Hacker News Reader

Comment by Lammy | Hacker News Reader

[flagged]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immobiliser

> A 2016 study in the Economic Journal finds that the immobiliser lowered the overall rate of car theft by about 40% between 1995 and 2008.

Getting it stolen renders you "not allowed to drive it" pretty effectively, and it's a lot more likely than your immobilizer malfunctioning. If you don't drive a Hyundai, Kia, or a 30 year old car, chances are your car already has one.

Can't wait for the future where the interlock is tied to my personal identity instead of to a physical fob so my car can refuse to start once I've exceeded my personal quarterly energy usage.

They're half way there with smartphone apps that can be linked to your car to allow you to unlock and start it. All they need to do is stop issuing keyfobs.

Not much of a joke -- and not something that should be downvoted -- considering that Congress has already ordered NHTSA to do that very thing with alcohol sensors [1].

1: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/congressional-d...

It's being downvoted because it's "old man yells at cloud" mixed with paranoia and hyperbole.

Did you read the entry on aclu.org that I linked to? The slippery slope is a logical fallacy, but we're not dealing with logical entities here.

You would prefer your vehicle have no keys or locks at all? Let's say your house was burgled and only the keys were stolen. The vehicle would then decide (because you no longer have a key) that you are not allowed to drive it.

Correct. That's what titles and insurance are for. I don't want my car to be capable of phoning home or of "being phoned" to activate some bullshit lockout system.

I kind of doubt you'd be able to get insurance. State Farm has stopped insuring vulnerable Kai models in several states.

Also, the immobilizers in question don't "phone home", they just require a key that's been paired with the car. (Granted, if you lose all the keys, it's a pain. You need a mechanic with a computer to reset the ECU and pair new keys.)

So you prefer to not put a password on your laptop because you prefer having a laptop that isn't capable of deciding you're not allowed to use it?

Poor comparison since my laptop's authentication is entirely self-contained. You are describing something akin to Computrace or Absolute which I am also against:

https://www.absolute.com/partners/device-manufacturers/

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht105220-unintend...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com