Keyless cars show that manufacturers are '˜too clever for their own good'

According to Sussex Police, car thefts increased by 12 per cent in the county last year, which, it says, was likely caused by an increase in the number of keyless cars (Herald, and Gazette online, August 17).
car theft Shutterstockcar theft Shutterstock
car theft Shutterstock

An Association of British Insurers spokesman said criminals are exploiting the vulnerabilities of the entry system, by using pairs of 
radio transmitters to capture the signal from the vehicle’s fob, and that the risk of theft is one of the factors taken into account by insurers when assessing the price of our car insurance policies.

So, there we have it: car makers are fitting keyless systems into our cars that make them more vulnerable to thieves, and which also push up the cost of our policies.

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And what are they doing about it? Are they admitting that they have made a mistake by using an inefficient method of protecting our cars, and will they go back to the old idea of unlocking our cars with a key? Not a bit of it.

Instead, they are expecting the Home Secretary to sort out a mess they themselves have created by, somehow, stopping villains getting hold of the equipment that they use to defeat their, as they put it, ‘ever more sophisticated security features’.

One definition of the word ‘sophisticated’ is superior, which keyless cars are clearly not.

Another is ‘cleverness’ but that isn’t appropriate either. Just the opposite.

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It is quite obvious from this whole sorry story that car manufacturers have become, in fact, too clever for their own good. And ours as well, come to that.

Eric Waters

Ingleside Crescent, Lancing

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