Starting next year, law enforcement will use an automated license plate reader to determine your car’s registration.

In accordance with Act 89 which was signed into law in 2013, PennDOT will stop issuing license plate stickers beginning Jan. 1, 2017. Vehicles will still need to be registered, but now, PennDOT says, residents will be able to get a permanent registration credential by just going through the process online.

“Without the registration sticker, the future of Pennsylvania vehicle owners certainly looks brighter with respect to the registration renewal process,” said PennDOT Secretary Leslie Richards in a statement.

After going through the online process, registration cards will be available online on demand. The department said future plans involve the possibility of uploading your registration to your smart phone and not needing to print anything out at all.

What does this have to do with the new plate reader technology? Well now, police will be able to check your car’s registration charges by accessing a large database where PennDOT will host information on your vehicle's status.

“License plate reader technology allows a single law enforcement officer to quickly, accurately and reliably check the status of thousands of license plates on a single shift using information from PennDOT’s registration database to determine if there are expired registrations or lack of insurance for the vehicle,” said Richards. “It is a true force multiplier.”

The department says the elimination of plate stickers will cut more than $2 million annually in mailing costs and $1 million in production costs. PennDOT will create grant program using these savings to buy and maintain these new plate readers.