Why you may not need your E-ZPass transponder anymore

It’s been part of your windshield for decades. If you’re an E-ZPass customer, you’ve long had that little white rectangular transponder affixed to your windshield, probably right behind your rearview mirror.

Read More: Touchscreens in cars are the new distracted driving

Would you miss it if you didn’t need it anymore?

No, I’m not talking about getting rid of it for toll by mail. You’ll still want your toll discounts by being an E-ZPass customer after all. What I’m talking about is new technology that is replacing them in other states. And that new technology may soon be coming here to New Jersey, according to reporting by NJ.com.

Toll authorities in other states started using a sticker with a small digital chip. These do not require a battery as the transponders do. Even though those batteries in the current transponders last a good eight to 10 years, they eventually have to be replaced.

Four years ago, the Turnpike Authority spent over $8 million replacing more than 900,000 transponders when their batteries died, according to reporting by NJ.com.

Now they’re looking into replacing them with those stickers.

“We are planning to put the stickers in Turnpike Authority fleet vehicles for an informal test run. That will happen pretty soon,” Tom Feeney, an authority spokesperson, told NJ.com. “If there aren’t any issues, we plan to make them available to NJ E-ZPass customers.”

Massachusetts just started using these new stickers on March 1, according to NJ.com. It's the latest state to adopt the technology. Feeney told NJ.com that if all goes well, it’s possible drivers here in New Jersey could start getting them by the end of this year.

Did you ever imagine your E-ZPass transponder would go the way of VHS tapes and 8-tracks? Yet here we are.