There's this weird conspiracy theory that is making the rounds. The conspiracy goes like this: car manufacturers don't want homeless people sleeping in cars, so when a car is off, the air vents automatically close.
Two notes go here:
1) It is true that often, the first I hear of a conspiracy theory is from someone pretending to debunk it.
2) The Ars Technica article provided does not support the conspiracy theory.
It is easy enough to put this conspiracy theory to rest by simply reading the article:
The Times explains that the couple's inability to unlock the doors stemmed from "a combination of stress, night-time, and what they called a lack of information from a car salesperson."
Although the pair tried to summon aid by sounding the car's horn and tried to break the car's windows with the spare tire jack, they ended up stuck in the Mazda from about 7:00 in the evening of November 5 through about 7:45am the next morning. Neighbors found the couple in dire straits, with Mollieanne Smith unconscious and her husband Brian having difficulty breathing. Mrs. Smith required a three-day hospital stay to recover.
All of the Mazda3 hatchback models sold in New Zealand, even the base model, are equipped with push-button starting and keyless entry via a radio-equipped key fob. In spite of the fob and the lack of keys to put into an ignition, the door lock mechanism on the Mazda3 isn't any more or less complicated than on countless other modern vehicles. The car has power door locks that can be operated by switches on the doors' arm rests; there's also a mechanical lock/unlock switch integrated into the door handle itself.
However, the door doesn't automatically unlock when the interior handle is pulled—and therein lay the problem for the Smiths. According to the Times, the couple had been led to believe by their Mazda dealership that the key fob was the only way to unlock the doors; this mistaken impression, coupled with the fact that the vehicle was parked in their garage and that it was apparently too dark to clearly see the interior switches, led to the nearly fatal overnight stay.
"Once I found out how simple it was to unlock it I kicked myself that I did not find the way out," Smith is quoted as having said. The Times also says that since going to the media with their story, the couple has been contacted by "about five" other people who have had "similar keyless-car experiences."
(Hutchinson↱)
It remains unclear what people expect when putting so little effort into inventing conspiracy theories. That is, we get that only the most gullible fall for this stuff, but, given the unreliability of the description, "this weird conspiracy theory that is making the rounds", it might also occur to wonder what rounds the conspiracy theory is making. And in a way, we have our answer: The conspiracy theory is apparently making the rounds among ... well, right, just how do we describe this market niche?
I was unable to verify if this is a true story. There are no photographs of the alleged 'couple' and the 'couple' mentioned they were opening up a group to warn the public about the ''risks'' of these new cars. I was unable to find said group, and it's been over seven years since the article was submitted. None of the key details in the story add up, and the car model is mentioned a suspicious amount of times in every iteration of this legend.
This paragraph, for instance; it is so insubstantial, it could have been written by a bot.
• "unable to verify if this is a true story" — Take it up with the Otago Daily Times.
• "no photographs of the alleged 'couple'" — Well, to become internationally infamous for being not-quite mortally stupid on Guy Fawkes Day is the sort of accomplishment most people wouldn't tout on a regular basis.
• "the 'couple' mentioned they were opening up a group … I was unable to find said group" — Again, international infamy for being extraordinarily stupid on, even compared to the sort of stupidity that can happen on days of revelry.
• "None of the key details in the story add up" — That assertion is meaningless in its moment and context.
• "the car model is mentioned a suspicious amount of times in every iteration of this legend" — The car model is a known value; the alleged conspiracy theory extrapolates to other models and manufacturers.
Additionally, some basic intuition that goes here: Most homeless people living out of a car are not living in a car with all of its seals intact. The cold is the greater danger. We could probably build a laboratory environment for measuring the risks of sleeping in a given model of car, but it is also worth bearing two points in mind: First, the reason we don't hear about more people dying like this ought to be pretty obvious; second, the idea that auto manufacturers would deliberately build that kind of risk into their cars defies particular ranges of logic, perhaps the most persuasive being that of their insureres.
Put this conspiracy theory to rest? Why would anyone breathe such life into it in the first place? There is nothing substantial about the description of the conspiracy theory; that is, even the conspiracism itself is weirdly insubstantial.
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Notes:
Hutchinson, Lee. "New Zealand couple manages to lock themselves in keyless car for 13 hours". Ars Technica. 18 December 2014. ArsTechnica.com. 24 December 2021. https://bit.ly/3pnYlr1