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A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

mrooding.me

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Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#301

Post by GFischer »

shawn wrote: post #259
Rjevski wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My solution wasn't to protect against that - if you're up for desoldering stuff you may as well just replace the ECU with your own one which is happy to start the car. This was just an idea to thwart installation of compromised firmware by thieves via the diagnostics port. It's just a little layer of security, not designed to be bulletproof, merely to slow down thieves by forcing them to actually swap the hardware.

if you're up for desoldering stuff you may as well just replace the ECU with your own one which is happy to start the car. I demand a source that teaches me how to do this. :) Orrr if you're in Chicago let's go figure it out ourselves!

CESVI in Argentina. Not very close to Chicago though :P , but I'm sure there's an US equivalent.

https://www.cesvi.com.ar/index2.html

I remember reading about the people that dismantled cars to find where manufacturers source the parts:

https://jalopnik.com/the-fascinating-company-that-tears-cars...

Those guys can probably switch you the ECU :)

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#302

Post by shawn »

GFischer wrote: post #301
shawn wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you're up for desoldering stuff you may as well just replace the ECU with your own one which is happy to start the car. I demand a source that teaches me how to do this. :) Orrr if you're in Chicago let's go figure it out ourselves!

CESVI in Argentina. Not very close to Chicago though :P , but I'm sure there's an US equivalent. https://www.cesvi.com.ar/index2.html I remember reading about the people that dismantled cars to find where manufacturers source the parts: https://jalopnik.com/the-fascinating-company-that-tears-cars... Those guys can probably switch you the ECU :)

This is awesome. Thank you!

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#303

Post by PuffinBlue »

stevesimmons wrote: post #249
PuffinBlue wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A most damning indictment indeed.

No it is not. I was in Amsterdam last weekend, at the party mentioned at the very end of the article. Thousands of people packed into the square on a Friday evening having fun. Minimal police and security guards present. On the Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people visited Amsterdam to watch the Canal Pride on the Prinsengracht. The police reported minimal disturbances, and arrested a grand total of 25 people, 17…

You miss the implication of the comment I was replying too.

The comment I was replying too was able to dismiss the legitimacy of the offending 'news' article with a simple observation.

I was commenting on the efficacy of such pity denigration, not the quality of Amsterdam's nightlife.

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#304

Post by thijsc »

21 wrote: post #125
avar wrote: post #27

Reading this article is honestly a bit of a domestic culture shock for me, where does this guy live in The Netherlands? Here in downtown Amsterdam we called the police because the rear window of someone's car had just been smashed outside our office, and the police's response was "Has anyone been hurt? Nope? Then we're not coming". Meanwhile, wherever this guy lives they're sending officers because some BMW call cent…

Don't you read the news? There have recently been articles in the international press that Amsterdam is a jungle right now: > Official ombudsman, Arre Zuurmond told Dutch paper Trouw that "the city centre becomes an urban jungle at night". He added: "Criminal money flourishes, there is no authority and the police can no longer handle the situation." https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/amsterdam-tourists-...

The quote is specifically about a few areas like the red light district that see so many drunk and/or high tourists that the situation gets too unwieldy. Quite a specific situation that's not saying too much about the general crime level.

It's rich that a British paper publishes an alarming story on this since British tourists are a huge part of these crowds.

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#305

Post by smsm42 »

Rjevski wrote: post #101

I used to fix cars for a living. Sometimes it involved “cracking” alarm & immobiliser systems. My clients all claimed they broke/lost their keys to their car - most of the time they were believable (car stuck in front of their driveway, etc). Sometimes less so, but I’d do it anyway because I needed the money and I had no proof of the contrary (innocent until proven guilty right?), although given the sad conditions of…

Years ago, I had a car with a sophisticated ignition lock system (not my choice, but not relevant to the story). It was somewhat finicky, and creating a new key was not easy. And of course no chance of starting it without proper key!

That car ended up stolen right from under my nose (I was within 100 feet of it, indoors but would hear if the alarm turned on) and the only thing I found in there when I came back for it was the sophisticated security system. The thieves just ripped it out in no time and with no sound, and drove away.

Since then I'm somewhat skeptical about how much protection such systems really provide.

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#306

Post by zdragnar »

Scoundreller wrote: post #267
zdragnar wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key point isn't the BMW, it's the unspecified distress. Lives could literally be on the line, and a fast response might make a difference.

Intelligent design by BMW. Keep it vague, even though it should totally be able to differentiate between a sudden G-force, a button press, or an electrical issue (wire cut), but the car/call centre doesn’t specify the exact causative issue.

A simpler explanation is that BMW doesn't want to be legally liable if a car crashes but the special sensor algorithm reports it as a break-in, or vice versa.

After all, they're just sensors, and they're still just guessing. Far better for them to report "something is wrong" than to file a false report.

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#307

Post by Scoundreller »

mrooding wrote: post #297
Scoundreller wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, and get a dashcam with parking mode! Front and rear. Maybe the sides too? They’re increasingly inexpensive, and you can move them car to car as you buy/sell. I originally bought a forward facing, and as i’ve upgraded, my old forward facing is now my rear facing.

I've been thinking about that. A good one with parking mode and cloud support sets you back about 800 euro including installation. It could be worth it but the chances of the cops actually catching someone based on the footage is quite slim. For hit and run accidents in which you can record a license plate it might be worth it.

Cut the cloud storage, install yourself, and buy direct from Asia. Except the flash card, buy that from Amazon. Then it should cost less than US$100 per side.

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#308

Post by acct1771 »

voidmain0001 wrote: post #171
acct1771 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stripping or modding a Tesla would be the only way I'd get one...and I'd really like to. Very interested in what happens in this thread.

A Motherboard article appeared on HN about a rogue Tesla mechanic. Here is his channel to help you get started: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCfV0_wbjG8KJADuZT2ct4SA#

Thanks very much!

Re: A Dutch first: Ingenious BMW theft attempt

#310

Post by seriousaccount1 »

lucb1e wrote: post #149
stingraycharles wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound frustrated, like you think it’s a bad thing that the police has time to respond to these types of incidents. When you’re not in one of the big cities, it is in fact common that police has time for this type of stuff (I live in Zeist myself and could see this type of thing happening here). I think this is rather a signal that the police in Amsterdam is underfunded, and/or the types of crimes they deal with a…

> When you’re not in one of the big cities, it is in fact common that police has time for this type of stuff I didn't do a nationwide survey, but you can add two places in Limburg (Maastricht and a small town near Echt) to the list of understaffed places since they also wouldn't respond to anything that was not life-threatening (literally asked whether we were threatened with our life). For added fun, you should try…

You sound frustrated, but you clearly don’t know anything about how the police works. Parking fines are not issued by police, that’s a job for the municipality.
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