In a bunch of scenarios (mining, military, boats, planes) the vehicles explicitly don't have locks or ignition keys, you press a button and it starts up, you're good to go - should the manufacturer be liable if one gets stolen?
No; each of those scenarios involves external access controls that are standard for those industries. (Fences, guards, controlled access.) It's nothing like the Kia/Hyundai scenario, where such vulnerabilities stemmed from not doing the industry standard thing (immobilizers).
Isn't police the external control? It is just that governments have failed to provide enough of these controls... So maybe they should be punished collectively for it?
> Isn't police the external control? It is just that governments have failed to provide enough of these controls...
I can only speak about US law, but there has been repeated case law that the police do not have a duty to protect any person in particular (except possibly when people are in their custody which isn't really relevant here).
The function of the police isn't to stop criminals in the act - given their response times that's largely impossible anyhow (well, outside of traffic violations). They largely deter crime by catching criminals after the fact.
The examples given like military facilities have secure fences, 24 hour guards, etc. They are actually secure facilities. As opposed to someone's driveway.
If you remove enough of the criminals from the population, you end up preventing crime in the long run. When it comes to car theft in particular, police also set up bait cars and then arrest the people who try and steal them. Well, at least that’s what they do in cities that still bother enforcing property crimes.
Even a surveillance state like China has crime - it’s not possible to deploy a police officer to every block and most people would find that objectionable for other reasons. Very few threats can be solved by a single countermeasure because the enemies are also intelligent and motivated.
US military vehicles might have a cable that locks to the steering wheel. So if you try to drive it, you can't steer well. But if not setup properly, it can be steered just fine.
> US military vehicles are protected by the "people with guns who will shoot you" industry standard.
Unless you are an MP, that stuff stays in the armory cage. And if you are headed to the range, ammunition is delivered separately to the range and systems are stringently checked for ammo before returning, afterwards they will do a lockdown inspection of the barracks and everyone's personal vehicles.
