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Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

popularmechanics.com

111–120 of 535 posts

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#111

I assume this a local cultural problem. I do not believe I have ever heard an actual car alarm go off in my life, I have only seen on television, typically in Anglo-Saxon media. So is this truly as common as the article suggests in some places?

Since I've lived in US cities, yes. Almost daily do I hear a car alarm. Probably just a factor of: 1. More cars around me in the city than in the small town I came from. 2. More things that can set off the alarms (loud motorcycles being a big one).

Density too. I reckon there are about 200 to 300 cars in the parking garage for my apartment building. You're bound to hear one with so many cars in one place.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#112
If the author had a Ring doorbell (and looked at their crime reports), or participated on NextDoor, they would know that theft from parked cars is the number one problem in most neighborhoods. An alarm is still a good deterrent for people who do not park their cars in a garage.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#113

> Car theft rates have been since declining ever since, going from about 1.6 million annual incidents in the 1990s to around 800,000 in 2014. > Cars have gotten impossible to steal I’m confused how he makes this claim given his own statistic. So are all car thefts done with sophisticated hacking given the RFID tech is 25 years old? Still seems like a problem to me.

I wonder why author think that it hard to steal modern cars. This IS a billion bucks business. Car part prices are high as never. Why not some person to buy replacements from shady market?

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#114
post #4

I really wish there was a way to disable the panic button on my key fob. It has a hair trigger and only requires one click to activate. I regularly trigger it by bending over with my keys in my pocket.

Take it apart and cut the trace going to that button.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know why cars don’t come with built in dash cams yet. Seems like there is huge demand for it.

Teslas do. Just plug in a USB drive and it starts recording.

That’s a good move.

I have a Subaru with the EyeSight system for lane detection, adaptive cruise control, etc. It’s annoying that the cameras are RIGHT THERE and always on, and they even store a 22-second history that can be accessed by police or insurance in case of a crash, but I, as the vehicle owner with a vested interest in access to the feed, have no way of tapping into it and storing it for myself.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#116

Anyone with a car alarm enabled in a city is just straight up rude and inconsiderate. I can't imagine the mindset involved for someone to put a device outside someone's bedroom window that will somewhat randomly start blasting loud sounds at all hours of the night. I'd support legislation making it illegal. Why are car alarms exempt from noise ordinances?

Imagine this, but coming from an industrial building. During the lockdown, it seems like the office space across the street from my house lacked maintenance/security people. There were times when an alarm at the building would go off, and literally stay on for a day or more. Maybe they forgot to pay their ADT bill...

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#117
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in Spain* it does not work like that, there are very stringent limitations on what you can record on the street, e.g. through dashcams or tesla sentinel mode: https://www.aepd.es/sites/default/files/2019-09/informe-juri... For example, you can't use dashcam recordings of an accident in trial. * And I don't want to spend a bunch of time reading law but quite sure this is very tied in with GDPR, so I'd say tha…

> you can't use dashcam recordings of an accident in trial. Doesn't this entirely defeat the purpose of having a dashcam?

For most people yes, If your willing to take matters into your own hands no.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#118

If the author had a Ring doorbell (and looked at their crime reports), or participated on NextDoor, they would know that theft from parked cars is the number one problem in most neighborhoods. An alarm is still a good deterrent for people who do not park their cars in a garage.

The best and only important deterrent is to not have anything to steal, especially in plain view. If everyone did this then theft from parked cars would drop to zero, and break-ins to near zero.

Smash and grabbers don't care about alarms. They'll be gone in a few seconds anyway.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#119
post #87

Now if we could just disable the feature that causes the horn to honk when locking the vehicle with the key fob... As someone who lives on a residential street, but with a hospital at the far end, we have tons of patients, families, doctors, and nurses that park on our street to avoid paying for the garage. I get to listen to horns honking at all hours. A few cars (Acura comes to mind), do a bit better, in that they…

It's not just locking, but unlocking too. And even worse if you need all your doors unlocked, you have to hit the unlock twice. It's not a honk on my toyota, but it's still super annoying for everyone. I end up having to walk to the driver's side door and manually unlocking my car all the time. There isn't a key hole on any other door.

This is the price we pay for 0 feedback avenues.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#120

I assume this a local cultural problem. I do not believe I have ever heard an actual car alarm go off in my life, I have only seen on television, typically in Anglo-Saxon media. So is this truly as common as the article suggests in some places?

Since I've lived in US cities, yes. Almost daily do I hear a car alarm. Probably just a factor of: 1. More cars around me in the city than in the small town I came from. 2. More things that can set off the alarms (loud motorcycles being a big one).

I had no idea.

How do people sleep then, if this is so common?

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