Follow-home robberies are in the news, which is a type of crime that will be lessened in an era of … [+]
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The news these days is filled with quite appalling reports of follow-home robberies.
As a quick background, a follow-home robbery consists of criminals that sneakily target someone while the innocent victim is out and about. The evildoers begin to surreptitiously trail the person or persons, including while the unaware prey is driving home in their car. The target is completely unaware that they are being followed. Upon reaching the normally perceived safety of getting home, and whence the targeted victim is now most vulnerable, the robbers then surprise the target and seek to rob them.
The robbery act might occur the moment that the target pulls into their driveway. The miscreants are likely to pull their car directly up behind the victim’s vehicle and block any possibility of retreat. Quickly surrounding the now parked car of the target, the crooks confront the victim while just getting out of their vehicle. Whatever cash, jewelry, wallets, or other valuables can be jacked from the target are snatched up. The criminals then jump back into their awaiting getaway car and speed away.
In a scant few seconds, you can find yourself dangerously threatened and have key possessions stolen from you.
It all happens so fast that you are nearly in a state of shock as to what just transpired. The kicker is that you think and naturally assume that you were perfectly safe having gotten home and parked in your own driveway or private garage. The usual need to be on your toes is likely reduced. For those that are customarily on alert while out and about, the assumption is that reaching their home is akin to being nestled in a fully safe environment (i.e., using a baseball sports-like analogy, you made it safely to home base).
Of course, sadly things could go even worse.
The criminals might be armed and decide to use a weapon upon their victims. Or the scoundrels might beat up the targets. In addition, if perchance someone comes out of the house that was otherwise merely intending to welcome home the driver or passengers, they too are encompassed into the villainous act. The whole matter is repulsive and horrific.
I regret to add that there is even more worseness to be had.
The evildoers might decide to wait until the target gets into the house. When the timing seems right, the robbers burst into the domicile. This gives them the added advantage of not being readily seen during their criminal acts, which else were being done out in the open at the front yard of the house. Being inside the home also opens up the chance to steal other valuables.
In any case, I think you get the idea about the sordid nature of follow-home robberies.
The crux involves identifying a target at some point during an excursion by the person. The crooks usually are randomly selecting a considered viable target. They don’t know anything about the person beforehand (in essence, having a predetermined target is a different kind of crime, as it were).
Here’s how a follow-home robbery might typically work.
Let’s say that a man and a woman decide to go shopping at their local mall.
Having been somewhat trapped indoors during the pandemic, the couple decides to gleefully get dressed up for a visit to the fancy mall that has some nifty upscale stores. The woman wears pricey jewelry that has been simply sitting unused in a jewelry box for the last many months. The man proudly wears his expensive watch that has rarely been on his arm for the last year or so.
They drive over to the mall. Turns out that the mall is somewhat busy with lots of seasonal shopping occurring. After driving around the parking lot for a while, they finally find a parking spot on the outskirts of the lot (but that doesn’t spoil the joy of being out shopping!). They walk with delight into the mall and enjoy a bit of a shopping spree, something they have only done these last months online and has been unable to do so in person at a decked-out mall.
Okay, we are now at a vital point in the saga.
Carrying several shopping bags filled with purchased goods, the two happily walk back out to their car. It was an exciting time for them as they relished once again being able to shop at stores. They place their shopping bags into the backseat and then get settled into the front seats for a pleasant ride home. During the drive home, they chat about the fun of being out and about.
You might have guessed that they are about to be victims of a follow-home robbery.
Yes, regrettably, this is the case.
Unbeknownst to them, some criminals sitting in a parked car in the parking lot were eyeing shoppers that came out of the mall. There are particular characteristics of interest to the scoundrels. In this case, the woman is clearly wearing jewelry and the man is wearing what seems to be a posh watch. They are carrying bags filled with items, and the bags are handily labeled as to the store names, of which these names are the pricier stores.
Next, the couple gets into a high-end luxury car. This is icing on the cake. The odds are that between the clothing and accessories they are wearing, and the shopping bags, plus the fancy car, it would seem worthwhile to go after these as potential prey. Another important factor is that the couple seemed to be utterly engrossed in their own conversation and had not looked around to see if anyone was observing them.
All in all, this is a high probability target for a decent score.
The criminals opt to follow the couple as they drive out of the mall parking lot. Staying sufficiently behind the targeted car, the crooks try to not tip their hand that they are following the vehicle. If the driver of the targeted car gets wise to what is going on, the gig might be up. The driver might start driving in a more animated fashion, going slow, going fast, and thus suggest that they are testing to ascertain whether they are being followed.
At that juncture, the crooks would need to decide whether to proceed or instead call off the pursuit. They could try to cut off the car and do the evil deed right away. This is likely problematic, and it might be better to let this fish swim away into the sea.
Assuming that the target is not somehow able to figure out they are being followed, the trap is nearly set. The crooks will continue to follow the targeted car and will make a decision in real-time about what to do once the vehicle arrives at a house. They will need to take immediate action if they want to do the quicker smash-and-grab kind of robbery. If they want to do the home invasion robbery, they might need to wait a bit, or possibly call their criminal cohorts to come there too (amassing more evildoers to aid in the more pronounced effort of an in-home robbery).
That pretty much sums up the conventional version of a follow-home robbery (there are lots of variants).
What can someone do to prevent themselves from becoming a target of a follow-home robbery?
The usual advice given by law enforcement involves being supremely aware of your surroundings. Be watching for anyone eyeing you as you exit from the mall. The driver of the car heading out from the mall should be looking in the rearview mirror to see if anyone seems to be following the car. And so on.
There is also the suggestion that it might be wisest to try and not showcase any semblance of flashy or pricey goods. As noted earlier, the instance of having eye-catching jewelry and a watch, plus the loaded bags of high-priced items, stirred the crooks into adding the couple to their prospective target list.
Some bemoan the idea that there should be a need to be watching around you and seemingly on edge of being potentially targeted for a crime. Surely, none of us wishes to be that preoccupied with such concerns. On the other hand, as they say, better to be safe than sorry.
A follow-home robbery is usually undertaken by following one car with at least one other car. There is the prospective target car that is the vehicle to be followed. Then there is a car containing the crooks, or sometimes they work in packs of vehicles, wherein there might be several cars doing the tailing.
This tailing activity might seem to be sophisticated as though it is a secret agent kind of task, but the reality is that it merely requires the use of smartphones and keeping each other alerted as to where the target seems to be heading. No special skills are required. Easy-peasy.
Recall that the driver of the targeted vehicle has a potential opportunity to discover they are being followed. If that happens, the driver could potentially drive directly to a police station and seek help. The driver might call 911 and report that they are being followed. Essentially, the driver or the passenger could likely attain some modicum of safety if they only knew that they were being followed.
Side note: Do not decide to confront the crooks, as this is highly risky and the outcome is bound to be dire. Your better bet is to seek safety and report the matter to law enforcement right away.
Now that we’ve covered the fundamentals of follow-home robberies (an admittedly dour topic), what else is there to say?
A lot.
You see, consider that the advent of AI-based self-driving cars is gradually going to emerge.
Note that there isn’t a human driver involved in a true self-driving car. Keep in mind that true self-driving cars are driven via an AI driving system. There isn’t a need for a human driver at the wheel, and nor is there a provision for a human to drive the vehicle. For my extensive and ongoing coverage of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and especially self-driving cars, see the link here.
Here’s an intriguing question that is worth pondering: What impact if any will there be on follow-home robberies due to the advent of AI-based self-driving cars?
I’d like to first further clarify what is meant when I refer to true self-driving cars.
Understanding Self-Driving Cars Aspects
As a clarification, true self-driving cars are ones that the AI drives the car entirely on its own and there isn’t any human assistance during the driving task.
These driverless vehicles are considered Level 4 and Level 5 (see my explanation at this link here), while a car that requires a human driver to co-share the driving effort is usually considered at Level 2 or Level 3. The cars that co-share the driving task are described as being semi-autonomous, and typically contain a variety of automated add-on’s that are referred to as ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems).
There is not yet a true self-driving car at Level 5, which we don’t yet even know if this will be possible to achieve, and nor how long it will take to get there.
Meanwhile, the Level 4 efforts are gradually trying to get some traction by undergoing very narrow and selective public roadway trials, though there is controversy over whether this testing should be allowed per se (we are all life-or-death guinea pigs in an experiment taking place on our highways and byways, some contend, see my coverage at this link here).
Since semi-autonomous cars require a human driver, the adoption of those types of cars won’t be markedly different than driving conventional vehicles, so there’s not much new per se to cover about them on this topic (though, as you’ll see in a moment, the points next made are generally applicable).
For semi-autonomous cars, it is important that the public needs to be forewarned about a disturbing aspect that’s been arising lately, namely that despite those human drivers that keep posting videos of themselves falling asleep at the wheel of a Level 2 or Level 3 car, we all need to avoid being misled into believing that the driver can take away their attention from the driving task while driving a semi-autonomous car.
You are the responsible party for the driving actions of the vehicle, regardless of how much automation might be tossed into a Level 2 or Level 3.
Self-Driving Cars And Those Dastardly Follow-Home Robbers
For Level 4 and Level 5 true self-driving vehicles, there won’t be a human driver involved in the driving task.
All occupants will be passengers.
The AI is doing the driving.
One aspect to immediately discuss entails the fact that the AI involved in today’s AI driving systems is not sentient. In other words, the AI is altogether a collective of computer-based programming and algorithms, and most assuredly not able to reason in the same manner that humans can.
Why is this added emphasis about the AI not being sentient?
Because I want to underscore that when discussing the role of the AI driving system, I am not ascribing human qualities to the AI. Please be aware that there is an ongoing and dangerous tendency these days to anthropomorphize AI. In essence, people are assigning human-like sentience to today’s AI, despite the undeniable and inarguable fact that no such AI exists as yet.
With that clarification, you can envision that the AI driving system won’t natively somehow “know” about the facets of driving. Driving and all that it entails will need to be programmed as part of the hardware and software of the self-driving car.
Let’s dive into the myriad of aspects that come to play on this topic.
First, it is important to realize that not all AI self-driving cars are the same. Each automaker and self-driving tech firm is taking its own approach to devising self-driving cars. As such, it is difficult to make sweeping statements about what AI driving systems will do or not do.
Furthermore, whenever stating that an AI driving system doesn’t do some particular thing, this can, later on, be overtaken by developers that in fact program the computer to do that very thing. Step by step, AI driving systems are being gradually improved and extended. An existing limitation today might no longer exist in a future iteration or version of the system.
I trust that provides a sufficient litany of caveats to underlie what I am about to relate.
We can now turn our devoted attention to the follow-home robberies scheme.
Envision that the couple that went to the mall had opted to use a self-driving car rather than using a conventional human-driven car. Here’s how things might have gone.
The self-driving car would likely pull up to the curb at the mall, such that the couple would not need to walk out to their car as though it was parked out in the parking lot. This is advantageous for the couple in the sense that it gives less exposure time for the crooks that might be eyeing people coming out of the mall.
Assuming that the self-driving car arrives without any waiting time, the couple would come out of the mall and nearly enter immediately into the self-driving car in one fell swoop. All in all, this reduces the risks of those waiting crooks that aren’t going to have much of an opportunity to scrutinize the couple and figure out whether they are worthy of being a target for the follow-home robbery.
That being said, this is not a cure-all. The crooks could station themselves at the doors of the mall and relay to a waiting cohort in a parked car as to whether the couple seems a handy target.
Sorry, but there is no free lunch in life.
Continuing the tale, during the journey home the couple does not need to pay attention to the roadway. Why? Because the AI driving system is doing all the driving. The couple can merely settle into their comfortable seats and idly chat to their heart’s content about the wonderous trip to the mall.
This is where things, unfortunately, turn south, of a sort.
Because neither member of the couple is driving the car, they are almost certainly going to have a zero chance of spotting a vehicle that is following them. To clarify, the couple could of course be looking out the back window and aim to spot any cars that seem suspiciously following them. Yes, that is absolutely doable.
What I’m suggesting is that they are not especially on alert to do so. A person that is driving a car is usually eyeing their rearview mirror and periodically looking behind them. If a car is obviously stalking your vehicle, the odds are that you would detect this. Again, for clarification, not every human driver is that alert, but I am saying that at least there is a viable chance of making that detection.
All told, the couple in the self-driving car is bound to be lulled into letting the AI do the driving and they are not going to be spying all around the driverless vehicle to try and find evildoers behind them. It just wouldn’t be something on your personal radar to do.
The journey is about to get ugly, so prepare yourself accordingly.
I’ll perhaps surprise you with an added insight. The act of following or stalking a self-driving car is somewhat easier than trying to do the same to a human-driven car. The reason for this is multifold.
First, most self-driving cars are being programmed to strictly obey the rules of the road. No speeding. No running of yellow or red lights. Make full stops at all stop signs. You get the idea.
Trying to follow a vehicle with that kind of driving action or driving behavior is pretty straightforward.
When trying to follow a human driver, there is a lot more chancy activity involved. A human might suddenly make a radical left or right turn, doing so simply because they weren’t watching the roadway and realized after the fact they need to make a turn. They might do all kinds of driving shenanigans.
The lack of predictability of a human driver makes the effort of tailing a conventional human-driven car a bit more challenging. I’m not saying that human drivers are all experts at kicking tails off their trail. The point is that by their very inherent nature, human drivers are likely more erratic than self-driving cars and this wild driving can be difficult to deal with when seeking to quietly and unobtrusively follow another car.
Second, a self-driving car of today’s ilk has a set of exterior features that makes the vehicle stand out. As I’ve explained in my column, self-driving cars do indeed look like self-driving cars (for the time being), see my explanation at this link here. From the perspective of trying to stalk a self-driving car, it is somewhat made easier since the profile of the autonomous vehicle is especially distinctive (in contrast to the everyday conventional-looking car).
The gist is that following a self-driving car is probably easier for the evildoers, unfortunately so.
Once the self-driving car arrives at the home of the couple, we might reasonably assume that the self-driving car will pull up to the curb of the house (rather than parking on the driveway or in a garage, assuming that this is a so-called robo-taxi and not a self-driving car owned by the couple). The couple will get out of the street-side self-driving car, grab up their shopping bags, and walk up to their domicile.
This is the moment that the criminals could undertake the outdoor robbery. They stop their car in front of the house or possibly pull into the empty driveway. They jump out and accost the couple. After doing so, they take their ill-gotten loot and drive away from the crime scene.
Notice that there wasn’t probably a need to block the self-driving car. That’s another difference between driving a human-driven car versus using an AI-based self-driving car.
Here’s the deal.
A human seated at the steering wheel of a conventional car can always start the car and try to desperately drive away. Heck, the human driver might even steer the car in a manner intended to convince the robbers to disperse. I’m not at all saying that anyone should ever do this, and only noting the possibility of it.
With a self-driving car, you are highly unlikely going to be able to suddenly scream at the AI driving system and command it to speed away. That’s not in the cards right now. Instead, you would have to use either your smartphone or maybe a verbal command to ask the AI driving system to proceed. In addition, the AI would want to know where you wish to go.
Yelling out the exclamation that you want to go anywhere but where you are right now is going to be of little value. The AI would likely repeatedly ask you to provide a destination address. I know this sounds somewhat comical and robotic-like as though from a sci-fi movie. Pretty much, that’s the state of the art today (but presumably not of the future).
Any hope of using the self-driving car for purposes of escape or protection is a slim proposition at this time.
To recap, the good news was that the self-driving car picked up the passengers at the mall and reduced the potential risk of being spotted by the follow-home robbers. The bad news, which is lamentably bad, the self-driving car is easy to follow and provides little or no aid upon arriving at the destination domicile.
It is for those reasons that I suggest that things will get worse regarding follow-home robberies upon the initial advent of self-driving cars.
Conclusion
Yikes, this seems to be a bummer for the emergence of self-driving cars.
Do not despair.
The future is brighter than it might seem at first glance.
I’ll hopefully brighten your day by pointing out what could happen with self-driving cars, depending upon how they are devised and their rising popularity over time.
Remember that I mentioned the importance of a human driver paying attention to the vehicle behind their car and potentially discovering that they are being followed. We know that not all human drivers are that self-aware. You might not think of doing so. You might normally do so, but on one particular drive neglect to do so, and perhaps that’s the time that the curse of fate has you being followed by a follow-home robbery crew.
The beauty of self-driving cars (if we can ascribe beauty to them) is that they can be programmed to consistently and reliably take various desired actions. If we want self-driving cars to be spotting any cars that might be following the self-driving car, this can be done. And it would be programmed to always take place (if that’s what we want to have happened).
The AI isn’t going to forget or whine about having to once again look behind the autonomous vehicle to see if anyone is following. I’m not ascribing sentience to AI. I am merely emphasizing that is a potentially well-programmed task and it can be done over and over again, with a likely high level of consistency and reliability.
Okay, so the self-driving car can be a constant lookout. That’s a handy aspect.
Assuming that the AI is able to use the sensors to detect a suspicious stalking vehicle, the same kinds of potential remedies can be applied as prior mentioned. The AI might let the passengers know and then automatically call 911, plus alert the operator of the fleet of self-driving cars. The AI could potentially reroute the self-driving car to the nearest police station. Even trickier, the self-driving car could potentially coordinate electronically with the nearest police car and rendezvous with that police vehicle.
You get the idea, I’m sure.
We can add some steroids to this capability of detecting a stalking car.
Self-driving cars are generally going to be equipped with V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) electronic communications. This is useful for aspects such as one self-driving car that alerts another self-driving car that there is debris on the roadway up ahead. The AI driving system of the receiving message can change routes, slow down, or otherwise take evasive action by this kind of electronic heads-up.
Imagine then that a self-driving car has detected the possibility of another car stalking it. Assuming that there are other nearby self-driving cars, the AI can use V2V and ask those other self-driving cars to also be watchful of the suspected follow-home robbery vehicle. Now, just to mention, this is not what the existing V2V approach is specially designed to do, but the concept is something that could be adopted if so needed.
There is a likewise possibility of using V2I (vehicle-to-infrastructure) electronic communications. The idea here is that a self-driving car could electronically get messages from the roadway infrastructure, such as an intersection traffic signal indicating that the light will be going red shortly or that a bridge ahead is temporarily unavailable for use.
An AI driving system could request via V2I for added data about the traffic history of the suspected stalking vehicle. This might assist the AI in figuring out whether the crooks are likely following or maybe just by happenstance it is a car that momentarily appears to be on the trail of the self-driving car.
Overall, the widespread adoption of self-driving cars will accordingly increase the facet that the self-driving cars can identify and potential single out a follow-home robbery activity that is in the midst of being plotted. Besides the V2V and V2I, another factor is that self-driving cars won’t stick out anymore. When there are thousands of them on our roadways, they will actually blend in and be harder to likely follow.
The future then appears to be that follow-home robberies will have a devil of a time taking place in an era of widespread use of self-driving cars.
As a quick aside, there are also some tangential downsides to all these V2V and V2I and the avid sensors of driverless cars, which I’ve denoted as the “roving eye” and entails a plethora of privacy intrusion qualms.
In any case, you might be having a contemplative thought about an added twist, namely if the criminals were trying to use a self-driving car as the stalking vehicle (versus using a human-driven car), what would happen? For various reasons, this would likely be prohibitive as a crime undertaking approach and not a viable means to do the trailing (see my column for further explanation).
That about wraps up things on this topic for now.
There is a grandiose myriad of reasons to seek the rollout of true self-driving cars (there are plenty, see my indication at this link here), you can now add to the impressive list that those dastardly follow-home robbery crooks will find themselves unable to readily carry out at least this type of repugnant crime.
Score one for us all and self-driving cars.
A noteworthy happy ending.
