Now that’s cool. I’d totally do that if they were legal here.
It was several months ago, so I don’t remember all the details, but I did see one like that in NY. The car was one of those all black jobs, no chrome or badges visible. Who would want to put a colorful plate on a vehicle like that? The plate looked like a NY plate otherwise, but it was black with white lettering. NY doesn’t make any custom plate like that.
I wonder how long they can get away with it. Particularly because NYC has been cracking down on illegal plates and covers used to try to defeat plate readers for automatic tolls, including the new congestion pricing tolls.
I noticed this when I was there a few weeks back. And it made me realize a major advantage for front plates: when ordering an Uber (or whatever), it’s much harder to tell it’s coming when you don’t have the front plate available. Every damn vehicle is an identical white or black bubble-shaped SUV, and often enough they don’t even get the color right in the app.
Uber has special plates?
Did not know that.
No special plates, but when you order a ride it tells you the license plate number. I just memorize a few characters of the plate (usually 3 letters or 3 numbers, whichever seems easiest) so I can spot which ride is mine.
Oh, I see..seems legit, that would be useful.
I considered the wrap plate when I bought my current car. And then never thought about it again until this moment. Been in California for 11 years now with no front plate. Apparently the cops just don’t care all that much.
Yeah I see cars with no front plate here in California all the time. Especially Teslas, which by default don’t come with a place to mount a front plate. Once in a while I hear of someone getting a ticket, but mostly the police seem to ignore it.
The Tesla front plate is meant to be put on with adhesive tape. It’s a really shitty design and people don’t like to do it. I bought an aftermarket attachment that clips on to to the grill and the plate screws into that.
A friend of mine with a Tesla in California actually did get pulled over for no front plate and got a fix-it ticket. He barely taped it on for the inspection at the police station and then removed it again.
This is decades ago, but I grew up in SoCal and drove there until finishing grad school then I moved out of state. Once I graduated from Dad’s cast-offs to my own nice cars, I never displayed a front plate.
Got numerous tickets for speeding but in only one case did the cop cite me for no front plate as well. I don’t know how many of the others noticed but didn’t write versus just didn’t notice.
I agree that having a real, or real-looking, front plate is darn handy on UberLyfts, and doubly so at mass pickup points like airports, sporting events, etc.
I can’t recall a case of a car being the wrong color vs the app.
But on one challenging occasion it was a totally different make, model, color, and license plate. Of course it’s in a situation with lots of people and lots of cars, and no, Alejandro does not hablo mucho Englais. Anyhow, we “authenticated” each other by looking at each other’s phones then I jumped in and away we went. It eventually sorted out that he was borrowing a friend’s car since his was in the shop. Or so he said.
I love the Q&A where the answer to “is this legal?” is basically “Certainly, because it’s intended for off-road use. Do not use this tech on public roads”. Of course! Who, when driving off-road, say in the middle of the desert, would not want their license plate hidden? They should have added “and especially do not under any circumstances use this plate-hiding tech when entering or exiting electronically monitored toll roads! And make sure to turn it off when being pursued by police because they need to see your plates!” LOL! 
'Zactly. That blatant doublespeak was the best part of the whole site. Glad you liked it.
New York had a rash of plates where the numbers were stripped off. It was a legal plate stripped down to bare metal.
The reason was to fool EZ-pass toll cameras. If they can’t read the plate numbers, they can’t charge you.
Other people put a cover on the plate that obscured the numbers. They could be read, but a camera wouldn’t pick them up.
It is illegal. I haven’t seen them in awhile; cops are probably ticketing anyone who tries it and the tickets are more expensive than the tolls.
I see lots of legit plates with fully clear, translucent, or dark plastic covers over them. Clearly intended to defeat cameras of some kind. And eyewitnesses and cellphone cams.
Not a huge percentage of all cars, but any LEO (or department) who wanted to make that a crusade could drive the major streets all day, simply harvesting one every 20 minutes or so per officer. IOW the entire force could be occupied all day every day writing these things up.
Also, many Uber (and Lyft) drivers display a paper in their windshield with their license plate number. North Carolina does not require front plates, so I assume this is so that you can identify your ride as it approaches.
That map’s out of date-- Ohio used to require both, but as of a few years ago only requires rear.
To the situation the OP describes, I’m not sure if a layman would notice them. In Ohio, at least, and I suspect most other states, the state legitimately offers a wide variety of styles (usually for an extra fee, sometimes with part of the fee supporting some charitable cause). I’m sure I don’t know the full list of styles offered by my state, and so if I saw a style I didn’t recognize, I might just assume it was a legitimate one that I’d happened not to have noticed before (or maybe a new one).
Here in Kansas, there are probably about 50 ‘specialized’ plates issued by the state. They range from higher-educational institutions to various military plates to autism awareness to Ducks Unlimited. Not sure I’d recognize a plate described by the OP unless I took a really close look, which I’m not prone to do.
Oregon requires both front and rear state plates, who one person I saw driving down the street yesterday might have misunderstood. He had the large temporary paper permit that is stuck in the back window while you wait for your actual plates, and he trimmed up a bit and stuck it in the rear license plate holder.
My Sister was married to a car dealer once.
During that time she always had “dealer plates” on her cars.
For several years. Til she dumped him.
Don’t know for sure if thats entirely legal. She lived/lives in Austin, Texas.
OTOH..Ivy has license plate with a nurse thingy on it.
I’ve been driving without a personalized front plate for more than 40 years. It came off at a car wash and the employees couldn’t seem to find it (I’m pretty sure it ended up on someone’s wall).
Getting a replacement plate isn’t that big of a deal, but the one I have is the California blue/gold color scheme and those are no longer available. I figure I’ll eventually get a ticket and be required to get new plates. I’m not too worried about it.