Invention: Safety Conk-Out
Purpose: thwart car jacking

Background: Now a-days when the thief wants to heist your car, rather than defeat the myriad of anti-theft car alarms with electronic keys, he waits until you have it mobile (turn-key) and at a stop light intersection pops the driver’s door open and yanks you out. Away he goes — unless you have my invention. The Safety Conk-Out would purposely disable the vehicle should a door open while the engine was running and transmission in-gear. You’ve seen the perps trying to evade the police chase in their stolen vehicle? (Cops – Fox TV network) When they realize that best escape is to try and bail and the foot pursuit phase begins. They drive along with the door half open looking for the best opportunity sometimes to jump out only to abort and climb back in and speed away. Many times when the crook exits and keeps on going he leaves the vehicle in drive and it idles away to wreck or cause property damage. Safety Conk-Out will foil this nonsense.

Actualization: Low cost. All new cars have computers. Many new cars have door ajar warning lights already. This invention could be implemented as a software upgrade with very little hardware modification. The logic would re-set itself after a given length of time say 10 minutes. Opening the door with the shift in Park would not trigger Safety Conk-Out.