Brief History Of High Tech Car Security

The security of your car should be just as important as your home security. Luckily, high tech car security has come a long way since the first cars were invented.

Here is a brief history of car security and some pointers on how to strengthen security and safety on your vehicle before it is too late.

Main Reasons For Why You Need A Car Security System

• For starters, your car is your biggest investment, after your home mortgage.

• Your car is also the “thing” that helps you generate your income, as it gets you to work every day. More than 90 percent of Americans drive their personal vehicles to work.

• The average American driver spends around 60 minutes behind the wheel every day. That's 364 hours a year. In other words, we spend between a year and a half to two years in our cars throughout our lifetime. Given the circumstances, it is easy to get attached to a beautiful car that has seen you through your best and worst and has always been there ready to carry you whenever necessary.

• Besides the financial and emotional arguments, the cold facts should make you better grasp the idea: hit and runs occur every 40 seconds in the US, with close to 790, 000 cars being stolen each year. Only around 8 percent of cars are found and reunited with their owners.

If you want to avoid going through the hassle of having your car stolen or damaged in any way because of an outdated security system? Take your car to a car mechanic or your local automotive locksmith straight away and have them assess your car's current security level and further advise you. You could opt for a smart lock system instead of your obsolete lock and key mechanism, or install a device that allows you to remotely control and kill your engine with the help of a computer if you suspect someone has taken off with your car without your consent. You could also choose to have road assistance, real-time GPS system fitted and keep permanent track of your car or have a car immobilizer prevent potential thieves from stealing your four-wheeler. But how did they do things a few decades ago, when the first cars were released to the public?

Interesting Car Security History Details

Steering Wheels Used To Be Removable

1769 is the glorious year when the first automobile that could carry human passengers was manufactured by Nicolas Cugnot. It was powered by steam and it was followed by the first automobile to be powered by an internal combustion engine that used hydrogen as fuel. The year was 1808 and Isaac de Rivaz was responsible for the impressive invention. A few decades later, Sigfried Marcus managed to build the first car with a combustion engine powered by gasoline. More followed throughout history, but the first pioneer cars did not have any security systems on them. In the 1900s, however, Leach-Biltwell Motor company started manufacturing luxury automobiles that captured the attention of wealthy people who started buying them. This is also about the time when the first car security “mechanisms” were invented: people paid by drivers to act like security guards for their vehicles 24 hours a day. Who knows how many of these guards successfully fought off thieves over the years?

Later on, came the removable steering wheel that many car manufacturers found interesting and useful enough to turn it into a regular on their cars.

Soon after that, the first car door power locks were invented by Scripps-Booth, followed by General Motors. It took a few more decades for these power locks to be truly taken seriously and start growing in popularity back in 1956 when they were sold as extra equipment for cars. Originally, these power locks were a part of the lock cylinders and they featured the code on the outside of the vehicle. They were installed on passenger doors, along with trunks and glove compartment. In this day and age, you can find power locks on fuel caps and most modern-day vehicles automatically lock when the driver puts the car into gear or when they are speeding above a certain limit.

Car Immobilizers Then And Now

A modern-day electronic car immobilizer can efficiently lower the risk of car theft by 40 percent. The role of the immobilizer is to stop the engine from running if the right key is not in use. Lots of car thieves tend to use hot-wiring as a way of stealing a car they manage to break into. The immobilizer makes their job a lot more difficult.

When they were invented and used in 1919, the first immobilizers were fitted together with a 3X3 grid that consisted of double contact switches. These switches sent electrical current from the car's battery to the ignition, causing the horn to sound and automatically blocking the car.

At the moment, you should be able to come across advanced immobilizers that automatically kill the engine should someone attempt to take off with it without the right key. You can ask a reliable locksmith to attach the immobilizer to a monitoring service that will send out alerts to your phone in case of any type of suspicious activity.

GPS Vehicle Trackers

The only GPS system the first car owners could use was a nosy neighbor who might have noticed the thieves taking off with their precious vehicle. Today, you can choose from a variety of GPS or GLONASS location systems that allow you to quickly locate a stolen or missing vehicle. The high precision of these systems and the permanently collected data that reaches electronic maps in real-time make these passive or active systems come with recommending them as excellent high tech car security solutions.

Recording dash cameras and emergency assistance buttons that can be used in case of car crashes are also excellent options to consider. Get in touch with us for more!