DC DMV Vehicle Self-Inspection Kiosk — Local services in Washington

Worked for me in June 2022 but took me two tries. Key things:

I manually input the VIN after reading others' reviews

I was less than 30 days before my emissions certification would expire. The car in front of me couldn't get their VIN recognized; I remember reading somewhere that this kiosk only works within 30 days before the expiration date.

If it's raining like it was the day I went, you need to bring an umbrella to cover the screen and something to wipe the screen and keep it dry. Every drop of rain on the screen is interpreted as a screen press (I watched as the screen reacted to rain drops and kept bouncing around); a raindrop cancelled my self-test halfway through the first time I tried it. For the second try, I used an umbrella to fully shield the screen and made sure it stayed...

The kiosk is such a massive improvement: to be able to get your emissions test done any time of the day or night without needing to drive all the way to the Half Street Inspection Station is really great.

I will say that the kiosk isn’t the most intuitive interface that’s ever existed and I did have an error pop up the first time I tried to scan my VIN number. It told me to go to the inspection station which was frustrating. But then I tried it again by manually typing in the VIN and it worked.

My new inspection sticker came in the mail less than a week later. I hope this trial kiosk remains in place for a long time to come. And they would be wise to install a few more in different locations around...

Great concept but absolute complete waste of time. Drove all the way out here and either with the scanner or entering it manually, it didn’t recognize my VIN. So, if you want to take the gamble that the machine will recognize you, then by all means this would be a great way to go. If you want to risk not having a human being to interact with when it screws up, you’ll be wasting your time by trying this. It’s hard to know if it’s better to waste your time at the actual inspection locations or waste your time here and have it not work, and then still have to go waste your time at the inspection stations. Again, if you’re a gambling person, go for it; if you play the odds,...