The use of the zero with a slash was also a best practice recommendation by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) which includes representation from jurisdictions, including law enforcement, across North America.”
The Turnpike Commission is now working to recalibrate its systems and update software to better recognize the new character.
“Unfortunately, it’s not a snap of the finger and it’s fixed. It’s something the machines have to learn and recognize over time,” Havener said.
Officials urge drivers to doublecheck tollbyplate statements and contact the Turnpike Commission if a bill does not match their travel history.
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