Agreed but I and the gen pop wouldn't want a manual being the norm. I never kept a manual transmission for long due to it getting so tiring.
New way to steal a vehicle
- Thread starter Donald
- Start date
I remember when it was easy enough to simply buy a vehicle that nobody would want to steal.
That's real convenient every stop.
I think it's just about impossible to steal, assuming you have pin to drive enabled. Even if you steal the owners phone (or key card but most tesla owners use phone as a key) if pin to drive is enabled you won't be able to go anywhere. you'd have to either torture the person into giving you the code or unlocking their phone or give tesla account login. but that turns a car theft into a car more serious crime and given that tesla parts aren't that useful (even though they all look the same, there are so many variations of teslas out there, and the parts aren't particularly interchangeable given that they often change stuff throughout the year), plus the car's software is always talking to home base... you'd literally have to hack tesla's entire company to steal teslas in any practical manner. at which point you should just use tesla's bug bounty program and they will pay you $100k which is more than you can sell a stolen tesla for and if you're that good, well you probably already have a high paying cybersecurity job and don't need to be boosting cars off the street and stripping them for used parts?
I guess you could do that in theory. But if someone steals my car I don't want it back. They likely abused it and even if they didn't, who knows what drugs or filth they put in there, or what crimes they did with it.
That's real convenient every stop.
I mean one time I had an F-250 with a parasitic drain on the battery. Someone tried to steal it - they busted out the door lock and ignition cylinder and left the Club I had on the steering wheel in two pieces on the floor. But they couldn't steal it because... the battery was dead. I guess the tweaker or crackhead didn't have a jump pack. After that I did take the fuel pump relay with me LOL.
I think many of us agree with you but we almost always agree we want the criminal brought to justice so tracking it down is the best resolution at the minimum.
The relay attack seems way more common nowadays because it’s quiet, effective, and it’s easier to sell an undamaged vehicle after the fact. If you have a modern car, please learn how to disable your keys when parking it overnight or put them into a faraday bag. I like the Mission Darkness Dry Shield bags; the magnetic closure is over to use than Velcro.
https://mosequipment.com/products/mission-darkness-dry-shield-faraday-phone-sleeve
https://mosequipment.com/products/mission-darkness-dry-shield-faraday-phone-sleeve
Oh for sure, ideally people wouldn't steal the car in the first place... and if they did they'd get incarcerated and rehabilitated so they don't do it ever again, but that's outside the scope of this discussion or even what we can discuss on this forum.
So we must focus on the cars themselves. And again, the harder you make it to steal, the harder you make it to fix at an independent repair shop or the vehicle owner. This has its pros and cons and is a very complex topic.
Sounds like time to ban push button start and other remote transponder nonsense
That's why Kias are so easily stolen. They were too cheap to include any of that nonsense so all you need is a screwdriver!
A immobilizer doesn’t need a transponder.
Any remote system in the modern age is easily hacked.
Whereas an immobilizer that requires physical contact along with a physical deterrent makes it more inconvenient and time consuming to steal than just waiting to record a signal remotely.
Except your vehicle's wiring gets mutilated.
Yep and a sophisticated car theft using advanced methods being discussed will know exactly how to bypass that fancy kill switch. The Scotchlocs will give it away. It'll probably work well for the Kia boyz but your steering column is still going to be destroyed.
The OBDII method is real. Thief breaks in, plugs a programmer into the port, and tells the car to accept a new key. Then pushes start and drives away.
Older cars with physical keys are harder but not safe. Same trick works but they also bypass or break the ignition cylinder.
Your 2015 Ford can still be stolen this way.
Block your OBD port with a lock box or a dummy plug. Use a steering wheel lock as a visual deterrent. Park in well lit areas.
Push to start cars are the easiest targets. Stay aware. Layers of protection matter. One trick is not enough anymore.
Older cars with physical keys are harder but not safe. Same trick works but they also bypass or break the ignition cylinder.
Your 2015 Ford can still be stolen this way.
Block your OBD port with a lock box or a dummy plug. Use a steering wheel lock as a visual deterrent. Park in well lit areas.
Push to start cars are the easiest targets. Stay aware. Layers of protection matter. One trick is not enough anymore.
GON
$175 Site Donor 2026
What is the mission in vehicle theft prevention?
Is the mission to prevent the vehicle from being stolen/ driven away? Or is the mission to tell the thief they are wasting their time with a vehicle and not even attempt to steal it?
Concern worth discussion, do different methods of theft prevention still allow a thief to damage the vehicle while attempting to steal it?
Most of mine are that way, at least I think they are.
That's a pretty good point about that. A kill switch might be great on a vehicle that doesn't have door locks--if the crook isn't smashing windows, they might get in and damage nothing, but not get away. But after breaking a window and hacking the column, I might be fine with the car going away and not coming back...
Off hand, on one of Derek's videos (Vice Grip Garage) he explained his method: he swaps the coil wire with one of the plug wires. It'll crank but never start. Not sure he does that all the time, and that stopped being viable about 20 years ago, but I thought it was a good way to deter those who don't have a clue what points do.
Thieves have to walk their antennae close to the keys themselves, yes? This signal is recorded to be boosted when near the car to be stolen, ?
Do they go near woman's purses for signals?
The video below demonstrates one example of a relay attack in real-time and the hardware used for it (starting at time index 1:50). This one in particular is interesting as the relay hardware is way smaller than some of the other examples I’ve seen.
In under 30 seconds, a pair of thieves can use handheld devices to get close to any unshielded key fob and make off with a person’s vehicle.
Doesn’t matter if the key fob is in a purse, a person’s pocket, in their home, or sitting on a desk at their office. If wireless signal can be picked up, amplified, and relayed back to the car, then the thieves can steal it.
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