The alternative, tire boots, are equally asinine and more likely to damage the car. These seem fractionally better up to the point where they are hacked. Unessarily connected devices are a liability beyond measure, and it floors me that nobody seems to notice.
A boot, at least, does not obstruct a now-angry driver's view. I have no doubt people will try to drive away with these devices on their windshield despite the loud noise. It's a recipe for accidents.
I appreciate the many definitions of "hacking" and "turn on your defroster for 15 minutes" qualifies as a clever exploit.
But at some point a bad product has to be called a bad product. A deterrent that can't deter anyone, but does less damage than a boot, is still useless, not better.
This is a stupid question, but something I’ve always wondered about is how tow trucks disengage the clutch and/or the parking brake... am I to understand that they simply don’t? So if I park my manual transmission car in reverse and with the parking brake on, they’re just going to literally drag my car to their lot or destroy my gearbox? How is this not a bigger issue?
They will just pick it up from whichever end is the drive side wheel, or they will 'break' into your car and put it in neutral. Depends on the tow business though, around me they only have flat bed haulers so they will just cable your car up and drag it on. Ideally also in neutral, but they would have no problem doing it even with a locked 4 wheel drive vehicle since the cable is lifting a bit up and the tow truck is many times heavier than any consumer vehicle and it isn't enough force at low speed to cause any damage.
Depends on the car and where it's drive wheels are. Also I think tow drivers are authorized to use a tool to break in to the car (non destructively) to put it in neutral if necessary.
Aside: if you ever notice a teeny tiny panel that has a dimple or hole to open it with by the shifter, that's the release for the interlock that prevents changing gears without the keys. That's how you get in neutral when the owner isn't present.
