toll tags/rfid on the Gravity

[Bikerbill]

When i picked up my new Gravity the advisor installed my EZPass to the right of the center mirror and he could see the area that is different on the windshield, but I could not. EZPass works. But when I tried to install our community development "gate pass RFID sticker" I cannot find anyplace that it works. So we open the window and wave the sticker at the gate reader. And I've contacted the gate company asking if I can stick it on the outside of the glass high up on the windshield (out of the way of the wipers) but they seem to not want to commit with a yes or no as to whether their stickers will last going thru a brush car wash. And replacement stickers from our HOA are $20. Has anyone else installed an RFID tag on the glass and where.

 

[borski]

When i picked up my new Gravity the advisor installed my EZPass to the right of the center mirror and he could see the area that is different on the windshield, but I could not. EZPass works. But when I tried to install our community development "gate pass RFID sticker" I cannot find anyplace that it works. So we open the window and wave the sticker at the gate reader. And I've contacted the gate company asking if I can stick it on the outside of the glass high up on the windshield (out of the way of the wipers) but they seem to not want to commit with a yes or no as to whether their stickers will last going thru a brush car wash. And replacement stickers from our HOA are $20. Has anyone else installed an RFID tag on the glass and where.

Get a flashlight and look at that spot where the ezpass is. It is visible it’s just hard to see.

 

[tomclaussen]

When i picked up my new Gravity the advisor installed my EZPass to the right of the center mirror and he could see the area that is different on the windshield, but I could not. EZPass works. But when I tried to install our community development "gate pass RFID sticker" I cannot find anyplace that it works. So we open the window and wave the sticker at the gate reader. And I've contacted the gate company asking if I can stick it on the outside of the glass high up on the windshield (out of the way of the wipers) but they seem to not want to commit with a yes or no as to whether their stickers will last going thru a brush car wash. And replacement stickers from our HOA are $20. Has anyone else installed an RFID tag on the glass and where.

I had the same issue and ended up placing the tag on the drivers side mirror. Putting ot on the outside of windshiled galss didn't work no matter where. Seems the same IR tint has enough metal in it to block the RFID signal/reflect it. In any event take some blue painters tape and try placing the tag in various places, the mirror worked for me.

 

[Bikerbill]

I had the same issue and ended up placing the tag on the drivers side mirror. Putting ot on the outside of windshiled galss didn't work no matter where. Seems the same IR tint has enough metal in it to block the RFID signal/reflect it. In any event take some blue painters tape and try placing the tag in various places, the mirror worked for me.

At our HOA gates, one has the "reader" on the left side of the car and the other gate has it on the right side of the car.

 

[blagar1000]

I got an exterior license plate transponder.

Second Hand but reliable source: Gravity delivered to date have has four (4) variations on the windshield layering. Some have the window, some have anywhere placement option and some early ones placement problems anywhere (despite vendor claims).

My understanding is the various constructions not only impact toll tag placement but also heat transfer (both reducing summer hot and providing winter heat). But it’s invisible to the driver, unspecified and unspec’d to the owner. Not sure if even service center can tell what you have if you don’t have that marked cutout area.

I got an exterior license plate transponder prior to delivery and the service center mounted it for me before I took delivery. So far so good!

 

[extesla]

When i picked up my new Gravity the advisor installed my EZPass to the right of the center mirror and he could see the area that is different on the windshield, but I could not. EZPass works. But when I tried to install our community development "gate pass RFID sticker" I cannot find anyplace that it works. So we open the window and wave the sticker at the gate reader. And I've contacted the gate company asking if I can stick it on the outside of the glass high up on the windshield (out of the way of the wipers) but they seem to not want to commit with a yes or no as to whether their stickers will last going thru a brush car wash. And replacement stickers from our HOA are $20. Has anyone else installed an RFID tag on the glass and where.

I put the community RFID tag on the right headlight close to the inner edge. Works perfectly. I tested it with painters tape first.

 

[Smorgasbord]

It’s on the right side of the windshield mirror housing. You’ll find a small rectangle with hash marks.

Could it be possible that my car (built Dec 2025) doesn't have this? I just went to look, and the only shading difference I can see is right at the camera hood, and that's like ¼".

 

[Smorgasbord]

Could it be possible that my car (built Dec 2025) doesn't have this? I just went to look, and the only shading difference I can see is right at the camera hood, and that's like ¼".

After re-cleaning the windshield and looking from the outside with a strong flashlight at an obtuse angle, I saw the rectange.

thanks.

 

[Smorgasbord]

And looking at the Bay Area Fastrak site, that spot is one of the two "ideal" locations for the transponder. There are also two other "acceptable" locations. And yes, it can be a drag if you have to reach over to change the number of occupants while driving.

And on Highway 73 in Orange County, just holding the Fastrak in your lap was not good enough for it to register - luckily I had registered my car via its temporary license plate/paper. In the old days when the temporary registration was a small piece of paper folded on your windshield, without a transponder there'd be no way for them to know. Now, thanks to Steve Jobs abusive use of registration/plate lags, they do.

 

[Bus Driver]

And looking at the Bay Area Fastrak site, that spot is one of the two "ideal" locations for the transponder. There are also two other "acceptable" locations. And yes, it can be a drag if you have to reach over to change the number of occupants while driving.

And on Highway 73 in Orange County, just holding the Fastrak in your lap was not good enough for it to register - luckily I had registered my car via its temporary license plate/paper. In the old days when the temporary registration was a small piece of paper folded on your windshield, without a transponder there'd be no way for them to know. Now, thanks to Steve Jobs abusive use of registration/plate lags, they do.

I should have done my homework before embarking on this road trip so I only have myself to blame.

I placed the FASTRAK right underneath the rear vision mirror. It wasn’t read at all on CA73 or on the 405.

There’s a provision for me to pay the tolls online for CA73, but none at all for the 405. I’m left with no option but to wait for next year’s registration renewal, when, in order to get my new tags, I will have to pay a “toll violation” charge of $50 for each violation.

This sucks.

 

[037]

I should have done my homework before embarking on this road trip so I only have myself to blame.

I placed the FASTRAK right underneath the rear vision mirror. It wasn’t read at all on CA73 or on the 405.

There’s a provision for me to pay the tolls online for CA73, but none at all for the 405. I’m left with no option but to wait for next year’s registration renewal, when, in order to get my new tags, I will have to pay a “toll violation” charge of $50 for each violation.

This sucks.

Call them up, explain the situation windshield, pay now.

Don’t go into crazy land of paying hundreds…

 

[HC_79]

I should have done my homework before embarking on this road trip so I only have myself to blame.

I placed the FASTRAK right underneath the rear vision mirror. It wasn’t read at all on CA73 or on the 405.

There’s a provision for me to pay the tolls online for CA73, but none at all for the 405. I’m left with no option but to wait for next year’s registration renewal, when, in order to get my new tags, I will have to pay a “toll violation” charge of $50 for each violation.

This sucks.

Don't they just charge your account automatically regardless of having a toll tag installed or not? I have a FASTRAK account and for the amount of times I use it I don't bother with mounting a tag. Every time I've used a toll road in NorCall or SoCal without a tag they use my license plate to identify the car and charge my account automatically.

 

[Boomer AZ]

I placed an EZpass internal RFID sticker on the rectangle to the right of my mirror. The 91 Express lane didn’t read it. Luckily I also registered my license plate with them. Toll came in via my plates. Might have to use one of their external RFID tags.

 

[BobFM]

As another datapoint, I placed my EZ tag (Texas) in the rectangle to right of mirror and the tolls recognized it.

 

[Bus Driver]

Don't they just charge your account automatically regardless of having a toll tag installed or not? I have a FASTRAK account and for the amount of times I use it I don't bother with mounting a tag. Every time I've used a toll road in NorCall or SoCal without a tag they use my license plate to identify the car and charge my account automatically.

Plot twist - my Gravity still has the temporary paper license plates. As far as 405expresslanes.com is concerned, my car isn’t on my account. I just called them a few minutes ago. I was advised to wait until the violation notice arrives in the mail, which should be in several weeks, and call again. “We’ll see what we can do”, was the cryptic last sentence in our conversation.

I should also add that I did the thing which I’m probably not supposed to do - temporarily remove the issued transponder from our Tesla MX and placing it in my Gravity.

 

[NerviG]

As many stated there is a visible "cutout" on the right side of the mirror in the gravity for toll tags. In general, metalized windshields can interfere with the RFID transponders, thats why there is this cutout to put it there. My tag read correctly on the 405 and 73 tolls in SoCal, so placing the toll tag there works. If you have consistent errors and your tag is only picked up occasionally, I would request a new toll tag. Normally they provide this free of charge especially if you are having complaints.

As for someone who works in the toll industry for a long time, no toll system is perfect and reading the tags correctly depends on many factors. What people often don't realize, most toll contracts require to read tags with high accuracy ~99.9% which might sound high or not, however if you consider millions of transactions each day, you can have a few hundred misses. Now per month, we talk about thousands if missread tags and really doesnt help you if you are one of them but overall they are reading correctly. Normally the customer service center should be able to dismiss the charges, they can pull up video/pictures from your toll transaciton and can see if the transponder was in the windshield. If there is no transponder in the windshield or you have it laying on the dashboard or holding up with your hands, its up to them if they refund you are not as those are not approved mounting methods.

Just as an example for Fastrak tags: https://www.bayareafastrak.org/en/help/fastrak-toll-tags-guide.shtml
In general they will tell you to follow their guidelines or what the manufacturer of the vehicle recommends. In the case of the Gravity it matches actually with the preferred location A per Fastrak.

For folks with Fastrak accounts, I would add your license plates to your account. If for whatever reason the toll system would send a charge for your tag to your account but also generated a 2nd transaction for just the license plate you would get a violation notice. If that plate is registered to your account and it has already a toll charge at close proximity it would just dismiss the violation automatically.

There are many different scenarios what can happen and this is mostly govern by business rules of the toll agency.

 

[Smorgasbord]

For folks with Fastrak accounts, I would add your license plates to your account.

Great post. I'll add that if you use Fastrak and even occassionally take passengers, get a unit that has selectable number of occupants so you can qualify for cheaper/free rates on some roads. The license plate registration is a decent fallback, but won't automatically get you the HOV discount.

 

[NerviG]

Great post. I'll add that if you use Fastrak and even occassionally take passengers, get a unit that has selectable number of occupants so you can qualify for cheaper/free rates on some roads. The license plate registration is a decent fallback, but won't automatically get you the HOV discount.

that is correct. in general you are required to have a toll tag to use the Fastrak express lanes but in CA they let you get away with it and charge the license plate "for free". In other states there is difference between the toll for transponder/tag or license plate charges. There is a "cost" for the image review and mail if they have to send you the toll bill. but yeah in CA they are usually the same, so if you are a SOV (single occupance vehicle) it really doesnt matter but if you want the HOV2 or 3 discount, you need the toll tag.

Automated occupancy detection enforcement is getting more common since the cheaters are about 60-70% of the traffic in the express lanes. there is at least one express lane in SoCal where this is operational and beyond a "pilot" state. 91 in Riverside

 

[Smorgasbord]

Can they detect people sleeping horizontally on a rear bench seat? Gravity has a big skylight, but other cars have no skylight plus tinted windows and shades.

 

[NerviG]

Can they detect people sleeping horizontally on a rear bench seat? Gravity has a big skylight, but other cars have no skylight plus tinted windows and shades.

depends on the system and the angle of the cameras but I have not seen something which would be able to accurately cover such edge case. If someone would really lie flat in the rear seats.