I am a firm believer of the KISS principal: Keep It Simple, Stupid. If a bungie shock absorber and a weaker weak link worked, fine. But it seems to me that we have had 80 years to perfect the weak link and it just hasn't happened. Since then we have had a progression in computer technology from zero to self-driving vehicles. Thus it seems natural to me to apply this technology to this problem.

Tom

Bungie isn't really much a of a shock absorber, the exponential nature of the spring force isn't the best here. Combine that (or a spring) with an actual shock absorber and autorelease when the shock is compressed enough, you can set the limit of stolen energy via the tow-rope to pretty much anything within a certain time.

As a software engineer who's done plenty of embedded stuff also, I would much prefer an analog solution.