What do they do about cars without license plates? I seem to recall that new cars in California are sold with NO plates, not even paper temporary tags.
They changed the law a little while back and now new cars come with a paper number plate. The bridges were complaining that too many people didn’t pay tolls.
Steve Jobs used to get a new Mercedes S class every three months so he wouldn’t have to have a plate.
That's hearsay regarding rationale and frequency, and it was an SL not S, and it displayed its barcode and regularly parked in front of IL-1. I'd walk or park near it all the time.
usually, but legit considering he was not well and walking around with someone else's liver. i never saw him parked there before he'd had surgery, personally.
Honestly I was mostly just lazy, I can't think of any real advantage. I guess if I accidentally went late through an intersection and would have been subject to a red light ticket, I would have been saved on that. However I think this has never happened to me, so this is not a real conscious reason for me.
In 2017, California did not have temporary plates. The dealer plate just said "Honda". To track the car, the dealer tapes a very small piece of paper to the inside of the window, so if you are pulled over an officer standing right next to your car could read that to verify your car is registered etc. But they are not going to do that unless they have some other reason to pull you over.
What was the rationale for not requiring plates? California is also the only state I've driven in where the freeways don't have mile markers. How are people supposed to report the location of an accident or breakdown?
Plates were required always... But plates are sent by mail (mostly), after some processing, so there's a delay between first registration and when the plate can be installed. California finally started doing temporary plates in 2019.
California has some mile posts and some numbered exits, but you're expected to report location by named exit. Ex: North on the 405, right after Pico Boulevard. Etc.
The California highway system was extensive before federal highway standards were developed, and California was exempted from exit number requirements. In ~2000, California decided to add exit numbers 'over the next ten years' as signs are replaced; twenty years later, it's still not complete, but Google still likes to give directions with exit numbers only, as if that were useful.
I built and sold a parking enforcement product that uses ALPR from a mobile app.
In my customers experience, cars missing “normal” license plates (those without special characters or sports themes) are few enough to not make an impact on broad goals.
New cars missing plates completely would be a similarly low portion of consideration. Enforcement of cars missing plates illegally is the duty of patrolling PD.
Which is to say, drive around without plates long enough you’ll get pulled over.
What happens if you don't pull over? In cities like Philadelphia now (and I'd be surprised if this is not also the case in many CA cities), the police are not allowed to chase cars. So if you want to commit a crime, remove the plate and if the cop tries to pull you over, just drive away! We had a neighborhood meeting with a local police captain in Philly who admitted as much.
