News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole mine. Parent comment

Re:A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole ... by thescriptkiddie on Monday September 21, 2015 @06:51PM (#10255634)
How could killing the engine cause an accident? I guess it could be a problem if you were stopped on a railroad crossing, but really?. Pretty much all cars on sale today come with an immobilizer built in, and services like lojack and onstar allow you to activate it remotely.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole ... by magicalist on Monday September 21, 2015 @08:25PM (#10255977)
> Pretty much all cars on sale today come with an immobilizer built in, and services like lojack and onstar allow you to activate it remotely

Doesn't that just not let you start the car? I don't think it turns off the car.

edit: according to [1], OnStar "can limit the speed at which it can be driven, remotely lock the ignition so that it can’t be started, and track the car’s location".

[1] https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/09/07/how-tech-mak...

(as for the original question, even ignoring situations where you need to have acceleration to get out of them, just cut the power steering on someone who has never driven without it and see how well they pull over to the side of a busy intersection or the like)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole ... by pavel_lishin on Monday September 21, 2015 @09:26PM (#10256156)
> just cut the power steering on someone who has never driven without it and see how well they pull over to the side of a busy intersection or the like

Having had power steering (and power everything else) go out on me in an F250, it's pretty much kind of terrifying. Brakes? Sort of. Steering? Sure, if you put your back into it.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole ... by bpicolo on Monday September 21, 2015 @07:26PM (#10255779)
Slowing down, without lights, unexpectedly in traffic while modern day humans pay no attention to driving by using their phone? Seems totally likely to cause an accident.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole ... by cag_ii on Monday September 21, 2015 @08:41PM (#10256023)
Stopping the engine also means you'd loose power steering, and more importantly power brakes.
[ Parent | on HN ]