system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does car hotwiring even work?

In movies and whatnot, some dude breaks into a car, fishes under the steering wheel, grabs two wires and sparks them together, and bam, car works? What're the principles behind this? Does it actually even work? (that sounded very suspicious, I'm not looking for advice on how to steal cars)

I would think that the position of the key-barrel where you normally start the ignition of a car with a car-key would prevent this from occurring?
gpt
When you turn the key in a car, it just turns a rotary switch.  A switch is just a mechanism that connects wires.  If you know the right way to connect the wires, you don't need a switch to do the job.

Now, a lot of newer cars make this impossible because of various security features (like chips in keys) but on older cars, all you need to do it grab the wires & connect them in the same way the ignition switch would have.