Snatching a keyless car?

[Haliotis]

Just an imagined scenario.  You come back to car with shopping, and fob is in your pocket and out of its Faraday bag. You are at the rear, loading your shopping into the boot.  Someone jumps into the driving seat, starts the car, drives off.  The question is, “Will the car immobilise itself once the car is out of range of the fob.”

[Stivino]

No.

[Barkley]

No - but if it stalls or needs to restart as the key isn’t present it won’t.  I swapped driving with my wife and forgot she had the key, once I parked up I couldn’t start it again!

[APS]

No, but the car won't start to begin with as you are standing outside (behind) the car. The key needs to be inside the car for it to start.

[Haliotis]

There seems to be two opposite schools of thought here.  Of these, I do find it hard to accept that the signal zone of the car is precise enough to detect whether the fob is inside or outside of the car.     Out of curiosity, I am going to perform a few tests on my driveway to establish exactly how it reacts.

For security, in future after opening the boot I will be putting the fob back into its Faraday bag until I have closed the boot, and then take it out of its bag again when I am alongside my driving door.

Obviously, the bagged fob will be in my pocket, and not inside the car boot.  I have already checked that the car does not respond when the fob is in its bag.

[Roy124]

42 minutes ago, APS said:

No, but the car won't start to begin with as you are standing outside (behind) the car. The key needs to be inside the car for it to start.

There are zones.  I sometimes put my keys in the boot when it's convenient and the car will not start.  Even in the car an supposedly in the zone there are dead spots.   The back cup holder or the front cubby often get a no key alert.

As Raymond says, watch who has the keys.  A not untypical example, HE drives to the station, SHE drives home.

Best case she can find the spare key.  Worst case the car is unlocked and immobilised at the supermarket.......

[APS]

38 minutes ago, Haliotis said:

There seems to be two opposite schools of thought here.  Of these, I do find it hard to accept that the signal zone of the car is precise enough to detect whether the fob is inside or outside of the car.     Out of curiosity, I am going to perform a few tests on my driveway to establish exactly how it reacts.

They have absolutely thought about this when they designed the system. It works through signal strength to determine proximity. As far as I'm aware there's no triangulation.

There are low power transmitters in the front of the centre console and in the door handles.  When you stand outside the car, the signal from the internal transmitter will be weaker than when you are inside. The signal from the door handle on the other hand, will be relatively stronger. A clear indicator that you are (the key is) outside the car. This will also help determine the location of the key should you hold it up at window level (glass has very low RF signal attenuation), or have the driver's door open. 

The boot is generally too far away from the centre console for the car to be started and will only be close to the transmitter in the boot handle.  

EDIT: I should have said, this is also how the car will prevent you from locking a remote key inside the car. 

[AndrueC]

14 minutes ago, APS said:

The boot is generally too far away from the centre console for the car to be started and will only be close to the transmitter in the boot handle.

I've often left the keys in my boot by mistake having forgotten to remove them from my golf bag. The car has always started for me and it's usually only when I try to find the keys to open my front door that I realise where they are.

But if you're genuinely concerned about someone carjacking you in a supermarket I'd suggest moving to a more civilised part of the country. I'd suggest anywhere in the other 98% of it, lol.

[Cyker]

I don't know how, but it can tell when the key is in the car or outside the car, and it won't start the car unless it thinks it's inside; They definitely wouldn't be able to start it if you were standing behind loading in shopping.

We were playing around with it when I first got it, and the furthest away we could get it to start without the key in the car was with it practically touching the driver's window near the wing mirror (We were bored and trying to re-enact that episode of Top Gear with Hammond's keyless Dodge  )

 

[AndrueC]

Also if you get out with the engine running and the key in your pocket it starts to beep before you are clear of the door.

Admittedly I've not tried to test this by climbing out of the rear..

🙂

[Rhymes with Paris]

1 hour ago, AndrueC said:

But if you're genuinely concerned about someone carjacking you in a supermarket I'd suggest moving to a more civilised part of the country. I'd suggest anywhere in the other 98% of it, lol

I'd suggest not round here though, they'd set their pit bulls on you for a packet of Jaffa cakes, and have your gold teeth out if you object.

Luckily though, they will not take your car as things like door handles confuse them, and they find it difficult to operate anything more complicated than an electric scooter.

Unless you shop at Waitrose obviously, then it's a better class of thief, and they only want your quinoa and kimchi fritters.

 

[Haliotis]

I religiously use my Faraday bag.  After leaving the car, I walk a short distance away then operate the fob and watch that the door mirrors fold inwards, the indicators flashing at same time, and then put the fob in the bag.

On returning, I never remove the fob from the bag until I am alongside my driver’s door.

Given a choice, I would always prefer the conventional ignition key.

[Cyker]

Just FYI, when you press the lock button on the fob to lock the car, you can hold it and double-press the unlock button and it should put the fob to sleep, so if you ever lose/forget the Faraday bag you can use that as a backup. It'll even prolong the life of the fob Battery!

Only downside with that is you have to press the Unlock button to unlock the car and wake up the fob, as the keyless entry won't work while the fob is asleep.

 

[Gren]

I wondered about this too.  I'm new to Toyota, but my previous car, a Renault, was my first keyless one, and initially I subconsciously wanted to put it in the ignition lock!  However the Renault had a slot to put the keycard in, and also sounded a warning if you forgot to take it out again after switching off.  That was good-habit-forming to make sure you had the key.  It did start ok if I had the key in my pocket, but I usually put it in the slot.