4 ms·

I have _never_ heard a car alarm that wasn't a false alarm. And living in a large city, I hear one almost every night.

by nikanj 8y ago

mikestew 8y ago
Worsened by the fact that you get an insurance discount if you have a car alarm. So everyone has one, despite that we all know they are only effective at annoying neighbors and bystanders. The only writing I've read that touts the positives of a car alarm fall in the "wishful thinking" category, a.k.a, "well, it can't hurt!" Everything else I've read that tried to be at least a little scientific indicates they're more trouble than they're worth.
- jonas21 8y ago
  On the other hand, it's possible that the reason car alarms are mostly false alarms these days is due to the huge decline in auto theft rates over the last 30 years [1], which is due at least in part to the prevalence of car alarms. [1] https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2014/12/17/350442.htm https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2014/12/17/350442...
  - mikestew 8y ago
    30 years ago I could open a locked car, and get it started and driveable in sixty seconds (the steering wheel lock will be collateral damage). Not a car thief, but I was a mechanic. But now there are better door locks, a lot of cars don't even have a key-locked wheel lock, and you don't just short two wires under the dash to start it like the movies. Granted, a career thief probably has quick workarounds for all of this, but the bar for quick car theft went up from "low-life with a slim jim", I think. Point is, yeah, car alarms likely had some effect, but was it more or less than the fact that cars are just generally harder to steal now? And I have no idea what the answer is.
    - loeg 8y ago
      > you don't just short two wires under the dash to start it like the movies. Just plug in your ODB-II tool and press start :-).
      - namibj 8y ago
        After pressing the FPGA-based keyfob. When not used for cracking keyfobs, it can also do other misc work.
  - decebalus1 8y ago
    It's also possible it's because the number of movies Steven Seagal starred in for the past 30 years has also declined [1]. Car alarms can deter joyriders but don't do much for the professional car thief [2] ([3] has more references). Also, as an anecdote, there's been a bunch of car prowls in my apartment building parking lot for the past year or so. The victims were high-end vehicles with valuables in-sight (briefcases, dashcams, etc..) and they all had car alarms. [1] http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations [2] https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=165687 https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=1656... [3] https://priceonomics.com/are-car-alarms-completely-fucking-useless/ https://priceonomics.com/are-car-alarms-completely-fucking-u...
r00fus 8y ago
Car alarms (and the asshole bikers / ricers who intentionally set them off with over-loud revving) are a blight on (sub)urban life.
- supertrope 8y ago
  Lots of merchants sell non-street legal straight mufflers with a wink wink nod nod description. In the Internet mail order age it's even easier to buy one.
  - dsfyu404ed 8y ago
    Saying "for off road use only" is just to reduce liability in states that happen to have byzantine restrictions on whatever you're selling. You don't want someone to sue you because you didn't tell them that the thing you sold them wasn't legal in their state or because a law changed that you weren't aware of. Most straight through mufflers are street legal because most states just have a law about X decibels at Y distance and don't care what you have as long as it's quiet enough. CA has quite asinine rules about car exhaust systems though and you could be considered not in compliance with emissions rules even if you somehow make your straight through exhaust reasonably quiet.
jpindar 8y ago
How do you know that?
- dyeje 8y ago
  To me, this is the biggest problem with car alarms. When people hear one, they don't think "A car is being stolen" they think "Ugh somebody accidentally triggered that".
ska 8y ago
Being in a large city, you probably wouldn't know if it wasn't a false alarm.

I have _never_ heard a car alarm that wasn't a false alarm. And living in a large city, I hear one almost every night.

by nikanj 8y ago

I have _never_ heard a car alarm that wasn't a false alarm. And living in a large city, I hear one almost every night.

Worsened by the fact that you get an insurance discount if you have a car alarm. So everyone has one, despite that we all know they are only effective at annoying neighbors and bystanders. The only writing I've read that touts the positives of a car alarm fall in the "wishful thinking" category, a.k.a, "well, it can't hurt!" Everything else I've read that tried to be at least a little scientific indicates they're more trouble than they're worth.

jonas21 8y ago
On the other hand, it's possible that the reason car alarms are mostly false alarms these days is due to the huge decline in auto theft rates over the last 30 years [1], which is due at least in part to the prevalence of car alarms. [1] https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2014/12/17/350442.htm https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2014/12/17/350442...
- mikestew 8y ago
  30 years ago I could open a locked car, and get it started and driveable in sixty seconds (the steering wheel lock will be collateral damage). Not a car thief, but I was a mechanic. But now there are better door locks, a lot of cars don't even have a key-locked wheel lock, and you don't just short two wires under the dash to start it like the movies. Granted, a career thief probably has quick workarounds for all of this, but the bar for quick car theft went up from "low-life with a slim jim", I think. Point is, yeah, car alarms likely had some effect, but was it more or less than the fact that cars are just generally harder to steal now? And I have no idea what the answer is.
  - loeg 8y ago
    > you don't just short two wires under the dash to start it like the movies. Just plug in your ODB-II tool and press start :-).
    - namibj 8y ago
      After pressing the FPGA-based keyfob. When not used for cracking keyfobs, it can also do other misc work.
- decebalus1 8y ago
  It's also possible it's because the number of movies Steven Seagal starred in for the past 30 years has also declined [1]. Car alarms can deter joyriders but don't do much for the professional car thief [2] ([3] has more references). Also, as an anecdote, there's been a bunch of car prowls in my apartment building parking lot for the past year or so. The victims were high-end vehicles with valuables in-sight (briefcases, dashcams, etc..) and they all had car alarms. [1] http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations [2] https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=165687 https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=1656... [3] https://priceonomics.com/are-car-alarms-completely-fucking-useless/ https://priceonomics.com/are-car-alarms-completely-fucking-u...

r00fus 8y ago

Car alarms (and the asshole bikers / ricers who intentionally set them off with over-loud revving) are a blight on (sub)urban life.

supertrope 8y ago
Lots of merchants sell non-street legal straight mufflers with a wink wink nod nod description. In the Internet mail order age it's even easier to buy one.
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  Saying "for off road use only" is just to reduce liability in states that happen to have byzantine restrictions on whatever you're selling. You don't want someone to sue you because you didn't tell them that the thing you sold them wasn't legal in their state or because a law changed that you weren't aware of. Most straight through mufflers are street legal because most states just have a law about X decibels at Y distance and don't care what you have as long as it's quiet enough. CA has quite asinine rules about car exhaust systems though and you could be considered not in compliance with emissions rules even if you somehow make your straight through exhaust reasonably quiet.

jpindar 8y ago

How do you know that?

dyeje 8y ago
To me, this is the biggest problem with car alarms. When people hear one, they don't think "A car is being stolen" they think "Ugh somebody accidentally triggered that".

ska 8y ago

Being in a large city, you probably wouldn't know if it wasn't a false alarm.