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Comment by goerz | Hacker News Reader

I find it highly alarming that that car doors wouldn't have a manual override. What if the car is in an accident, causing both a fire and a malfunction in the electronics that locks the doors? Human beings should always have the last words over computers in an emergency!

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The deadlock is not activated when the doors are locked from the inside. The telematics center apparently sent a command to activate the deadlock as if it were locked from the outside. He may have been able to open the doors if he knew how the system works.

I think the GP's point is that electronics should never be able to keep someone in the car, regardless of the circumstances in which that behavior is triggered. What happens if the control chip gets fried in a lightning storm and the output pin that controls the lock gets stuck high? No software will save you from that.

> What happens if the control chip gets fried in a lightning storm and the output pin that controls the lock gets stuck high?

This is a ridiculous corner case and I can't tell whether you're serious. So: "output pins" from "control chips" are active low.

What a silly thing to be pedantic about. It doesn't change anything - the output could get stuck at either state. Moreover, it was meant as an easily understood example. Can you really not envision a software bug that would lock someone in the car? The point is, the mechanical design should allow the occupant to get out, regardless of any fault in the electronics or software.

Your remains get a intro cameo in FightClub 2?

I find it highly alarming that a private company would have the ability to know my location at all times.

Maybe it's time to get rid of my cellphone...

With many modern cars, especially luxury ones, they come with a way to put a sim in it, so that they can provide you with ways to locate your own car (to remember where you parked), provide a wifi hotspot, integrate google maps, among other things.

It constantly surprises me how many companies want to solve the "problem" of remembering where you parked. Is this really such a big problem for people? It's a solution in search of a problem.

Also GPS doesn't work so great when you're parked in a multistorey carpark, which is probably the only situation where I might forget where the car is parked.

I do realise that it may have other advantages, the wifi hotspot and google maps being good ones.

To add to this list my favorite perceived uses are managing car features remotely such as locking doors (relevant here), closing the trunk, rolling up the windows, etc. Perhaps putting up the top on an automatic convertible would be nifty as well in inclement weather.

The article doesn't specifically state that the thief was locked in, just that the doors were remotely locked.

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