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Comment by djhworld | Hacker News Reader

I always wonder with solutions like these how stuff like alarm systems on the car cope with the car being lifted, the vibrations encountered as its being towed.

Unless they tell you to switch the alarm system off I guess.

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I don't think car alarms detect these kinds of vibrations. It's specifically tilt and more impactful stuff. Certainly, the alarm is never going off when I get my car back via the lifts that I've used. It's probably too smooth.

The problem will be aftermarket car alarms. There used to be a car that parked on the street near my apartment that would go off ever time a bus went by it.

Some OEM systems are sensitive too. My mother has a Hyundai that triggers the alarm whenever a heavy truck drives by.

There's even a somewhat famous song about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z-8vy6sPQQ

Car alarms go off all the time on ferries from cars that really don't like being locked and moved.

Ferries tilt and jolt in a way that predictable-path car lifts don't.

Yes I see this all the time on BC ferries. Usually an Audi or similar

Illegally parked Cars are regularly lifted up and put into the back of flatbed lorries or towed away on back two wheels so this is arguably more gentle!

Pretty sure the alarm cares more about tilt than vibration - indicates towing

I asked this once in the past, but...do car alarms actually stop any actual crime ever? My entire life, every time I've ever heard a car alarm go off, literally everyone around just rolls their eyes and ignores it. If I actually looked up at a car alarm and the person outside the car just said "I'm so sorry! You know how it is", I would probably just nod and move on without really taking the time to figure out if it was really their car (because even if they were breaking in I don't have any desire to risk an altercation with someone doing that, and even if I were inclined to call law enforcement, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't come do anything because some random car's alarm is going off).

I want to be open minded that I'm missing something, but I can't help but feel like car alarms are just security theater with a side of nose pollution.

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