For years, rumors swirled that Jobs had either won a special dispensation from California authorities or was just daring police to stop him. While the why remains somewhat cloudy, an interview by ITWire with a former Apple security executive reveals the real reason: a little-known loophole in California vehicle laws that gives owners up to six months to get plates for their vehicles.
According to Jon Callas, now chief technical officer of Entrust, Jobs would arrange with his vehicle leasing company to switch out his silver Mercedes every six months with a new, identical model — just another of the complicated and expensive ways Jobs thought differently.
In SC you don’t get plates for the first 30-60 days or so. When I moved there I thought it was so odd to see cars all over without plates, especially when here they are ready to put you in jail for not having a front plate.
Adam Carolla mentioned on his podcast that he never got plates for his car because he wanted to avoid parking tickets. He just had paper plates on the car for the entire duration of the lease.
I also know a guy who is in the service who has been driving on euro plates for the past five years here. Not sure of the legality of that one but he has gotten away with it.
