Continuity mistake: While standing in front of a frozen Megatron, after Banacheck explains that Sam's great-great-grandfather made one of the greatest discoveries, Sam and Mikaela are shoulder to shoulder, but in the next back shot they are 4-5 feet apart. They're beside each other again in following shots. (01:37:20)
Continuity mistake: The rather large hole at the back of Sam's long and short-sleeved tee shirts, that appears after Barricade interrogates him and he knocks Mikaela off her moped, changes size, position etc. There are other small rips around that hole that appear, disappear and change as well.
Continuity mistake: When Mikaela has Bumblebee at the back of Mike's Towing truck, she drives down an alleyway, and when she stops the truck in the close-up there is a trashcan and other debris between the front two tires, which vanish in the wideshot. (02:02:25)
Continuity mistake: When Agent Simmons takes Mikaela and Sam into custody, the headrests in the SUV vanish when Prime shows up. The driver's headrest is visible just after they enter the car. When Sam says, "My car had been stolen, from me, from my home," and when Simmons asks, "What do you kids know about aliens?" the headrest behind Sam is visible, among other moments. (01:19:00)
Continuity mistake: When Sam is being chased by Barricade, he is thrown on the windshield of a car and then mutters about it being a bad dream. In the next shot, a wheel and other junk has suddenly appeared on the car's roof. (00:50:35)
Continuity mistake: At the Pentagon, when Maggie is sitting with her team of 'experts' and one suggests Iran, in the shot facing Maggie's back her file folder is closed and lying on the table in front of her, but in the next shot, she closes the open folder. Between these two shots, the analyst to her right goes from holding his headset by his ear, to holding a pen on the book in front of him. (00:27:50)
Factual error: When briefing the Secretary of Defence, Banacheck refers to NASA/JPL having lost the Beagle 2 probe on Mars. Beagle 2 was part of the European Space Agency Mars Express mission. NASA/JPL were not involved. Beagle 2 was also not a rover-type mission, as portrayed in the film, but a static scientific lander.
Continuity mistake: When the troop is flying in the helicopter at the start of the movie, Epps is not wearing sunglasses. When it cuts back to him, he is, then again it cuts away and back several times and you can see an indentation on the side of his head where the Oakley sunglasses were.
Continuity mistake: In the opening attack scene on Soccent AFB, Colonel Sharp pulls an axe off the wall to literally cut the server hard lines. This axe was not on the wall in the earlier dialogue between Colonel Sharp and the one who was telling him about the unidentified aircraft. (00:07:40)
Factual error: The call sign used for the AC-130 is "Spooky" which is the AC-130U nickname. The plane in the scene is an AC-130H "Spectre" as evidenced by the "cheeks" on the plane and the logo visible in the shot where the aircraft rolls in. No gunship would fly using the nickname of another type of aircraft as its callsign, too much potential for confusion.
Factual error: When Barricade interrogates Sam, he asks him if he is "Username ladiesman217" and "Where is eBay item 21153". However, it is impossible for an item sold so recently to be that item number. If you sell an item now, it would be over item number 200000000000.
Continuity mistake: When the SUVs arrive at the Hoover Dam, the lead car pulls up to the curb and the doors open directly in front of the first elevator tower (there are four, which are seen in overhead shots), on its right, with the two Nevada intake towers well ahead of the SUV, on its left. Next close-up, however, as Sam exits the SUV the vehicle is now parked farther up the road, directly in front of the Nevada intake towers to its left and closer to the second elevator tower. Note the yellow pedestrian walkway markings (leading to the Nevada intake towers) the SUV is parked on in the second shot. (01:34:25)
Continuity mistake: When Sam grabs his mom's pink bike, there is nothing in the white basket at the handlebars as he flees from Bumblebee. However, at the start of the shot just before the tire hits the broken concrete, a square pink pillow suddenly appears in the basket, before flying out as Sam flips over. (00:48:10)
Continuity mistake: Before Frenzy goes to the POTUS mainframe, aboard Air Force One, in the overhead shot of the cabin the seated Secret Service agent holds in both hands the unopened USA Today, with the back's weather page facing out. Next shot, the newspaper is open in his hands. (00:28:10)
Continuity mistake: When Sam kicks Frenzy like a football in the wideshot, the right side of his boxers are torn straight up the leg, but are intact thereafter. (00:54:40)
Continuity mistake: When boxer wearing Sam begins to run away from Frenzy, in the shot facing his legs from behind he is wearing blue socks with black stripes, but then it changes to blue socks with white stripes. (00:54:00)
Factual error: While fighting Scorponok in Qatar, the special ops team requests a gunship to attack with 105 shells. The gunships confirms but no 105mm shot is fired. The gunships fires three rapidly firing cannons within 17 seconds. 105mm shells cause a massive explosion upon impact, and aren't reloaded that rapidly because of their weight. (00:44:05)
Continuity mistake: After Sam knocks Mikaela off her moped, they are both on the ground right beside the moped when Bumblebee shows up, but in the overhead shot as Sam helps Mikaela up the moped is gone, not moved, just gone. (00:51:15)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Sam and Mikaela are looking at Bumblebee's engine, both of Bumblebee's doors are open when Mikaela starts walking away. Sam jumps in the car and pleads with it to start, and the shot changes to side view from passenger side of him trying to start. Here both doors are open as well. But when the shot changes to Bumblebee starting up and Sam jumps out to close the hood, the passenger door is suddenly closed.
Continuity mistake: When Optimus Prime first arrives in Mission City, he knocks over a few garbage cans, and a few pieces of paper gets stuck on the grill of the truck. But in the next shot, the pieces of paper are gone. This is not because he slowed down, because the grille is out of shot for less time then it would take paper to fall off. Not only that, but the air blowing at the paper would make sure it sticks on. (02:00:00)
Chosen answer: There is no reason to think they can't. They simply choose not to. They may feel it's too deceitful.
Actually in this movie (when joining up with bumblebee and the others after they pick up the All Spark) and Revenge of the Fallen, Ironhide uses holographic humans in his cargo bed. Also, Arcee and the twins use holographic drivers at the beginning scene in Revenge of the Fallen.