Digital Drive

Neville Boston and his company, Reviver, are on a mission to modernize the driving experience.

BY BILL ROMANELLI

It started in 2008, as Neville Boston listened to a friend lament his latest experience with the DMV. That conversation would change the course of Neville’s life—and how drivers interact with the much-reviled Department of Motor Vehicles.

Neville went on to launch a company originally called Smart Plate (later changed to Reviver). Fast-forward to 2015, and the fi rst digital license plate prototype was a xed to an automobile. Unlike other smart technology that never goes beyond the “cool new toy” application, the digital license plate is a true game changer.

“WE’VE RE-IMAGINED IT FROM A SIMPLE PIECE OF METAL INTO A FUTURE-PROOFED CONNECTED VEHICLE PLATFORM.”

“Everything on the automobile has embraced smart technology, even the tires,” says Boston, whose company is based in Granite Bay. “The only thing that hasn’t changed is the license plate. We’ve re-imagined it from a simple piece of metal into a future-proofed connected vehicle platform.”

Think of something like a Kindle in your license plate frame. It’s connected to your cellphone and can update your vehicle registration remotely with no lines, no stickers and no tags. It can communicate Amber alerts and weather and tra c updates, streamline tolling, parking and other services, and even indicate if a vehicle is in autonomous mode. That’s just for starters.

California approved digital license plates in 2016, followed by Arizona, Michigan and Texas, with legislation currently pending in seven other states. Today, there are more than 50,000 digital license plates on the road, and the market is likely to continue growing until, as Boston hopes, digital plates become the new standard.

So what about the name? Why Reviver?

“It’s what we’re doing with this technology: We’re taking something old and reviving it into something new,” Boston says. “It’s also similar to what’s happening in this region with so much innovation. I’m so happy to be building this here.”

Catching Up With: Rebecca Lowe

Rebecca Lowe lives two lives. In one, she’s an unstoppable NBC sportscaster, covering Premier League soccer (er, “football”) all over the world. In the other, she’s a Northern California mom with a penchant for afternoon tea.

“We moved here from the UK—after a short stint in Connecticut—when my husband [Paul Buckle] got hired as the head coach of the Sacramento Republic,” says Lowe, who lives in El Dorado Hills. “We feel like we’ve found a hidden gem.”

That’s high praise from someone who travels the world in the limelight. Her sports-television career started in 2002 when she won the BBC Talent Search for a football reporter. She later moved to ESPN UK, where in 2012 she became the first woman to host the FA Cup Final, a six-hour live broadcast from Wembley Stadium. She joined NBC Sports in 2013, covering the Olympic Games in 2014 and 2016 before taking her place as host of NBC’s Premier League coverage.

She’s on the road several weeks a year, so when she’s home, her passions are her family, getting out into the El Dorado Hills countryside and baking.

“I absolutely love baking. My secret desire is to one day open a tea shop here,” Lowe says. “I’d love to spread the word across California on how to make a good English cup of tea.”

To say she and her family have also fallen in love with life here would be an understatement—they all became American citizens last year.

Still, they do enjoy a taste of home now and then by cheering on the Sacramento Republic. As someone with deep roots in professional “football,” Rebecca has high hopes for the team’s future.

“I hope and pray one day Major League Soccer can find its way to Sacramento,” she says. “It’s a city, a football club and a fan base that absolutely deserves it.”

—BILL ROMANELLI

Road Trip: Indoor Water Park

Waiting for summer to hit the water park? No need. Great Wolf Lodge, a year-round indoor water park with locations in Southern California and Texas, opened its Northern California location in Manteca in 2021.

The 95,000-square-foot water park is the biggest draw of the family-focused stay-and-play resort, bursting with attractions for “pups” big and small. (They lean hard into the wolf theme here.) The water is always a balmy 84 degrees. Speed through a quarter-pipe slide headed for a splash or take it easy on the lazy river. A 20-foot vertical free-fall ride, dubbed Wolf Tail, drops the floor out from under you, and Fort Mackenzie is a four-story treehouse fort filled with waterfalls, slides and fountains. When you’re not splashing in the wave pool or shooting hoops waist-deep in water, you can cozy up in a cabana with a piña colada in hand (virgin or not). Water play is unlimited with a day pass or overnight stay.

The rest of the 29-acre resort includes an outdoor swimming pool equipped with loungers, a ropes course that travels through a 45,000-square-foot indoor adventure park, mini golf, a full arcade, a mirror maze, a gemstone activity and mini bowling. The MagiQuest adventure game lets guests uncover secret perks and play hidden games throughout the property, all with the flick of their wrist (magic wand in hand). Nightly dance parties for the whole family and morning yoga classes are hosted in the lobby.

The 500-room resort is designed so families don’t have to leave, with on-site shopping, dining, an ice cream shop, Dunkin’ for a caffeine fix, and a candy store selling goodies by the ounce. Book a basic room or one expanded with a kids’ cabin or wolves’ den. 2500 Daniels St., Manteca; (888) 966-9653; greatwolf.com NORA HESTON TARTE