Ask HN: Why has no one disrupted the DMV?

3 points·all_usernames··4 comments

After spending three and a half hours waiting to fill out a paper form and paying 20 bucks for the honor, one must reflect: I would surely pay more to not do this.

I know AAA insurance offers some DMV-avoidance benefits, but are there any startups vying to destroy this shameful institution once and for all?

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Our DMV provides a lot of routine services online now. I had to go last year for a vision test. That was the first visit I’d had to make in person in six or seven years. It’s just not that onerous anymore.

I haven’t been to mine in over 10 years. I did go to AAA for registration renewal when I forgot to go through mail. It only took 10 min there. That alone is reason to join AAA.

Around here, every inspection place will let you pay $10 to have them re-register the car with DMV for you, so that you don't have to go there yourself. (New registrations the dealer will do for you, I think, but if you bought it privately, I don't know of any service that will do it for you. I'm not sure that you want there to be, either - you're dealing with a transfer of title, not just a registration; you might not want to trust a third party for that.)

it's a huge pain to call California dmv. In my opinion, email is the easiest way to do support, but they somehow only want you to call them. And the waiting time for a phone call is usually 2 hours!

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