I am LOVING Maryland's self-serve VEIP testing kiosk!

[Anonymous]

I manage a fleet, and it seems like I'm at a testing station for one of our vehicles at least every few weeks.

Before, that meant going on their hours in the middle of the day, waiting in line, etc. Figure 30 minutes minimum, at least 20 times a year.


Now? Show up whenever I want, 24/7. Almost no waiting (none at night, so far) plug in, test, pay, done. 5 minutes.


Whoever thought this up is a hero.

[Anonymous]

My husband just took care of my CRV in 20 minutes. It's great to get the notice in the mail, and be able to take care of something like that in minutes.

[Anonymous]

I went with my car a few years ago, and had to get out of line because I couldn’t figure out where to plug it in!
Once I read the manual and found it, it was a breeze.

[Anonymous]

Where is this located? Sounds great!

[Anonymous]

There's one in DC now too. Very convenient.

[Anonymous]

Cars have to be built 2005 and above. I have a 2003 golf so I couldn't use it.

[Anonymous]

There's a story behind it. So basically they don't advertise it that widely. And they don't put them at the existing emissions stations. Only at MVA normal office locations. In MoCo, I think they have 2 for the entire county of 1 million people?

Anyway, the reason is the union employees running the regular stations of course object to a machine taking over their job. So the MVA had to tread lightly.

In the old days, (15+ years ago) before cars had OBD-II on-board computers, the humans did perform a useful service since you probably don't want the average Joe hooking up a big hose to the hot exhaust pipe of their car. Now it's just plug a cable in to the OBD connector under the dashboard.

I just wish they had more than one testing device at each location. Last time I got stuck behind a nice elderly woman who was utterly baffled. I helped her do the whole thing and she passed, but even then due to how the kiosk is a bit clunky, and it takes almost 10 minutes per car.

My trick is to do it during really off hours. I've gone there on Saturday nights after the kids are in bed for example (married life-- nothing better to do on Saturday night!)