The real answer: insurance companies and fleets in the early 90s. Fleet vehicles in the 90s were high theft targets. Common keyed in most cases and sparsely

The real answer: insurance companies and fleets in the early 90s. Fleet vehicles in the 90s were high theft targets. Common keyed in most cases and sparsely tracked. As part of insurance provider crackdowns cars were required to be fitted with alarms so fleet lot security guards would be alerted to theft. Rental companies responded by demanding alarms in their fleet cars, and manufacturers complied. In 2020 a rental car is basically a rolling eye of the god argus. Everything gets tracked. these alarms are also used at ports of call and container shipping lots for new cars, although they're less meaningful since most new cars ship on a 'transit' mode that locks the car to 5mph until a dealer unlocks the firmware.