Blog

Perhaps you’ve experienced some issues like these:

• You’re trying to park in a difficult spot, or creeping through a narrow street or alleyway, when you give someone’s car a slight ding. Not wanting to abscond, you leave a note under the victim’s wiper blade. But this is Seattle, and it’s pouring rain. Will the other driver be able to read that note? Will they even get it?
• You have a driveway. (Wow!) You need to take your car out one day, but you discover that somebody has blocked you in. You really don’t want to call the city to tow them. Maybe the driver is a friend of your neighbor. Maybe you’re just one of those warm-hearted persons. Or maybe you don’t have however many hours it takes for the city tow truck to show up. But what else can you do?

In these and other situations, it may be PlateBuddy to the rescue!

Plate Buddy is the brainchild of Pankaj Luthra, a Fremont/Wallingford resident of seven years (who recently moved to San Jose). He says that when he lived here, “I got tired of the parking conflicts that come with living in dense neighborhoods. After years of dealing with blocked driveways in Fremont, either by leaving frustrated notes on windshields or calling parking enforcement via Find it/Fix it, I decided to build a solution.”

With 15 years in the software industry, including 11+ at Microsoft and four at Docusign, Luthra’s thoughts turned, naturally, to a technological solution. PlateBuddy allows folks to communicate with car owners by sending a text or email—or both—to the owner using their license plate number as an identifier (rather than an email address or phone number). The app is web-based, so no need to download anything from your app store.

Screengrab from PlateBuddy. (Courtesy of Pankaj Luthra)

Screengrab from PlateBuddy. (Courtesy of Pankaj Luthra)

Screengrab from PlateBuddy. (Courtesy of Pankaj Luthra)

Screengrab from PlateBuddy. (Courtesy of Pankaj Luthra)

Luthra designed his app with privacy and security in mind. Only registered users can send messages, a hurdle that should discourage a good many random individuals from contacting drivers. (Registered users receive a sticker with a QR code for their cars identifying them as part of the PlateBuddy system and facilitating access to the web interface.) Users must select from one of a number of scripted messages, so drivers cannot receive an ad—or something worse. Messages are sent anonymously unless the sender checks a box allowing their contact information to be shared, thus enabling the driver to message you back. In addition to addressing the issues of blocked driveways and dinged cars, many other messages are available (e.g., “You left your headlights or turn signals on” and “Your car has a flat tire or other visible damage”). See the workflow graphic above for more details.

If you’ve followed me to this point, you may be wondering where all the license plate info comes from. No, software developers do not have some sort of special hooks into the Department of Licensing database. (You can exhale now.) PlateBuddy is reliant upon car owners registering their license plates and contact info with them to form its searchable database. When it was rolled out, it received praise on the Wallingford & Fremont Community Facebook page. Still, there are currently only about 700 registered users—150 from Washington state. So obviously, chances are slim at the moment of encountering a PlateBuddy car. But, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Beep beep!