Hacker News Reader

Comment by wallflower | Hacker News Reader

At least 10 years ago, a friend forgot where he parked his car in the Airport parking lot after a long trip. When he went to the booth embarrassed to tell them this, they said it was no big deal and did a quick tap-tap-tap on the keyboard using his license plate number to determine its exact location. They apparently scanned all the license plates in all their lots twice a day.

View on HN

> They apparently scanned all the license plates in all their lots twice a day.

I'd bet this is to prevent people from claiming they lost their ticket after parking in the garage for a month in order to pay the daily max rate instead of a month's worth of fees.

Yes I have lost my ticket before, and the attendant was able to look up how long my car was parked by the license plate and charge me appropriately

And sometimes they make a mobile app so you can find your car too! With a JSON API so you can find the number plate of every other car in the lot! https://www.troyhunt.com/find-my-car-find-your-car-find/

In 2001 my car was towed from LAX parking lot because they checked the plate (they told me they scan all plates daily) and it came back as registered to a different make.

Turns out the dealer made a single-letter mistake in VIN when registering the car with DMV, and there is no check digit to reject invalid VINs.

There is a check digit. Most likely someone at the dealer copy/pasted the wrong VIN into the form.

Even when you've got a check digit, if you make 100 typos a year only 90 of them will get caught.

>there is no check digit to reject invalid VINs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_identification_number#... ?

In whose interest is it to scan and tow such cars?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com