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A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

news.umich.edu

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Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#261

Post by ModernMech »

sushid wrote: post #234
chriskanan wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Half is taken by the university? How does that work?

Consider it rent+taxes to live in the University environment. You get access to libraries. IT infrastructure. Special equipment and space for your research. Lots of competent smart people eager to help you with your project. How much would you pay for that?

I worked at a startup and between the rent for our office and our individual rents, like 80% of the VC money went into landlord pockets.

Also there are plenty of “tax breaks” you can get so that you don’t have to pay so much. Capital expenditures will be taxed at 0%, so you can get your overall rate down significantly.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#262

Post by mhandley »

firebat45 wrote: post #200
technothrasher wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Cars built with Lucas electrics typically have 3 modes of operation. Off, Dim, and Flicker. Which two of the three end up on your switch is entirely random.

Oh yes, those of us of a certain age remember well Lucas, Prince of Darkness.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#263

Post by [deleted] »

woobar wrote: post #153
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…

This is very close to what the original LoJack did in 1979. They added keypad to replace switching on lights: [LoJack] could also include the incorporation of a scheme whereby an additional step was required to activate the ignition. Prior to starting, it would require the activation of any number of the usual vehicle features such as the radio, headlight switch, or other switched device. Without knowledge of the pro…

[deleted]

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#264

Post by gruez »

COGlory wrote: post #225
gruez wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you referring to quantitative easing/ZIRP or specific government programs that give favorable loans to specific industries?

QE

The Fed is the cause of QE/ZIRP, but it's not "funded by taxpayers" in any meaningful sense. The mechanism by which QE is done is that the fed prints money and uses it to buy government bonds and other assets, which pushes bond prices up, and consequently yields (and therefore interest rates) down. All of this doesn't cost the fed anything. The money is printed by them, after all. It's not like they're borrowing money from some other bank at 2%, and then distributing to the wider economy at 0%.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#265

Post by progman32 »

ghaff wrote: post #10
constantly wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valets HATE this one weird trick

I used to have a car that had a kill switch requiring the turn signal to be turned on or some such thing. It was periodically a pain with valets or parking garages where your car might need to be moved. I'd leave a big note but it was ignored about half the time.

Had a valet ignore a huge, printed instruction taped over my steering wheel on how not to food my car (leave it running for at least 60 seconds). Sure enough, they flooded it really bad trying to start it over and over. Killed the battery. Never used a valet after that.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#266

Post by xattt »

brk wrote: post #212
memetomancer wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a frustrating yet common sort of take. Yes, this is simple, as the article clearly points out. Yes it is obvious in retrospect. But did you do anything with your brilliant work besides bodge your terrible car a few more miles down the road? There is value to developing the entire system... to ensuring the keypad mechanism is reasonably robust and tamper proof. There is value to understanding the vehicle as a…

It is obvious in retrospect because this concept has been around for 30 years. A common killswitch mechanism that I remember being implemented in the early 90's was a system that tied into accessory devices. On my friends car you had to put the key to ACC, then turn the cruise control on and off, and then engage and disengage the parking brake before the car would start. No other obvious lights, buttons, switches, et…

> On my friends car you had to put the key to ACC, then turn the cruise control on and off, and then engage and disengage the parking brake before the car would start.

That’s a cute trick, but if a current day equivalent is integrated into modern day cars (i.e. CANBUS-based), then the security is already defeated.

No one challenged the security of the “cruise control cheat code” of the 1990s simply because there were no devices small enough. The other bit is that criminals weren’t sophisticated enough.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#267

Post by hutzlibu »

velosol wrote: post #207
hutzlibu wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not avaiable. (at least for me from germany)

If you're interested they're also available on Amazon.de https://www.amazon.de/LockCowboy-Transparent-Practice-Beginn...

I wasn't planning to, but why not pick up a new hobby ;)

(It is indeed cheap)

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#268

Post by ModernMech »

justinclift wrote: post #250
sushid wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half is taken by the university? How does that work?

Renting the space to the departments and other similar things probably. I wish I was joking, but a friend who works at a Uni was recently complaining of their budget being affected by (mandatory) things like that.

Space is limited and coveted. What better way would you propose to allocate it than to give it to who can bring in the money to pay for it? That money goes to building new spaces, which is good for everyone.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#269

Post by Brusco_RF »

talldatethrow wrote: post #67
hulitu wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus DOS when the battery is exhausted after a couple of "turn lights on off, turn wipers on off".

You could flash headlights probably 500+ times before a healthy battery had even a little trouble starting.

We're considering the entire battery lifecycle. So the correct way to think about this change is:

More energy required to start engine --> Minimum battery health required to start engine increases --> battery lifecycle decreases.

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