Comment Re:Sounds like having a button would be good (Score 1) 171
A large lock/unlock button to be able to escape or seal out intruders (where unlock would stop the car).
I don't know about Americans, but purpose-built taxis here have the "child locks" wired up to the driver's console. And obviously, people-proof glass around the passenger compartment. Passenger gets in, driver sets the "on hire" "flag" (a literal semaphore-type flag in some cities) which engages the door locks. Passenger doesn't want to pay? Driver calls the police, who come and arrest the miscreant. Passenger pays? Cab goes back "for hire" and the locks are disengaged so the passenger can leave.
Not-built for purpose taxis frequently have electronic "child locks" too, as well as the decades-old mechanical ones. I think they're pretty common on general purpose vehicles - it's been that long since I investigated a 5-door car, I don't know if the rear doors can be "child-locked" from the console. I guess that's a pan-European thing, because nobody designs dedicated vehicles for individual countries these days.
In the United States, that would be "false imprisonment" or whatever the title would be in any other given state, and that is only while the passenger isn't in motion. Once the passenger is in motion, that becomes kidnapping, which is a forcible felony, in which deadly force is available and on the table. Such an arraignment wouldn't be allowed here. You need to also understand that the material you are talking about(the "people-proof glass") most likely isn't glass, and it is only rated to withstand so many impacts by a human/round of ammunition hitting it before it will fail. So, yeah, no thank you.