In the past, Florida residents have had their pick of different license plate designs, and many chose to forego the basic plate in favor of more exciting designs. There may be some advantages to using the plain version, however, as it is difficult for digital cameras on red lights and tolls to read the plates.
Automotive Addicts reports that there have been around 2.8 million incidents with unreadable tags thus far in 2012, amounting to millions of dollars from citations and tolls lost.
In order to combat this problem, four new designs have been proposed for license plates. Each features black lettering on a white background, a change from the green figures and decorated background currently used. The public will be allowed to vote on the state's Department of Transportation website for their favorite, with a final ruling coming from Governor Rick Scott and his advisors on October 23.
Switching to new, flat-style plates would cost Florida around $31 million and affect about 18 million vehicles, according to AutoBlog. The state deems that this would be worthwhile to make up for the traffic citations lost, however the full car repair upgrading the plates would not be rolled out for several years.