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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

#271

Post by jtriangle »

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.

You should be doing both really.

This, however, is not a good solution. A starter relay kill switch, hidden somewhere non-obvious, is far better. Not a suitable solution for mass-market of course, but, for a hacky intermediate solution, it'll work just fine, which is all the power sensing keypad is good for but with way more steps.

The actual solution is to have real cryptographic security that isn't subject to replay attacks. Not difficult to do, or expensive, and already exists.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#272

Post by thriftwy »

rhaway84773 wrote: post #221
brk wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

And despite being around for 30+ years it’s not broadly adopted despite a significant rise in car thefts.

In some countries, it is.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#274

Post by pseingatl »

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…

I thought I had the only 1980's-vintage Montero diesel. 4D55 4 cylinder engine, no turbo. That engine with a turbocharger was sold in Mitsubishi pick-ups, but as of 1985, the 4D55 was not imported. Had to import it myself, long story. I understand there are replacement engines in Chile.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#275

Post by pawelmurias »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #56

Couldn't they just make the car blare non-stop alternating sirens for 10 minutes at a time, 4 times an hour for 12 hours, loud enough to get through drywall and double-paned windows, at the slightest perturbation? Although I don't own a car, I'm happy when I hear throughout the day and night that my neighbor's cars are well protected.

It's a travesty that's legal.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#276

Post by justinclift »

ModernMech wrote: post #268
justinclift wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure. Because Universities are all about "bringing in the money" rather than education, research, and similar yeah?

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#277

Post by duxup »

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…

There was a news story a while ago that detailed a paper that coined a term, something like “time battery”. It detailed how data centers could save money and power by processing intensive tasks during off hours.

It seemed like a simple crib job would cover the entire premise. Let alone all the other strategies out there.

It wasn’t clear to me if the paper in question recognized that people already do that with computers. I tried reading it but it was pretty hard to get through.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#278

Post by [deleted] »

soligern wrote: post #260
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…

That’s what people said about Dropbox too. I can set this up in 5 mins with rsync blah blah. There is value and effort involved in making it production ready, seamless, general population ready etc.

[deleted]

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#279

Post by xwdv »

ModernMech wrote: post #254
DanHulton wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that's all well and good, but maybe introspect here for a second? You're upset that your accomplishments aren't being respected, immediately after discounting the accomplishments of others. The point is that your car's modifications and the university's are similar, but different, particularly in scale and broad robustness, which adds difficulty in ways you may not be appreciating. $1.2 million may sound like a l…

$1.2 million will fund 4 years of research for 2 professors, and 2 PhD students. It’s not exactly a career making grant.

That seems extravagant. By my calculations it should fund approximately 6 or so years.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#280

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

COGlory wrote: post #165
Nextgrid wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Startup waste is generally funded from investors though. This seems like it might be funded by government grants which are funded by taxes.

Investors using 0% interest loans funded by taxpayers.

I’ve noticed 10-15 years of almost no innovation, but a ton of wealth transfer… but the FED still says ZIRP was a good idea.
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