Speeding off in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch. But he is in for an unwelcome surprise. The car is fitted with a remote immobilizer, and a radio signal from a control centre miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine off, he will not be able to start it again.
小偷开着偷来的车飞奔，他以为自己偷到了一件好东西，但他会遭遇一次意想不到的惊吓。这辆车安装了远程锁止器，来自几英里外控制中心的无线电信号将确保小偷一旦关闭发动机，就无法再次启动。
The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car contains a mini-cellphone, a micro- processor and memory, and a GPS satellite positioning receiver. ff the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the control centre to block the vehicle's engine management system and prevent the engine being restarted.
想法是这样的：安装在汽车上的控制盒包括一部迷你手机、一个微处理器和内存，以及一个GPS卫星定位接收器。如果汽车被盗，编码的手机信号会告诉控制中心锁住汽车的发动机管理系统，阻止发动机重新启动。
In the UK, a set of technical fixes is already making life harder for car thieves. 'The pattern of vehicle crime has changed,' says Martyn Randall, a security expert. He says it would only take him a few minutes to teach a person how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools. But only if the car is more than 10 years old.
在英国，一系列技术修复已经让偷车贼的生活变得更加艰难。安全专家Martyn Randall说：“车辆犯罪的模式已经改变”。他说，只要几分钟就可以教一个人如何用最少的工具偷车，但前提是汽车使用年限超过10年。
Modern cars are far tougher to steal, as their engine management computer won't allow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition key. In the UK, technologies like this have helped achieve a 31% drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997.
现代汽车更难被盗，因为发动机管理计算机不允许它们启动，除非它们收到点火钥匙发出的唯一ID编码。在英国，自1997年以来，此类技术已帮助车辆相关犯罪下降了31%。
But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars, often by getting bold of the owner's keys. And key theft is responsible for 40% of the thefts of vehicles fitted with a tracking system.
但决心坚定的犯罪分子仍在设法找到其他偷车方法，通常是大胆拿走车主的钥匙。在装有跟踪系统的车辆失窃案中，钥匙失窃占40%。
If the car travels 100 metres without the driver confirming their ID, the system will send a signal to an operations centre that it has been stolen. The hundred metres minimum avoids false alarms due to inaccuracies in the GPS signal.
如果汽车行驶了100米而驾驶员没有确认其身份，系统将向操作中心发送被盗信号。百米的最小值避免了由于GPS信号不准确而引起的误报警。
Staff at the centre will then contact the owner to confirm that the car really is missing, and keep police informed of the vehicle's movements via the car's GPS unit.
然后，该中心的工作人员将联系车主，确认汽车确实不见了，并通过汽车的GPS单元随时向警方通报车辆的动向。
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