A family member of mine just had their newish RAV4 stolen. Apparently this is becoming more common, but it shouldn’t be. A car is a huge investment; a new car today costs tens of thousands of dollars, and car ownership in America is generally required to survive due to zoning laws that prevent dense multi-use development.
Back to the theft, I thought ahead somewhat and put an AirTag in the car. Unfortunately the thief must’ve had the ability to discover AirTag-like devices, as the AirTag was tossed from the car shortly after its theft. The police were alerted quickly but were unable to locate the car. Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, is suggesting people use AirTags to prevent car thefts. My sample size of 1 says that’s not always effective.
Cars are complex machines. They let you play music, operate lights, GPS, heating and cooling, some cars even drive. It’s nice to have all those features in a car, but they come at a cost. Both literally money, but also the cost of complexity. When more features are added to a system, it becomes harder to reason about. When the bug is just in a simple phone app you can uninstall and leave a 1-star rating, no big deal. But when the system is a vehicle you need to survive in modern America, the price tag comes out to about 30k+. Ouch.