Agree, human error has lead to handbrakes not being applied since they were invented.

EPB doesn't mean drivers will always apply it.

The article about the Lexus theft is in the Daily Mail.

Having read it, he clearly doesn't know how the system works, claiming that the theives must have intercepted the signal when the car was locked at 6pm, and came back later to steal it. It will have been stolen by the standard "relay theft" where if the key can be woken up by boosting the signal if it's left near a door or window of the house. They won't have needed to be there earlier in the day.

The bit about now storing the keys in a locked red metal box in the microwave sounds daft too - surely less hassle to permanently disable keyless entry in the settings on the car if they are that worried about it happening again.

Interestingly my car (which will use the same Toyota security systems as the Lexus) didn't come with full keyless entry - you have to press the button to lock/unlock, which I'm quite glad of. There is a note in the manual which indicates that this is specific to UK market cars, with those elsewhere still provided with keyless entry.

I wonder if this means that relay theft is a UK specific problem, or perhaps insurance companies are finally waking up and threatening to up the insurance groups of cars with keyless entry.

My Dad had one of those in the 1970s. I think the handbrake worked on the front disks and what could happen was if the handbrake was applied only just sufficiently when the disks were hot, then as they cooled then the contraction could be just enough to let go. I think some Citroens used to suffer the same. Early BX maybe? Leaving the car in gear was a way around the problem.

I don't have EPB, but I do leave the car in gear when parked as well as applying the handbrake. I thought that was standard good practice.

Parking on hills. If you park on a hill you should:

• park close to the kerb and apply the handbrake firmly
• select a forward gear and turn your steering wheel away from the kerb when facing uphill
• select reverse gear and turn your steering wheel towards the kerb when facing downhill
• use ‘park’ if your car has an automatic gearbox.