[msej449]

The police evidence in the UK at least is that all this improved security against passive theft (i.e. when the car is locked and inactive) has led to an increase in violent assault and break-ins - to get their hands on the physical key fob.

Here, most car thefts in the SUV/luxury/performance car segment are 'to order' by professional gangs. And it's SUVs that are the top targets e.g. the BMW X5 is regularly the #1 stolen car in the UK. And that's by absolute numbers i.e. more X5's than any other model are stolen. Other favourites are Range Rover, Discovery and similar big SUVs.

What the gangs do is to collect orders from their contacts and then go 'shopping'. They'll generally limit themselves to certain models at any one time (so they also trade orders). They will survey an area and look firstly for cars on the list that are parked on driveways. Ones parked on the street are less favoured, unless they can identify the driver's home. {ANd BTW this makes me uneasy about Google Street Views - my performance car has shown up on the latest version, when briefly parked on my drive as opposed to in my garage.]

They favour getting hold of the fob physically if possible. Ideally, by quiet intrusion from the hall table etc., cloning and then returning the keys. If not that, they'll pose as utility or similar personnel and clone the keys while in your house. Or take the keys and clone them, then place them back on the drive to make it look like you dropped them or similar. They then return a while later in the early hours and take the car. This is why so many owners report "My car got stolen last night but I still have the keys - I don't understand!". Only as a last resort will 'professional' gangs break in forcibly, with you there, and take the keys and the car at the same time: far too much to go wrong.

Of course, an alternative is just to wait for you to approach/leave your car and then assault you for the fob/key and drive the car away. Professional gangs don't like this - again there's too much to go wrong. Unfortunately, some of the 'subcontractors' they use will resort to this if otherwise thwarted.

To an extent, this makes the physical vs electronic key discussion irrelevant: the trend is now towards simply getting their hands on the key/fob whatever. So I think the question is, ' In the light of the above, does the announcement represent a good or a bad thing?'