3 ms·

I think this is an easy problem to fix, no? Why not just make the keys responsible for starting the car again? We've traded too much security for convenience

• TheLoneWolfling 11y ago
  Agreed. Your opinion is an unpopular one, albeit one I share. There are far too many cases where security is getting removed in the name of convenience, and this is no exception.
  • URSpider94 11y ago
    It's important to look at this in the context of overall auto theft trends. Auto theft has dropped by more than 50% over the past decade, driven mostly by the broad use of smart keys. (http://www.iii.org/issue-update/auto-theft http://www.iii.org/issue-update/auto-theft). The lion's share of the thefts are of older cars (mentioned in the above cite) -- thefts of 2013 vehicles number in the hundreds. Further, a Tesla has a GPS, sophisticated processor, and a 4G WAN. It would be easy enough to have the car report back to the owner if it's being driven without sensing the key, and give the owner the option to route a theft report and live location of the vehicle to police with one click. That's something I wished for in my revenge fantasies when my car was stolen a decade ago. We could do more, sure -- but it's hard to argue that we are making cars less secure, or even that car security should be a major care-about for the buyer.
    • greglindahl 11y ago
      The main issue with newer cars is people stealing your stuff from your unlocked car. The Tesla app does show the car location on a map; they don't have a "report to police" option, but they aren't that far away from it. BTW the Tesla modem is 3G.
• mikeash 11y ago
  The implied context here was "while keeping wireless keyfobs." Yes, the problem becomes substantially easier if you require a direct physical connection, but that's not such an interesting problem. Also, given that modern cars are vastly more difficult to steal, I object to your characterization of "traded too much security for convenience." If the current state is too insecure, then you must think that cars from 20+ years ago are absolutely appalling.
  • Vraxx 11y ago
    I think he was not saying a physical connection was necessary, only that a physical button on the key fob was necessary to start the car. Still wireless, it just requires interaction from the driver who must physically have the key fob.
    • mikeash 11y ago
      Oh yes, that would obviously work, but of course you're changing the nature of the device. There are some easy ways to prevent relaying if you're open to that. It's more interesting to me to think about how you might solve the problem without changing anything from the user's perspective.
      • Vraxx 11y ago
        Ah yeah, I'd like that more as well because I really like driving without ever taking the keys out of my pocket :P I was mostly clarifying for the person you responded to. Although from what I was seeing in the rest of the thread it seemed that preventing relaying may be more difficult than expected (as most methods relied on timing the signal response). I don't expect it to be impossible though.
  • hn_ 11y ago
    Can you explain to me why older cars are easier to steal? I'm not familiar with auto theft/security and I'm curious.
    • 11y ago