Buying and selling a vehicle has always been somewhat complicated. Unlike most goods that consumers purchase, vehicles come with a title—a legal document issued by a state that details the vehicle’s unique identifying information. In a column for GovTech, Daniel Castro notes that many states only offer titles as paper documents, but some offer e-titles, a digital version of these ownership documents, and more states should follow.
Unless states force themselves to innovate, consumers will find in the coming years that the transition to connected vehicles will have modernized virtually all aspects of owning and operating a vehicle except for the old-fashioned paper titles.
