I’d like a cite on this. Everthing I’ve read suggests exactly the opposite. My understanding is that car theft is way, way down and that modern electronic car security is a big part of the reason.
Stealing cars used to be extremely easy (your own cite refers to stealing old simple cars using a pair of scissors) but now requires much more sophisticated methods like knowing more about computers and having a laptop and software or stealing keys from owners etc etc. All of which is much, much harder for some unsophisticated person to do than just breaking in and hotwiring.
Pointing out that theft of cars with electronic security systems is still possible doesn’t mean it is more common than theft of simple old cars used to be. If there is anything broken it is the logic behind your post.
Auto theft has dropped about 40% in the last 5 years. That’s over double the drop in rate of any other category of crime given on that page, and nearly four times the drop in rate of property crime generally.
Yes, the average dolt on the street looking for a quick ride isn’t sophisticated or smart enough to hack a keyless entry system. Which is why the high end cars are the ones that are being stolen by breaking the keyless entry systems. Those people are substantially better financed, smarter and take their time.
For now.
Once something gets a foothold, it eventually spreads.
Like with garage door openers, it was just a few people with homebuilt systems at first. Then it became an (underground) industry.
Again, just because a system is unbreakable in theory doesn’t make it unbreakable in practice. The “security” of WiFi systems is littered with people finding mistakes in designs and implementations.
In other words, your statement that new keyless systems are less secure, not more secure, than old fashioned keyed systems is crap. What do you think more secure means?
Further, I think it is crap that “high end cars are the ones being stolen by breaking the keyless entry systems”. I think a few high end cars have been stolen in high profile cases but generally the rate of theft of high end cars with keyless entry is no higher than any other car and probably lower. I want a cite on rates of theft of such cars.
And then garage door openers started using better security and now opening garage doors the way you suggest is rare, and it is harder to get into one that it was to get into the old manual keyed systems (which wasn’t exactly hard).
And who is saying it is unbreakable? The point is whether it is more or less secure. When a security hole is found in wifi systems it gets publicity (and it gets fixed) but mechanical keyed systems are fundamentally insecure because all but the most advanced locks are pickable or otherwise vulnerable anyway. There is no logic to concluding that the imperfection of keyless systems means they are worse than other available systems. The other available systems are far from perfect also.
A manufacturer could save, and make, a fortune with a “dummy key” system.
The key would consist of a piece of plastic, a little piece of metal that looks like a battery, and an LED. The car would be permanently unlocked, and anyone could turn the car on. They could charge $50 to “reprogram” a new key. The claim would be that it operates by RFID and that the car doors lock as soon as it’s out of range.
How long do you think it would take for anyone to figure out that you could just walk in and turn the car on even if you don’t have the key? My guess is that most of the cars would be in the scrapyard by then…