It started in 2008, as Neville Boston listened to a friend lament his latest experience with the DMV. That conversation would change the course of Neville’s life—and how drivers interact with the much-reviled Department of Motor Vehicles.
Neville went on to launch a company originally called Smart Plate (later changed to Reviver). Fast-forward to 2015, and the first digital license plate prototype was affixed to an automobile. Unlike other smart technology that never goes beyond the “cool new toy” application, the digital license plate is a true game changer.
“Everything on the automobile has embraced smart technology, even the tires,” says Boston, whose company is based in Granite Bay. “The only thing that hasn’t changed is the license plate. We’ve re-imagined it from a simple piece of metal into a future-proofed connected vehicle platform.”
Think of something like a Kindle in your license plate frame. It’s connected to your cellphone and can update your vehicle registration remotely with no lines, no stickers and no tags. It can communicate Amber alerts and weather and traffic updates, streamline tolling, parking and other services, and even indicate if a vehicle is in autonomous mode. That’s just for starters.
California approved digital license plates in 2016, followed by Arizona, Michigan and Texas, with legislation currently pending in seven other states. Today, there are more than 50,000 digital license plates on the road, and the market is likely to continue growing until, as Boston hopes, digital plates become the new standard.
So what about the name? Why Reviver?
“It’s what we’re doing with this technology: We’re taking something old and reviving it into something new,” Boston says. “It’s also similar to what’s happening in this region with so much innovation. I’m so happy to be building this here.”
