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Comment by gumby | Hacker News Reader

> To register his car, the D.M.V. insisted on a real name — not an L.L.C. — and a street address.

I don't understand: whose name appears on all the corporate vehicles driving around? A security van for Google, and Amazon delivery truck, a Brinks van: I'm supposed to think there's some employee's name on the title? What if that employee leaves?

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I feel like another unstated risk here is that if someone can get his plate number through the DMV registration, they could buy tracking on it from one of the large ALPR firms and deduce his home location.

This is a real risk, though it does require bribing a DMV person and someone at one of the ALPR firms.

Corporations can and do register cars in their names. I assume LLCs are not afforded the same privilege because they do not undergo the same level of regulation that a C corp does. When you're involved in a car accident, your insurance doesn't want to go through webs of shell LLCs to find out who they need to sue / file a claim with.

A quick search suggests that a title can be transferred to an LLC. (e.g. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/transfer-private-vehicle-llc...). IANAL.

A vehicle title and a vehicle registration are separate things, though. It's entirely imaginable that an LLC may be able to own a vehicle title while still not being able to register that vehicle.

Vehicle registration is a common service offered by registered agent companies in the states mentioned in the article.

An out-of-state license plate could attract unwanted attention though, which may be why Lopp chose not to employ this technique.

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