12 replies to this topic

[mariner]

Well not quite and it's not racing but I just heard of yet another cunning theft trick in the UK. 

 

Apparently if you have keyless car entry fob then the car sends out a continuous low energy radio signal looking to " handshake" the key fob and so open the car and let you start it up and drive.

 

Normally with the keyfob inside your house all is safe but crooks have developed a booster gadget which re-transmits the handshake signals. So they get near your front door and relay the radio signals back forth to the car allowing them to start it with your keys safely ( you thought) in your home.

 

The suggested fix is to use a metal or metal screened key box in the  house to block the relay signals from the theft gadget.

 

So not quite a Faraday Cage but nearly!

[Talisman]

Quite a few cars in our area seem to have been stolen this way, and our neighbours have footage from their CCTV of the thieves attempting unsuccessfully to do the trick you describe to steal their car.

 

You can buy a Faraday bag quite cheaply off amazon which we store our keys in now, didn't believe it would work but walking up to the car with the keys in said bag has no effect and phones lose signal within it so must be effective.

 

I'm surprised that the manufacturers haven't tried yet to sort this issue out, IIRC almost all of the top ten stolen cars in the UK are now keyless.

[BRG]

I hate keyless cars.  Why do we have to accept this crap?  Just say NO.

[Marc Sproule]

why am i not surprised!?

[GreenMachine]

Not new.  In 2007 I toured Europe in a Renault Clio with this.  It was a worry, as I was camping next to the car ...  fortunately knowledge of the problem was not sufficiently widespread amongst the criminal classes for the car to be burgled, or maybe the criminal classes and motorsport fans are mutually exclusive groups?

(Yes I know about the Great Train Robbery connection)

 

[Lee Nicolle]

Having spent a month with a keyless car it was so bloody annoying. And yes I did think about the potential for this type of theft.

Call me old fashioned but cars have keys that turn the ignition switch. And turn them off as well. Not holding down a stupid 'start' button to turn it off that has been proven to cause fatalities.

[Wuzak]

Not holding down a stupid 'start' button to turn it off that has been proven to cause fatalities.

 

Really?

 

Do you have some examples.

 

Interested because my car is keyless entry. 

[Greg Locock]

The toyota camry crash with a jammed throttle was exacerbated by the driver not knowing or remembering to hold the start button down for 3seconds to kill the engine.

[BRG]

 

Call me old fashioned

Yes, you are old fashioned.  But that doesn't mean that you are wrong.  Sometimes the old ways are still the best.  Keyless entry is a pain in the arse and undoubtedly a security risk, not to mention a safety risk as you say.

[kikiturbo2]

I have to say that out of all the "new" features on cars the only two I really like are renaults keyless entry and go and the one touch electric window drop/raise on all 4 windows..  

[munks]

I do have multiple complaints about the logic they've had to develop for keyless vehicles. My wife has one, and one of the more 'amusing' situations is when I drive and drop her off in front of a restaurant to get a table. Except she's the one carrying the fob. Eventually the car realizes that the fob isn't inside, and starts freaking out with beeping. I'm trying to find a parking spot with this annoyance, and then after 15 seconds or so it REALLY starts beeping with the message that the car will soon turn its own ignition off.

 

Now it's a race between me finding a spot in a crowded lot and the car stopping dead cold in a random place. If someone can explain to Toyota that this is not a safe situation, I would be grateful.

 

(BTW, since we don't learn from our mistakes, this same situation has happened about four times now.)

[Lee Nicolle]

I have to say that out of all the "new" features on cars the only two I really like are renaults keyless entry and go and the one touch electric window drop/raise on all 4 windows..  

I hate auto down, if I want to put the window down an inch for some fresh air you fight the thing back and forward.

[kikiturbo2]

ok, depends on the switch design... The ones I have it works perfectly... the VW ones are finicky..