Readability issue with black license plate

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mrskills

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#314981 5-Jun-2024 05:54

On December last year there are articles by 1news about the black license plates not being readable in the dark.

I am wonder those who have got the black plate recently, does it still have that issue?

And what is the difference in the readability in the dark there are to sliver and white foreground (text) colour on black plates, if any?

This is obviously because I have concern if the people not being able to read my license plate 😉

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#3244573 5-Jun-2024 06:33

AFAIK, pretty sure the usual,”cameras”, parking lot gate cameras have no issue seeing these plates as it was designed to better help these cameras.

you do see a bit of fade when the sun is hitting them… but you can actually see them better than black on white….”more definition”.

i think the initial issue was fixed?

sidefx

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#3244575 5-Jun-2024 06:57

I'm mildly curious about this too, as I randomly saw one a couple of nights ago which was completely unreadable with the angle my headlights were hitting it. I'm sure cameras have no issue reading them but sometimes people might also need to read them...? The car I saw it on was parked though so maybe it would have been better with rear lamp on it.

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#3244578 5-Jun-2024 07:13

@sidefx I was right behind a Toyota Prius Friday night coming over Auckland harbour bridge and I could hardly read the number plate. I thought it had some film over the plate to make it very difficult to read

To make out the number plate on the Prius I had to tailgate the car for a few seconds and I was thinking surely the film over the number plate must be illegal

Then between Auckland Harbour bridge and Greenhithe I saw another 2 x vehicles with the same thing - extremely difficult number plates to read 100% the same style plate as on the Prius

How can these plates be legal??

Linux

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#3244588 5-Jun-2024 07:41

Goosey:

AFAIK, pretty sure the usual,”cameras”, parking lot gate cameras have no issue seeing these plates as it was designed to better help these cameras.

you do see a bit of fade when the sun is hitting them… but you can actually see them better than black on white….”more definition”.

i think the initial issue was fixed?

@Goosey Have you seen the newly issued plates at night? I saw them for the first time last Friday night

Batman

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#3244589 5-Jun-2024 07:42

mrskills:

On December last year there are articles by 1news about the black license plates not being readable in the dark.

I am wonder those who have got the black plate recently, does it still have that issue?

And what is the difference in the readability in the dark there are to sliver and white foreground (text) colour on black plates, if any?

This is obviously because I have concern if the people not being able to read my license plate 😉

didn't the article say they were changing the silver ones to make them more readable?

is the change is still not good enough i wonder?

looks perfectly readable to me in daytime. not sure about night time

Asteros

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#3244590 5-Jun-2024 07:43

I have come across this issue recently as well. At night, the silver letter/number on black plate is basically unreadable. The white letter/number on black plate is much better.

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#3244592 5-Jun-2024 07:44

@batman see my post above - You can't read them unless you tailgate the vehicle and then they are a struggle to read and my vision is quite good

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JPNZ

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#3244605 5-Jun-2024 08:09

The black and silver does look like it has a film over it. I have seen many and wondered if they were made that way to help cameras? Definitely harder to see with the naked eye in dim/dark light

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Handsomedan

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#3244610 5-Jun-2024 08:43

My son recently (April) got some for his car, for aesthetic reasons. Black car, black plates and all that.

I followed him to a destination recently at night and couldn't read his plates at all. they relly do look like they've been altered illegally to create an optical illusion or make it difficult to read.
It's all very James Bond.

Terrible for the casual observer, but likely not an issue for a camera?

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#3244617 5-Jun-2024 08:57

This is a known issue.

Fair Go did an article on it last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mei-hiSCnM

Benjip

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#3244625 5-Jun-2024 09:14

I'm a happy owner of the "silver on black" plates (black car, so it looks beautiful).

I can confirm that many cameras, including Z "Pay by Plate" do not read them successfully. The same went for the cameras at the parking lot at Les Mills (Victoria St, Auckland) but they upgraded the software shortly after I complained (probably just coincidence on the timing) and now it works perfectly.

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#3244634 5-Jun-2024 10:02

Xile:
This is a known issue.

Fair Go did an article on it last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mei-hiSCnM

@Xile these are newer plates since that Fair Go story so they were changed again

djtOtago

1149 posts

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#3244640 5-Jun-2024 10:27

Have they been changed?
Can anyone link to an article saying they have changed the design.

bagheera

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#3244641 5-Jun-2024 10:28

Benjip:

I'm a happy owner of the "silver on black" plates (black car, so it looks beautiful).

I can confirm that many cameras, including Z "Pay by Plate" do not read them successfully. The same went for the cameras at the parking lot at Les Mills (Victoria St, Auckland) but they upgraded the software shortly after I complained (probably just coincidence on the timing) and now it works perfectly.

The NZTA toll camera does not read these automatically, we have 2 cars, one with a normal plate, which gets billed within 1 - 2 hours, and the other car with black on silver - gets loaded 1/2 way through the next business day when a human has looked at it and enter into the system.

Obraik

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#3244701 5-Jun-2024 12:47

I have a black plate with the white text which I got when they first made them available again. I have yet to have an issue with a plate recognition system being able to read them.

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