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Market Opportunity: Airbag Theft Deterrent?

By crooky | April 3, 2008

Some of you might not know this about me but I used to be a public servant. One of the many agencies that I worked for during my stint as a wage slave was the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (we have public insurance here in BC). While there, I was a public affairs officer and was responsible for talking with the public about things like road safety, anti-theft and licensing policy. Even though it’s been a whole decade since I worked there, I liked to think that I knew my car theft trends.

Today, I was surprised when I was sitting waiting for a friend in a Drivers Services Centre to see the following poster:

Top Ten Items Stolen from Vehicles:

1. Stereo equipment - CD players, amps, speakers, subwoofers

2. Compact discs

3. Personal items - clothes, sunglasses, bags, briefcases

4. Coins - parking change

5. Registration papers

6. Garage door openers

7. Cell phones, portable DVD players and MP3 players

8. Work tools

9. Airbags.

10. Tires and wheels

Airbags??? Seriously? I may be out of touch with crime trends this surprised the hell out of me. I did a bit more digging and discovered that air bag units net about $250 on the black market - probably more than you would get for an aftermarket head unit for a car. According to the Highway Loss Data Institute, airbag theft now represents 10% of all auto-related theft.

Can anyone say “market opportunity”? Maybe you can be the person that invents “the Club” for airbags.

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology

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Topics: Cars, Uncategorized |

2 Responses to “Market Opportunity: Airbag Theft Deterrent?”

  1. Mark Mawhinney Says:
    April 3rd, 2008 at 9:01 pm

    Airbag, seriously?! OK, the anti-theft device that seems natural for an airbag must involve a sharp device - it can either pop the bag or pop the robber. That’s as far as my creative mind goes!

  2. Aaron Cruikshank Says:
    April 4th, 2008 at 6:36 am

    Hmmm… I think the main problem is that the airbag system is a cartridge that’s replaceable. You can literally pop it out with a screwdriver. Once they’ve deployed, they’re junk. An airbag anti-theft system would need to stop thieves from pulling the cartridge out, I think.

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