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Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

bbc.co.uk

61–70 of 102 posts

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#61
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does such car exist? (Tesla Maybe?)

None of the cars I have driven in the last decade had physical keys. Owned a Nissan, Mercedes and Toyota, rented various BMWs, Peugeots etc...

Mind listing some exact vehicle make+models?

Because besides personal experience, googling the proximity keys of all of those brands shows the expected pop-out keys.

Also photos of various models from all those brands in 2020 show key holes on the driver's door, which would suggest there is in fact a key somewhere that fits it.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#62
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still sounds pretty mysterious to me. This kind of event is rare, and the source of the interference is (currently) a mystery. I’d love to pop by with a HackRF and directional antenna if I lived anywhere near-by!

It feel like it's getting more and more common. There is so much cheap no-name hardware imported where they just slap on FCC and CE logos. My bet is that it's a cheap power supply, they are the worst offenders.

I bought a couple capacitive touch 433Mhz light switches to use for a home automation system on AliExpress. Turns out they were very prone to detecting “ghost” touches and would sometimes end up stuck in the “touched” position forever, which would cause the same issue. Ended up binning them and going back to “push button” switches which are more reliable and are more likely to fail into the “off” position should they fail.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#63
post #51
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that uncommon actually. Even at my car dealership this is a common problem. A couple hundred cars with the same keyless entry system parked in the same lot. All those cars are actively scanning for their key fob, which causes all sorts of RF collisions. I've gotten used to having to use my physical key when picking up my car at the dealership.

the cars are transmitting? are you quite sure?

Could be a challenge-response scheme where all cars are sending their challenge at the same time, after the initial signal from the keyfob.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#64
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars not having physical locks on doors or for ignitions anymore is one, I assume.

Does such car exist? (Tesla Maybe?)

I only just realised that there is an emergency physical key door lock on my Hyundai, but you have to pry a cover off the door handle to get to it.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#65
post #5

There is nothing 'mysterious' about this, this is just how radios work. Neither does it have to be malicious. Most car key fobs work in the 433MHz range, if there is something in the area transmitting at said frequency, it will cause the relatively weak signals from keys fobs to be blocked. This it why we have electromechanical compatibility (EMC) certification for any electrical devices being sold. With the market b…

I believe you meant eletromagnetic compatibility (EMC).

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great way to get lynched by angry drivers assuming the person with the gear is the culprit.

It's in Britain. We're not like that.

We'll just say it's not a problem and then have the hypothetical argument we wanted to have when we're back home.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can share that from living in a Northern UK city, between 2 or 3 "notorious" streets there would be multiple car break-ins each week. The University's student Facebook page became a constant feed of people reporting cars with smashed windows.

There is a big difference between drug addicts breaking windows to steal change and cars being stolen,

I lived in Leeds (Northern UK City) for a while about 15 years ago and, yeah, cars were stolen routinely (mine included). I would expect it is less common now though?

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#68
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still sounds pretty mysterious to me. This kind of event is rare, and the source of the interference is (currently) a mystery. I’d love to pop by with a HackRF and directional antenna if I lived anywhere near-by!

It's not that uncommon actually. Even at my car dealership this is a common problem. A couple hundred cars with the same keyless entry system parked in the same lot. All those cars are actively scanning for their key fob, which causes all sorts of RF collisions. I've gotten used to having to use my physical key when picking up my car at the dealership.

What brand of cars are these? It's not an issue in any car park I've been to.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#69
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still sounds pretty mysterious to me. This kind of event is rare, and the source of the interference is (currently) a mystery. I’d love to pop by with a HackRF and directional antenna if I lived anywhere near-by!

It feel like it's getting more and more common. There is so much cheap no-name hardware imported where they just slap on FCC and CE logos. My bet is that it's a cheap power supply, they are the worst offenders.

The “China Export” logo is a blatant but subtle imitation of the actual CE logo. Quite frankly insidious...

https://support.ce-check.eu/hc/en-us/articles/360008642600-H...

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#70

Does UK still have those vans that drive around, looking for unlicensed TVs? If so, could one of those be repurposed? I suspect they have fairly wideband scanners.

I remember this being a common fear in the UK during the 90s. I cannot report on whether such vans actually existed.

Well, you're in luck! I can report on them existing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_detector_van

I remember seeing them, when I lived in London, in the 1970s.

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