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Crime really winds my watch, and I am fully in favor of intense and creative crime deterrents.
The AUTO TASER from the UK is an ingenious amalgam of The Club, a car alarm, and a Taser. It’s a long locking mechanism that affixes to an automobile’s steering wheel, and extends out over the stereo. It locks into place firmly, preventing the steering wheel from moving. If someone does break into the car, and tried to force the mechanism to move, that person is treated to all three functions: first, the inability to remove the lock should alone foil his schemes. Second, if the vibration detectors sense an intruder, a screeching 120-130 dB alarm is sounded as a warning before the third, and most interesting countermeasure lights up; five seconds later, a field of electrons completely surrounds the unit. Any attempt to touch the AUTO TASER will slap the culprit with a non-lethal—yet non ignorable—50,000 volt pulse of justice.
The AUTO TASER could be a good friend if you must leave your car in a bad neighborhood, but what if you’re in a neighborhood where you fear the thugs won’t care if you’re in the vehicle or not when they try to break in?
Then you turn to the Blaster from South Africa. Doctors are against it, claiming that it could kill or seriously burn someone. Police, however, said the thing is perfectly legal. I think they were smiling when they said it. The Blaster has a canister of fuel in the trunk, pipes that run down and under the doors, and an electric ignition. If you’re driving a car so equipped, say taking your family to a tasty Frozen Custard joint in a rough neighborhood, and someone comes a rapping at your window with a firearm. He orders you out. You don’t want to leave your family in the hands of this roughneck, so instead you raise your hands, and press the pedal.
A curtain of flame shoots out from under the door. Not only is this a loud visual beacon that you’re in distress, but the criminal is disinclined to continue his pursuit of your car.
With more items like these, the old axiom of “Crime doesn’t pay” might actually have some validity.
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The Auto Taser is a little weak electrically. The Blaster, however, should be standard equipment on all vehicles starting with the next year’s models. Take a bite out of crime, indeed!
I wonder how easy it is to hit the pedal of the blaster by accident.
Seriously. The capacity for misuse is way too heavy. And that auto-taser sounds like it would be a pain more than anything. What if the key sticks and the thing shocks you while you’re trying to unlock it?
My dad would love these! He’s always going on about how he wants to electrically rig cars to zap people who try to steal them.
They had a really great anti-theft like this in Robocop. The commercial billed it as “lethal response”. Although there was quite a mess to be cleaned up afterwards.
I want one.
I’m not sure about the laws in each state or the US as a whole, however..in Canada it is illegal to set traps for criminals.
I also recall a story from the US justice system that had a man attempting to break into a house through a sunlight, the man fell on a knife that was on the kitchen’s island. He sued the home owner because of his injuries…and won!
I can just imagine the lawsuits that would stem from these devices. All anyone would have to say is “I want one of these cars so I was peering into the window to check it out…then I got torched. Please pay $1.5M for my pain and suffering. Thanks!”
Awesome! This, and I probably need one, knowing my neighborhood
The blaster is great. Now, when there’s a maniac waving a gun at you in your car, you have the ability to really really piss him off…