this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
750 points (99.1% liked)
Technology
59656 readers
2691 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Your points are all valid and I agree with your suggestions. I still think every hour of delay is important to try to track down the car before it gets out of the country...
So compare an easy to steal car with a keyed ignition, with a modern push to start car. I don't drive now but I used to drive the former. It wouldn't sell for much in a used market or criminal market. Being stolen for use in a crime it may be more useful on the other hand. I don't know if thieves looking for easy marks would go for that car over one with more modern tech...
Auto theft for sale in a foreign market or domestic is uncommon and mostly dealing with valuable or rare cars and typically happens within a gas tank of a international boarder. More common is for breaking down and selling parts, but that is still not that typical. Most auto theft is for personal use and to commit crime. The breakdown of types of thefts changes with area, so in America personal use or crime is more common than Europe where chopping or foreign sale is more common.
Most turn-key ignition cars can't be hotwired either, they have immobilizers that require a security chip authentication within the key. Most of the cars that can be hotwired are from before 2005, after that they get rarer. If it has an all metal key, those definitely can be hotwired.
When it comes to tracking, by the time the car is located it is done being used. Most cars do not have any form of tracking that is accessible to law enforcement with cooperation from manufacturers. Modern cars with tracking can have their GPS or cell network disabled by pulling the right fuse with no impact on the drivability of the car. Aftermarket trackers are harder to disable if they are installed correctly and can lead to a faster recovery if the police move fast enough. Once the car is taken and the GPS fuse is pulled, they can keep the car indefinitely without fear of getting caught via tracking. If an aftermarket tracker is used, they just need to have the car in a place that will block the signal for long enough to disable it and then move the car again fast enough. Cops move slow, you can tell the cops where it is right now and they may not attempt recovery for hours.
Since the majority of auto theft is just looking for a car to ditch, in America, the easier to steal the better and it doesn't matter what the car is. F150s and Kia/Hyundai are the most popular now because they are easy to steal and common as dirt but grabbing a 2022 Honda that is left running or grabbing the keys from a driver are popular options.