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Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

popularmechanics.com

141–150 of 535 posts

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

#141
post #133
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people think that the honk/beep is to confirm that the car got locked and the alarm got activated. So they will press the lock button until they hear the confirmation.

But it is a confirmation. If you're far enough away (perhaps you forgot to lock right away), you won't hear the lock mechanism and wont know if you are too far away for the signal to reach. So you wait for a honk.

Exactly. Would you trust a computer interface that gave no indication it was responding?

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

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How do police or insurance access it?

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

#143

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.

I don't get what people are stealing from parked cars? You can't remove radios anymore. What are they taking? Surely nobody's leaving a laptop or a purse in a car?

They will not hesitate in San Francisco to break a $300 window to steal the change out of your ashtray.

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

#145
post #94

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?

I think there are some laws - you're not allowed to have an alarm that wails for hours on end for example, it's gotta stop in a few minutes.

Marched in a band. We set off so many car alarms during practice.

Have also seen two cars next to each other that keep setting each other off. That was not a fun night.

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

#146

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...

This happens to houses in my area all the time. Either the owner is on vacation, or has moved out, but it hasn't sold or the new owner hasn't moved in, and some alarm or other starts going off. Sometimes it's the annoying smoke alarm "replace the battery beep" once per minute. Sometimes it's something more annoying. I usually call the police or fire department and let them know. That's the only way I've found to make it stop.

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

#147

> 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.

Because most thefts are probably of older vehicles. https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-auto-the... > The Honda Civic was the most frequently stolen passenger vehicle in 2017, with 45,062 thefts among all model years of this car, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). The bureau notes that most of these thefts were older models that lack the anti-theft technology of today’s models. I…

Me and some friends went to movies, left my car behind. An old truck. We came back to finding the truck on other side of road.

After much WTF. Friends dad comes out and let us know he moved it due to street sweeper.

His same brand, but Older and different Model truck key fit mine.

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

#148
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no idea. How do people sleep then, if this is so common?

People in dense cities learn to deal with it one way or another. Somewhere like Manhattan, I can practically guarantee you there are going to be sirens (which are probably even louder) during a given night as well.

Boston does this better, where if there isn't traffic, sirens aren't run. At night, sirens are relatively rare. Especially compared to Seattle and Boise where I've also lived.

In Germany, I only ever heard a couple sirens the whole time I lived there, and none directly on my street.

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

#149
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…

Cars in Europe don’t honk on open/close. It’s not illegal but there are some non honk areas and because of that manufactures don’t enable it.

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

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather see a tracking system attached to several parts of the vehicle. I'd rather not give law enforcement or anyone else the ability to "track" me on a whim. If it's stolen, I'll take the hit on my deductible and also keep my privacy. If it becomes ubiquitous, is only a matter of time before it becomes mandatory. Or, the car maker sells your data and pretends that doing so helps offset the cost of making the car…

If you have a cell phone with active cellular service then you might as well have a tracking system on your car and derive some sort of benefit, as you're already being tracked and you already don't have your privacy.

You make assumptions about my behavior. I don't bring my phone with me unless it's truly necessary.
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