Automobile security concerns

Automotive theft and hijacking are traditionally the major automobile security concerns. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) state that the number of automobiles stolen each year fluctuated around 1,200,000 from 1997 to 2006 (Figure 1), without having a steady trend. Common ways of stealing cars include carjacking, breaking windows or jimmying locks to gain entry, deactivating the alarm or steering wheel lock by cutting wires, deceiving manufacturers to make a replacement key by providing specific information of automobiles, or (most frequently) keys left in the automobile by their careless owners. Admittedly these threats are low tech. Well-known automotive security features, such as alarms, entry lock, and transmission or wheel lock, prevent the threats to some extent.