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Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

popularmechanics.com

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

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens when the fuel pump goes in reverse? Also, anyone ever take you up on the hot meal?

It prevents the fuel pump in the engine from working (I had to add an electric fuel pump because the original one isn't doing very well). Yes on the hot meal. I've been homeless and it stinks.

It amazes me that, in wealthy countries, there are significant homelessness problems due to economic displacement. I consider it an existence-proof of the idea that a free market cannot solve all problems.

I think homelessness due to other causes-- mental health for example-- are more complex but similarly demonstrate fundamental flaws in the framework of society.

Only once was I able to give a homeless person a meal... I'd just bought my lunch, driving a few blocks away I saw someone with as sign asking for $$ for food... I go cashless, so I stopped and ran my lunch over to them. It was Chipotle, so I hope I didn't do any lasting damage.

As for giving money to homeless on the street... I don't know. I don't know if it's the right thing to do, if it will be used for food/shelter etc. or something more self-destructive. I've stopped caring about that possibility. I've decided I can't not do something that might help someone simply because it also might not help. I also figure addicts have to eat too, and absent enough money to do both, they might decide not to eat.

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

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In university I had an old Crown Vic that somehow didn't need keys to start. You'd just grab the ignition and twist it and it would work whether or not the keys were inserted. It also had a keypad on the outside so keys weren't necessary at all.

Had a couple friends decide I'd be OK with them borrowing it for 20 mins to go grab groceries or whatever, and more than a few occassions where it was parked in a different spot than I left it.

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

#263
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla probably has the best solution to this so far; they have cameras around the car that record movement and send it to the cloud. A tracking system would work only until thieves figure out how to disable it; at which point it just becomes another part to sell. The Tesla solution is nice because it live streams the carjacking to the owner, enabling them to pick out details about the thief that could be useful to ar…

This implies that Tesla can view the vicinity and location of your car at any time. Is that true? That would completely destroy any desire to own one.

> This implies that Tesla can view the vicinity and location of your car at any time. Is that true?

I don't think the cars have the bandwidth to stream it in realtime, but they do upload bits of camera and telemetry data to help train Tesla's self-driving software. The car has settings that let you opt out of this data sharing.

Regarding location data: That's true for most cars sold today and it isn't particularly new. How else would cars have turn-by-turn directions? I think it was 2011 when GM began storing GPS data from cars with OnStar. Even if you avoided owning a car with GPS, there's still the issue of automatic license plate readers. These days, the only way to guarantee that your drive won't be tracked is to steal someone else's car.

If you're like most people, you carry your phone with you. That means that Apple/Google knows where you are. Ditto for your phone company and probably quite a few other companies that have apps on your phone. And if you don't have a phone or a car, you probably walk past a bunch of cameras every day (including cameras on self-driving vehicles). These cameras will only get smarter and more numerous.

Privacy is dead. Most people just don't know it yet.

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

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It prevents the fuel pump in the engine from working (I had to add an electric fuel pump because the original one isn't doing very well). Yes on the hot meal. I've been homeless and it stinks.

It amazes me that, in wealthy countries, there are significant homelessness problems due to economic displacement. I consider it an existence-proof of the idea that a free market cannot solve all problems. I think homelessness due to other causes-- mental health for example-- are more complex but similarly demonstrate fundamental flaws in the framework of society. Only once was I able to give a homeless person a meal…

A free market has no morals, it's up to the participants to instill some.

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

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Right. The alarm makes them only target the easily available junk that is in plain view. With no alarm, the thief could quietly spend 30 minutes "working on" the vehicle so they could clear out your trunk, and maybe even a few parts like the radio/GPS

Even with an alarm... our car was stolen from our (detached) garage. If anything, the garage gave them ample cover to work in privacy, actually.

Still not sure exactly how they did it... Our vehicle has physical keys, no wireless fobs or keyless entry, so it wasn't a relay/clone attack. They basically just stripped out the ignition, and busted out all the interior lights, and did something in the fuse box (probably pulled a fuse or something to disable the alarm while they worked on the ignition cylinder). We have them on video driving away in our car... Apparently Kia really sucks at anti-theft.

We still had all keys in our possession, too. Normally, if you unlock or open the door from inside, while it's locked, the alarm goes off. The car was recovered only a few blocks away, parked in an alley, blocking someone else's garage. I got videos of the thieves walking away down the alley after ditching it.

They left actual valuables in the car/garage like tools, sunglasses, camping gear, etc... and destroyed a lot of nonsense things. The only valuable thing they took was the dash cam.

As it stands, the garage, the alarm, the steering lock, key requirement, and video recording did little to stop them. The garage was locked too, and very well lit with motion activated flood lights. I don't know what else we could have done other than have the garage secured with motion/door sensors and a very loud exterior siren/strobes... to protect our shitty 2011 Kia. lol, right...

Basically, thieves gonna thieve, and vandals gonna vandal.

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/12/05/denver-police-kia-the...

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

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is illegal to honk in Denmark unless theres a dangerous situation ahead. Honk any other a time you can be fined about 130€

It’s actually illegal in Washington State as well. I’m sure that’s fairly common in a lot of states and countries. But of course it’s also not enforced here.

Heck, it’s a $350 fine in NYC.

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

#267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone ever take you up on the offer of a hot meal?

Yeah. One time it was an older lady with her daughter. They stayed with me 3 days until they managed to sort something out with social services. I think they're in San Diego now. They had a dog along who crapped in my living room, and they ended up cleaning my house top to bottom as an apology. Just because someone's homeless it doesn't mean they're on drugs or stuff like that!

What a sad story.

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

#268
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…

Mine only honks if it's fully locked - i.e. all the doors are closed.

If you leave a door open and lock it it's silent, I guess to tell you it failed.

So it's not a useless feature, although it doesn't have to be an annoying honk, a quiet chime would work as well.

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

#269

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?

Someone tried to steal my safety inspection sticker once.

I thought it was hilarious but also felt immense pity for the thief.

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

#270

I was out washing my car yesterday morning on a quiet residential street (parallel parked at the curb) and a pickup truck was parked at the next spot behind mine. Suddenly as I'm washing the rear bumper/trunk area the truck's alarm blares at my back. The neighbor across the street finally turned it off and said "oh sorry I don't even know why they have an alarm button on the key fob." I just shook my head. It's unnec…

Some vehicles will unlock the door with the fob in your pocket when you touch the handle. Many vehicles still require you to touch an unlock button on the fob even when standing at the door.

It would have made it even more awkward as the car screams at both of you though.

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