Is Steve Jobs Playing The Odds On Driving Without License Plates?

Steve Jobs is famous for driving without his tags. Many theories have been floated as to why that is and how he’s getting away from it, but Gizmodo’s got a better one: since a car doesn’t need to have plates for the first ninety days of ownership, and since Jobs’ drives pristine-looking cars he’s just playing the odds that cops won’t pull him over.

Public records only reinforce the fact the Jobs has absolutely no problems rolling plateless. A comprehensive search of traffic records in Santa Clara (where he lives) and other adjacent counties show the CEO has successfully avoided plate-related fines for the past four years. At least. Santa Cruz, San Mateo, and San Francisco county courts-all show no evidence that Jobs has ever been cited for not displaying a license plate. Zilch…

Since most of Jobs’ daily driving is done to the Apple campus twenty-two miles away round trip, Jobs’ is counting on the unlikelihood of being pulled over for driving tagless on a car that looks pristine. Most trips further afield are done by helicopter, and as for Apple’s new product announcements…

For big events like these -which, given the car’s low mileage, are likely the longest road trips it takes-the company’s in-house security always works in close conjunction with police, who have to cordon off intersections and direct traffic to make sure that their keynote speaker isn’t held up by San Francisco’s notorious gridlock. In those cases, you can be sure that traffic officers know, and think differently, about hitting that silver Benz with a ticket.

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Canny, Mr. Jobs! But does a license plate really gall your sense of aesthetics so much that it needs to come at the expense of legal road accountability?

20 comments »

About the author

John Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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Posted in News, Steve Jobs |

Brian
You’re stealing Gizmodo’s article topics AND their pictures now? C’mon John, you’re way better than that. And you left out the part where the usual fine for something like that can be as low as ten dollars, which I’m pretty sure SJ can afford.
sbi
And here I THOUGHT you were going to say “…so Steve Jobs buys a new car every 90 days!” -hahaha
JB
$10? That’s ten times SJ’s yearly salary from Apple! Ouch!
.: taya :.
Been to LA?
Celebs pull this all the time! Pristinely detailed sports/supercars cars = the odds at defeating photo radar and red light camera tickets trumps the odds of physically getting pulled over by a cop. Besides if it happens most celebs bust out the excuse that he plates are just in the trunk or glove box and that they had just gotten the car detailed to appear on MTV Cribs or some photoshoot. Most of the time cops eat the phony excuse right up, or the occasional time they do get a ticket for that but that’s chump change for a celeb and certainly better than getting 20 speeding tickets in the mail.
Yes it’s shady, but it’s Cali.
Gazoobee
First: Gizmodo? Really? What do they know about anything?
Second: This is totally wrong as far as I’ve heard.
Steve Jobs *does* have a licence plate, it’s that tiny barcode in the middle. The way it was described to me (ten years ago), is that there is a loophole (or was briefly) wherein one could use a barcode instead of a plate and Steve planted himself in that loophole and hasn’t let go yet.
Go Steve! (and screw Gizmodo).
Bob Forsberg
As Mr. Job’s personal automobile supplier I replace his AMG every 90 days with a new one. Always operating within the law he requests gray, most of the time. I recall a black one in the Spring of ’08 and a white one later in December of the same year.
Monitor
Since when do Corporations and their management have
to suffer paparazzi style tactics, and harassment? What happened to Hollywood people targets?
itsgene
Um, that thing about the barcode is a silly urban legend. California never allowed anyone to use a barcode instead of a license plate.
Chances are if you take your license plate off, you’ll find a sticker there too, from the car’s manufacturer. It’s the VIN number. The last 3 cars I’ve had, a Toyota, Audi and a VW, bore a VIN barcode in that same spot.
John
Meh! The rick are just wierd! Is Steve going to be me Michael Jackson of the IT world?
B
Who really gives a shit? If he wants to drive without plates then good for him. I think it’s funny.
rick
Steve, just get a plate with a apple logo, on the front and/or back if u want.
If u don’t want a ugly plate code that’s totally fine, just do it up with style :D
Will
I’m surprised that he isn’t sporting a set of vanity California Arts plates with something like, “iApple” on them.
One on the front and one on the back of the vehicle as per California code V C Section 5200. So, would that be a $20.00 fine? ($10.00 per missing plate)
http://www.michaelvermaak.com Michael Vermaak
This is news? I have to say CoM has really been going downhill recently.
iBidder
Brownlee just jealous he can’t afford to drive anything better than a Scion xB.
imajoebob
It is a big deal if someone driving a car without plates hits your or, or worse hits you. More important, it’s not just the law, but it’s a ‘social contract” we all agree to when we drive a car. It ensures accountability and is supposed to be one of the few areas where everyone is actually treated equally.
I understand that Jobs has safety and security concerns. But he could avoid that with a generic license plate or (gasp!) driving a more generic car. His success and wealth allow him a lot of things the rest of us don’t have (like a $100K car), but you have to take the loss of anonymity as a trade-off.
Bad form, Steve.
Nspires1
Gizmodo? REALLY? As Gazoobee says above: “What do they know?” AND, since when would you listen to anything they say against Apple or its CEO. They’ve gotta be on the defensive after being caught red handed, buying stolen property! Come on! Their only claim to fame is to harass the successful. Like a parasite, or worse, like the paparazzi themselves.
Tim Rosencrans
Dear Mr Douchebag er…Brownlee. News is defined as information that is new. Everyone visiting this site know Steve’s cars don’t have plates. We all also know that Steve does this completely legally. The process for going tag-less may not be common but its not just Steve.
This is just another example of the fact that you are a worthless human being that can’t even make your baseless attacks original. You have to steal them from Gizmodo. Will we all have to leave Cult of Mac before someone decides that your condescending, ignorant and snotty attempts at journalism are destroying this site and the image of bloggers and journalist in general.
Or, are you truly worried that if Steve Jobs hit and killed you with his car, that no one would know where to send him his medal and thank you note for public service.
Mark Gary Blumenthal, MD, MPH
Who gives a rat’s petootie? That’s Steve’s problem. If he gets a ticket, he has to pay it, just like everyone else.
No Front Plate Required
19 states do not require a license plate on the front of a registered vehicle. Is your state one of them? If not, maybe you should contact your governor or local representative about it.
No Front Plate Required
19 states do not require a license plate on the front of a registered vehicle. Is your state one of them? If not, maybe you should contact your governor or local representative about it.