Sadiq Khan hails new Google software that makes mobiles completely useless to moped-riding thieves – as critics say London mayor must do more [Video]

07:00 EDT 23 Oct 2024, updated 11:19 EDT 23 Oct 2024

Sadiq Khan has hailed Google‘s new innovative software that will render mobile phones useless if stolen by moped-riding thieves.

The Mayor of London saw the new technology for himself during a visit to Google’s offices in St Pancras on Tuesday, where he was shown new security features available to Android smartphones. 

These include the ability to hide sensitive apps, including banking apps, behind a PIN-locked area, as well as a new AI-powered tool that can sense when the phone has been snatched.

Theft Detection Lock becomes activated if someone is fleeing at speed from one location to another with the phone. 

Google said its AIwill be able to detect ‘common motion associated with theft’ by reading signals from the device, such as the accelerometer reading the sudden jolt of someone on a bike snatching a phone from a user’s hand and then moving off at a high speed, …