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Two problems:

1. You've shown the success of OpenALPR isn't perfect, but I'm sure the closed source alternative isn't perfect either. It might be better, but is it $86 million better?

2. If we spent $86 million on developing OpenALPR, it would be an incredible product that everyone could use, without paying so much to the overhead of an executive structure.

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To even begin to answer your question, you'd need to know what the project included besides the software that OpenALPR could theoretically replace. Like how much hardware has it bought? How much of that money went to paying police officers for time spent developing requirements, testing the prototypes, and learning the eventual system? How much of it went to the research needed to develop this system some five years before openALPR was available? How much went to paying the software developers a normal first world wage and benefits for five+ years?

YouTube-encoded video is going to give relatively awful results, no matter what vision software you put it through.

Good cameras, lenses, and camera placement will make or break a project like this.

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