The "Steve Jobs loophole" for California Temporary License Plates - Michael Towner, Iconic Legacy

​California did not issue temporary license plates for new vehicle purchases until 2019. Prior to 2019, California was unusual among the U.S. states in not requiring any form of temporary license plate. Vehicle dealers were still required to electronically report sales of new vehicles to the DMV, but they were only required to print out a DMV report-of-sale form at the time of sale.
Newly purchased vehicles typically drove around for a month or more with nothing but a dealer's advertisement or logo on a paper plate insert where the license plate would go, and the DMV report-of-sale form was instead taped to the windshield.
This made the new vehicle essentially "untraceable" both by plain visual observation by persons, and by automated means such as license-plate reading systems, red light cameras, and automatic number plate recognition. 

---

​This led to an epidemic of drivers of newly purchased vehicles cheating tolls on bridges and toll roads where a transponder system is used instead of toll booths, causing the state to lose $15–19 million per year. Because of this, new state legislation was adopted in 2016 requiring temporary license plates in California beginning in 2019. The DMV's reporting system was modified so that dealers could print out the temporary license plates on special paper. The law was inspired by the hit-and-run death of a pedestrian who was struck by a car with dealer paper inserts, and because it had no temporary plates it was impossible to trace the suspect.  
California's previous lack of a temporary plate requirement was jokingly known as the "Steve Jobs loophole" due to the one-time Apple CEO's habit of keeping rolling six-month leases on a series of Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMGs specifically to avoid having to put license plates on the cars.  
California's previous lack of temporary plates was also taken advantage of by criminals, who knew that a car driving with a dealer ad paper insert was both untraceable and did not raise suspicion. 

---