@dalias Huh. I thought this si a weird and fancy feature that got popular in the last ~5 years. E.g Chevrolet Aveo (started production in '02) has purely mechanical trunk lock (I'm positive because I used to have circuit diagrams for all of its electrics) and I don't remember cars that I'd used earlier than 5 years ago having even an ability to electrically trigger the trunk to open.
Is the state you're describing in the USA?