include

[antichrist]

Here's one...

J M Hicks
Wed, 12 Apr 89 15:29:48 +0100

I expect that the dangers of overlooking the possiblility of someone
disconnecting the power supply of a security system were hammered out in
this forum years ago, but I thought this story was a little different.

A friend of my brother had a car whose alternator broke down. He had the
alternator mended. He tried to start the car again. Nothing happened. He
realised the battery was still disconnected. He left the car, shut the
door, opened the bonnet and reconnected the battery.

Clunk! The Central Locking System locked all the doors of the car,
with the keys left in the ignition....

Disconnecting the battery again didn't allow the doors to be opened
again --- the manufacturers got that one right.

And another

Risks of electronic door locks for automobiles
Paul Wallich
Wed, 4 May 1994 21:56:20 -0400 (EDT)

The underlying risk of electronic car door locks is that the state of the
lock depends on what a microprocessor believes rather than whether
someone has turned a key or pushed a latch button. In addition to the
obvious failure modes (do you need a working battery to unlock the car?)
the manufacturer can also program in more complex lock behavior. Drivers
and passengers may find out the full range of lock states only when
bitten by a previously unknown "feature".

For example, last week I drove a two-door Chevy Cavalier that unlocks both
doors when the ignition is turned off. Makes it harder to lock keys in the
car, but could also pose a risk of theft if you don't notice. Compared to the
Buick Century I was driving for a few days prior to that (and you'll
understand why shortly), the Cavalier's behavior is positively benign.

During a sudden spring blizzard at 2,500 meters in Northwest New Mexico, I
discovered the Buick's quirk. I went onto the shoulder to avoid a pickup and
trailer that had decided to stop in the middle of the road during a brief
zero-visibility whiteout, and found myself stuck in a newly-minted snowbank.
So I turned on the hazard flashers and went to see how hard it would be to dig
out. Since I had left the engine running, the doors locked automatically
behind me (I later verified that this is a "well-known" behavior to the rental
agents in Albuquerque). The risks of standing outside a locked car in driving
snow on a lightly-traveled mountain road (wearing clothing more suitable for
low-altitude desert) should be obvious. Without the timely passage of two
other tourists (bound from a monastery near Abiquiu to a commune at Taos) this
posting might not have been possible.

I was somewhat taken aback to note that it took the tow-truck operator less
than a minute to unlock the car, equipped only with a small pry bar and a bent
steel rod. So the electronic locking mechanism does not seem to add security.

During the mechanical era, auto manufacturers figured out various way to make
it difficult or impossible to lock your keys in a car; it's not a good sign
that they seem to be relearning those lessons from scratch.

Obviously he could possibly have broken a window to get it, if there was something hard enough around, but that's not the point I expect.