Advertisement
Engadget
Why you can trust us

Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products.

BMW remotely locks a thief inside a car

The crook learned first-hand about the advantages of connected cars.

Mark Elias/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Here's an unexpected perk of owning a tech-savvy car: it can serve as an impromptu jail. When a Seattle-area BMW 550i owner's car was stolen from a parking garage, police got BMW to remotely lock the luxury sedan while the thief was sleeping inside with the motor running. The culprit briefly tried to drive away when police woke him up, but it's not as if he could get very far being trapped in the cabin.

This sort of incident isn't very likely to happen, as you might have gathered. The thief only got in because a friend borrowing the 550i had left a key fob inside, and it's not very common that a thief is foolish enough to sleep inside a car shortly after the theft (especially with the engine on). Still, this shows how much riskier it is to swipe a car in the modern era. Even if crooks get past the initial security, they can easily be caught if they're known to be inside the vehicle. Let's just hope that hackers and less-than-upstanding authorities don't abuse this power.