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BMW Traps A Car Thief By Remotely Locking His Doors (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader quotes CNET:
Seattle police caught an alleged car thief by enlisting the help of car maker BMW to both track and then remotely lock the luckless criminal in the very car he was trying to steal... Turns out if you're inside a stolen car, it's perhaps not the best time to take a nap. "A car thief awoke from a sound slumber Sunday morning (November 27) to find he had been remotely locked inside a stolen BMW, just as Seattle police officers were bearing down on him," wrote Jonah Spangenthal-Lee [deputy director of communications for the Seattle Police Department].
The suspect found a key fob mistakenly left inside the BMW by a friend who'd borrowed the car from the owner and the alleged crime was on. But technology triumphed. When the owner, who'd just gotten married a day earlier, discovered the theft, the police contacted BMW corporate, who tracked the car to Seattle's Ravenna neighborhood.
The 38-year-old inside was then booked for both auto theft and possession of methamphetamine.
The suspect found a key fob mistakenly left inside the BMW by a friend who'd borrowed the car from the owner and the alleged crime was on. But technology triumphed. When the owner, who'd just gotten married a day earlier, discovered the theft, the police contacted BMW corporate, who tracked the car to Seattle's Ravenna neighborhood.
The 38-year-old inside was then booked for both auto theft and possession of methamphetamine.
Good for the guy who got his car back, and good that they put the would be thief away, but still, can't say I much like the idea that our corporate overlords can track your car (and therefore movements) and remotely lock down your vehicle.
This incredibly rare set of circumstances is exactly why we should happily and unquestioningly give our freedoms and privacy away to corporations and to the government!
#DeleteChrome
Pulling the door opener lever on the door of a car overrides the locking mechanisms. This is a fire-safety requirement. The guy was probably just still asleep when the cops found the car.
People died while being locked in cars.
Two examples are : car fallen in the water, and people sleeping in a car while owner and friend locked it. The owner came back after a long hot weeken, his friend was dead inside.
Double lock is a dangerous feature.
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I don't see why this is a story on Slashdot
Then you must not be thinking of the children. Or terrorists. Oh, and don't forget about children and terrorists.
This story sounds like nothing on the surface, right up until you realize that BMW can track their cars remotely and execute remote operations on them (this was just a teaser of their remote capabilities most likely).
From hacking that system to legal "justifications" sans warrants, this is a privacy and security nightmare.
But hey, carry on...nothing to see here according to the ignorant masses who have been trained that way. Simply because most "gadgets" these days are a privacy and security nightmare doesn't dismiss that fact, or the consequences.
I for one was rather baffled over the keyfob left in the car. My 8-year old car would not automatically lock the doors if it sensed the keyfob inside, so I'm assuming the car was left unlocked with the keyfob. Fail all around.