They changed the font on the tables and confused their own systems

The US state of Pennsylvania is facing unexpected technical problems after the introduction of special license plates, a commemorative edition on the occasion of the 250th birthday of the United States of America. Although the new design was supposed to “fatten” the state budget and mark the historic jubilee, it is currently a source of administrative problems. Cameras for traffic surveillance and toll collection in that country, namely, recognize the new “crossed out zero” on the license plates as the number eight, which results in fines and bills being sent to drivers’ wrong addresses.

You created the problem yourself

The irony of the whole situation lies in the fact that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation updated the design of the plates, citing a desire to improve their legibility as one of the main reasons. The dashed zero was introduced to prevent the frequent confusion between the number “0” and the letter “O”, a problem that both humans and machines have faced for years. Their move was supported by federal associations and agencies, highlighting it as an example of good practice for better recognition of signs – but no one apparently had machine reading plates in mind.

Instead of withdrawing the controversial font on the plates, the competent services see the solution in recalibration and updating the software that reads vehicle registrations. It is expected that the systems, through a process of machine learning, will eventually begin to distinguish the new crossed zero from the number eight. However, officials admit that this process of technology adaptation cannot happen overnight and that it will require a certain amount of time, that is, a greater number of new road plates, on which the systems will be able to “learn”.

The problem is not only related to toll collection systems. Although not all cameras are affected by this flaw, any agencies that rely on automatic license plate reading – such as the police when punishing violators – could experience difficulties. Due to the aforementioned omissions, the authorities appealed to the citizens to carefully review all incoming toll invoices and report any possible errors.