Could Your Ignition Key Be Big Brother?

Sunday, 23. May 2010

Have you taken much notice of the key to your new car? You may well find that it no longer has the metal bit that normally goes into the lock. As a result you may well think that it is a bit of electronic jiggery pokery that is used to make it more difficult to start your car without the key. But you may be surprised to learn that it actually stores a lot of information about the car and its service condition including its mileage. In fact fraud investigators are using modern car keys to detect more crimes than ever. In one case a claimant said that his car had been stolen from outside his house. It was later found in a field partially burned out and assumed that joy riders had taken it but when the investigators managed to retrieve the mileage from the speedo that could still be read with the help of modern equipment and the key that the claimant still had in his possession they found that the car must have been driven to the field and an arrest was made. Not quite a black box but a move in the right direction. By Graham Hill