Following the discovery of this picture (below) on flickr (reported here and here), showing the Mercedes-Benz owned by Steve Jobs sans number plates, there has been much discussion online of how  exactly he gets away with it. 

Like most Apple ‘news’ there are many rumors.  Many people believe that Steve give the appropriate authorities quite a wod of cash in return the preferential treatment.  Along similar lines, others choose to believe that Steve and his deep pockets fork over the $250 fine overtime he is caught.  Some even speculate that Steve has magnetic plates that he removes when driving in public or that he is some fancy Bond-esque system of motorized retraceable plates.

But the truth might be much more mundane.  This picture (below) from January 2007 (also found on Flickr) looking into Steve’s car shows a ‘Dealer Notice of Temporary Certification’ - the details are impossible to extract but from a little Googling it appears that such notices are used often on new cars while the owner waits for the license plates to be issued and received.

So perhaps Steve isn’t breaking the law nor paying excessive fines - maybe he simply has not had license plates issued yet.