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A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

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Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#171

Post by autoexec »

anonu wrote: post #139
matsemann wrote: post #110

This is a tech solution for a non-tech problem. Why is there an uprising in car thefts? Why do people feel the need to steal someone's expensive property? Deal with those issues first. Or someone will smash a window to steal something valuable no matter what you try.

If you think like that, then no problems should be solved by tech because there are completely viable non-tech solutions: Uber: just hail a taxi Amazon: just visit your local bookshops netflix: Renting DVDs is perfectly fine. Spotify: all the music you need is on AM/FM. Instagram: just meet up with friends in person Zoom: Conduct face-to-face meetings Zillow: Work with a real estate agent Yelp: Ask locals for restaur…

Most of those aren't actually solving the same problems, but the point wasn't that non-tech solutions are always better, rather that if you solve the source of the problem you don't need annoying tech workarounds.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#172

Post by bookofjoe »

nso wrote: post #9
sidewndr46 wrote: post #2

isn't this just an absurdly complex re-imagining of the on/off switch? I've spoken to numerous people who either had their vehicle stolen or it was broken into. The ignition cylinder was damaged in the process. Rather than spend money replacing it they just wired in an on/off switch in a random place on the dash. The car got broken into again but was never stolen.

I have an old beater. It cost me 2300 USD when I bought it. Last year the ignition cylinder broke. My friend is a mechanic and he told me he could replace the cylinder for 90 USD, or buy him a beer to just install a button. I now jokingly call my car a Tesla since it starts with a button (it also requires the key)

Off topic: My first car was a 1966 white Buick Skylark convertible that I bought for $500 cash in the summer of 1976 in Los Angeles when I was 28 years old.

Prior to that I had lived in LA from 1966 on and got around on foot and on my bicycle and city buses.

I drove that giant Buick — I mean it was HUGE, both in terms of length and width as well as weight — for about five years, the final 2-3 of which featured a caved-in non-functional driver's side door resulting from having been T-boned by a little old lady who ran a stop sign.

No worries: I'd just hop over the side or use the passenger side door.

After the crash I never worried about theft.

Also, amusingly, when I was on freeways, cars in adjacent lanes would quickly move away.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#173

Post by technothrasher »

Ancapistani wrote: post #19
Waterluvian wrote: post #14

I knew someone with a shitty pickup truck where he wired a light switch into the fuel pump and hid it under the steering column. The truck would be stolen something like 5 times a year and every time he would find it abandoned a km or so away when the gas in the line ran out. I drove in it once to get lunch and near the beginning the car begins sputtering and he's like, "oh right, you're thirsty" and reached under an…

Super common in simple vehicles used to "run into town" in rural areas. We call them "kill switches". My previous vehicle was a '97 Jeep Wrangler. There were two kill switches installed when I bought it: one down by the driver's seatbelt latch for the fuel pump, and one reachable by inserting your finger into the opening for the 4wd shifter the disabled the starter. Neither was easily visible.

Yup, I put an ignition kill switch in my old Triumph Spitfire behind the dashboard when I was living in a not so great part of town. Just had to reach my hand up behind and flick it. I didn't hide it too hard, figuring anybody that tried to drive away in my Triumph and couldn't get it to start would figure it was just being a typical Triumph.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#174

Post by master-lincoln »

pdonis wrote: post #162
goodpoint wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot shoot anybody in the largest majority of countries on this planet. Thankfully.

How do you get criminals to obey this nice rule?

By making it hard to obtain weapons. The US thinking to me seams to go along the lines of handing out nuclear weapons to everybody so forces are balanced...

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#175

Post by K0balt »

chriskanan wrote: post #158
K0balt wrote: post #84

1.2 million grant for this? Now I’ve seen grift, but come on. I want to hire their grant writer. Literally a relay in the starter lead. This looks like one of my afternoon projects, and I’m not even joking. I have a 1990s montero diesel and it leaks power, and I often forget to disconnect the terminal. So I bought a relay from AliExpress (same one shown in this photo but one size up) and hooked it up with an esp32 an…

Here is the link to the award (I think): https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2245223&His... Probably half the award is taken up by indirect costs at the university, leaving the remainder for a few PhD students to be funded, money for the devices, and any studies where they are probably paying participants to use the device. $1.2M doesn't go that far in terms of grants. As far as whether this is a good in…

Honestly good for them. I’m sure they will learn a lot.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#176

Post by autoexec »

boringg wrote: post #137
matsemann wrote: post #110

This is a tech solution for a non-tech problem. Why is there an uprising in car thefts? Why do people feel the need to steal someone's expensive property? Deal with those issues first. Or someone will smash a window to steal something valuable no matter what you try.

Yes great idea Captain! Let's solve all of societal issues before bothering to do any protection for your own personal assets. You've figured it out. And you know property crime is only a recent phenom of the last couple years. Never existed before the 1980s or you know tomb robbers etc.

I promise that you'll never once deal with the stress of knowing that someone has raided your tomb.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#177

Post by jaclaz »

localtoast wrote: post #4

As a kid, I watched my father pull a single fuse from the family 4x4's fuse box whenever we left the vehicle unattented for any extended period. Does a practical, lower-tech deterent exist?

The "traditional" way (many years ago) was to open the distributor (no tools needed, they had spring clips) and take the rotor with you.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#178

Post by gruez »

dharmab wrote: post #83
gruez wrote: post #16

>At the end of the three-year project, the team aims to have a commercially viable prototype that can be scaled up to commercial production, first as a theft deterrent device, and potentially later as a complete vehicle entry and control system that could replace traditional keys and fobs. What's the point of this? Modern cars already have engines that are cryptographically tied to keys[1]. They're not perfect, but i…

This would be nice to retrofit onto my old Honda, which has an easily exploited flaw in its rolling code system. Modern cars also have new vulnerabilities: https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-hig...

> This would be nice to retrofit onto my old Honda, which has an easily exploited flaw in its rolling code system.

There are aftermarket immobilizers systems as well, that also use cryptographically bound keys.

> Modern cars also have new vulnerabilities: https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-hig...

If car manufacturers can fuck up implementing today's immobilizer systems, what makes you think they won't fuck up implementing the rube goldberg contraption? Why do we have to switch to it just to get a non-broken cryptographic implementation?

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#179

Post by jrockway »

hutzlibu wrote: post #102
postmortembees wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raking house locks is a) not difficult and b) not expensive. You don't need to be a professional to do that. But also, bricks through windows are equally not difficult and not expensive, though they do leave a bit more evidence. When my neighbors have been burgled, this is the preferred method of entry I've seen.

"But also, bricks through windows are equally not difficult and not expensive, though they do leave a bit more evidence" But that would be loud. You don't want attention when breaking in. (Unless you are a fucked up junkie not caring about anything anymore) But yes, my parents for example are paranoid about always locking the front door 2 times(and get angry if I don't do it when I visit), but have a glass door in th…

The best locks offer is that you have to plan a break-in in advance; i.e., you have to have your lockpicking tools with you. That said, you can pick master locks with a paperclip; I've done it. So it's not much of a barrier.

That said, just because people have low-security locks on their house doesn't mean that better options aren't available. I have Medeco locks. They are harder to pick than what you get at the hardware store. So far, no break-ins from lockpickers! Also, I'll sell you a rock that keeps tigers away.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#180

Post by hodgesrm »

tadfisher wrote: post #147
pavel_lishin wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My car in high school had a similar system. The radiator fan didn't turn on automatically, so my dad wired it directly into the AC controller. (The AC also did not work. It was not a great car.) If you got in the car, and did not specifically turn the AC to the correct setting, the car would overheat about a mile down the road. Luckily for me, I never had a chance to put this into practice, because nobody stole my ca…

Sounds like a recipe for blowing head gaskets!

Or destroying the pistons. I did this once. It was a long walk as in many kilometers from where we broke down to Mannheim train station so we could get home. Normally you could hitchhike but it was late at night and for some reason the locals didn't want to pick up a couple of scruffy looking American GIs.
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