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Comment by ryan-duve | Hacker News Reader

> The current 9-series configuration, which will end with 9ZZZ999, is projected to end sometime in 2026... The next generation of license plates will flip that structure on its head, moving to a “Numeral Numeral Numeral Alpha Alpha Alpha Numeral” format — such as 000AAA0.

Does anyone know why they care about this structure? Naively, there are 36^7 (minus edge cases) combinations available, which will always be sufficient.

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In addition to the more concrete reasons, abstractly they're getting a bit of extra usage out of the namespace by segmenting it. A 9ZZZ999-type license plate is not just any license plate — it's specifically an ordinary private vehicle (as opposed to a state-owned vehicle or a trailer) that was registered in California between 1980 and 2026, and both of those facts are durably encoded in the number. Notably, both of these are also very human-readable facts, which for most of the existence of the car bureaucracy was extremely germane. The CA DMV got its digital-records act together in the 1990s (this is from memory, it might have been in the Bush years but it certainly wasn't in the '80s and it was a done deal by the Obama era) but there was a long time before that when "just plug it into the DB" was not an option because the DB was a filing cabinet and the query engine was a human digging through it.

So for example the capital O on license plates in California is only distinguished from the zero by being slightly more squarish, the capital G is mostly distinguished from six by six being slightly more smooth and diagonal in its top arc. I and one are a bit further visually, as are B and 8, but it would probably fool a traffic camera that was taking down plates automatically.

In addition, all-numbers-plates, I believe, are reserved by California exempt plates (emergency vehicles, police), and vanity plates are absolutely a thing, much more likely to start and/or end on a letter, so that's why you see numbers at the beginning and end. Like you can kinda see “6EIC023” and say “oh yeah my car looks like an ad for Geico” but because the start and end are numbers it doesn't occur to most people.

All-numbers would be worse not better? That's only 10^7, even if they kept the first one 1-9 and did 26^7,they'd have billions, seems like the obvious solution, but I take it there must be some limitations that make it hard to go there.

The DV (Disabled Veteran) plates are notably all-numerical. They are also issued in order of application.

That’s the primary way you can differentiate them at a glance from the DP (Disabled Person) plates.

Just a little odd fact; I know you meant the more standard plates.

The DMV considers the "DP" at the end of a DV plate to be part of the identifier. So DV123DP, in their database.

I think the DV and DP have implicit prefixes (DV and DP respectively) for when they are referenced or recorded.

I may be wrong, but that’s what get when I see them.

It's easier for memory and verbalization.

So... the headline is BS, and California is just being dumb?

This is not a shock. After moving here, I find that CA's highly-touted "car culture" is pretty retrograde compared to other major metro areas.

Down-modded by flunkie CA administrators.

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