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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

#491

Post by matsemann »

elzbardico wrote: post #232
matsemann wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, never considered valet parking to actually be a real thing. Isn't it annoying having to wait for someone to drive your car? I'd almost pay more not to have to do it.

Pal, I've seen wallet parking across several countries in the world. Latin American, Western, and Eastern Europe, I just got curious about where you live to never have seen it. And to answer your question: No, valet parking is usually useful because the parking place is far from where you're going (usually a hotel or restaurant). Having the valet saves you the walk from the lot to the place where you're going. It is…

Norway. I guess the less denser cities I've lived (that were somewhat car dependent) it was never an issue just parking right outside. And in the city I now live (Oslo) I would never use a car to get to dinner anyways.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#492

Post by phendrenad2 »

I'm surprised no one has resorted to chemical warfare. Add a can of skunk spray under the driver's seat, wired up with a motor to spray it if someone else tries to drive off in your car. Have an audible beep a few times before it goes off, to remind YOU to hit the secret switch to disable it. Car thieves will continue on their merry way, wondering what that beeping is. Of course, you'd probably be sued by the car thief, who wouldn't spend a minute of jail time because city governments don't want to do their job, so probably not actually a good idea...

(Maybe instead of skunk spray, you could turn the radio up full blast, playing some CIA-approved heavy metal music?)

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#493

Post by joe_the_user »

I think chip-keys are extremely common now - my twenty year old Infiniti has one. Car theft rates have been declining for thirty years [1]. I think thieves focus on either the remaining old cars or very specialized efforts for new cars.

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/191216/reported-motor-ve...

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#494

Post by karmakaze »

> They might perform some combination of flicking the windshield wipers, turn signal or headlights on and off, or locking and unlocking the doors.

I'm just imagining having this technology become ubiquitous, then using it without knowledge of how it works. We end up with magic incantations that a general population does without reason. People already do so many things on their computers etc because that's how they learned it the first time--whether or not the specifics of their actions are relevant.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#495

Post by Gordonjcp »

memetomancer wrote: post #143
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 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…

> 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 system and reasoning out this defense strategy. There will be value in preliminary productization of something this for mass production,

https://a.allegroimg.com/original/03e206/1de3f26447d79428246...

Optional extra on Series 1 Citroën XMs, an immobiliser keypad programmed into the engine ECU. It cost about 100 quid in 1990 money, on a 40 grand luxury car. Most V6es and 2.5 diesels had them, few 4-cyl petrols or 2.1 diesels had them.

There's no need to spend $1.2M developing something that's already existed for a long time. This was actually a development of a similar keypad fitted to most Citroën CX Turbos, from the mid-1980s. The idea is nearly 40 years old.

It's inexpensive proven technology, and it works well.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#496

Post by fragmede »

joe_the_user wrote: post #493

I think chip-keys are extremely common now - my twenty year old Infiniti has one. Car theft rates have been declining for thirty years [1]. I think thieves focus on either the remaining old cars or very specialized efforts for new cars. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/191216/reported-motor-ve...

They were first designed (and patented) in 1919. More importantly is that they're now required on all new cars sold in the US according to Standard No. 114; Theft protection and rollaway prevention, though I'm not totally clear on when that got passed.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/571.114

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#497

Post by Gordonjcp »

DanHulton wrote: post #191
K0balt wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, really, good for them. But don’t be talking down on my car. That’s just not cool. That beast is the workhorse of the farm and it gets the job done. None of the windows roll down though and it’s hot as hell inside, so it discourages unnecessary use, saving the planet. It rarely sees pavement but it drags what needs to be dragged and it pulls the utility rigs out after they deliver to us.

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…

Given that it's an idea that has been in production vehicles for 40 years, I doubt you'd need to spend $1.2M to "develop" it.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#498

Post by wizofaus »

talldatethrow wrote: post #480
wizofaus wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a question of language error, I'm just interested in how different parts of the world have different takes on when taking a life can be legally justified. FWIW, in your scenario, if I simply shot the man and killed him, then I would fully expect to be questioned and possibly charged, and only acquitted if I could demonstrate killing him was a justifiable act of self-defense. I don't imagine whether he'd broken th…

I got it. If a man breaks into your house, begins walking up the stairs while your wife and kids are there, you're going to be cautious to see if stopping him with deadly force is necessary. Maybe first let him strike you in the face too. You wouldn't want to kill him if he's punch only knocks you down and allows you to get up and fight him off like a super hero! And if he punches you so hard you loose consciousness,…

Yes, I absolutely would be cautious - if nothing else, attempting to stop him with deadly force may well be what triggers the situation to become violent and life-threatening for my family and myself. But more importantly, all the circumstances I can realistically imagine myself trespassing into somebody's house do not involve me intending any harm to any of the occupants, so I would very much hope most people would approach such scenarios with similar caution.

Re: A surprisingly simple way to foil car thieves

#499

Post by derefr »

mikestew wrote: post #304
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…

The radiator fan didn't turn on automatically, so my dad wired it directly into the AC controller. All that trouble, rather than run to NAPA to spend $12 on the thermo-switch that would be easier to install than hacking into the A/C controller. Yeah, I've known some dads like that.

"Run to NAPA" in what car? Presuming the nearest auto parts store is more than 10mins down the road (probably much more), you won't make it there without first doing something hacky.

And then the stupid solution is already working, so...

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