Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 102 posts

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#91

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

moonbug wrote: post #51
LeonM wrote: 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?

Unless you want to recharge your fob every week it has to stay passive as much as possible. The car has a bigger battery.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#92

Post by bsd44 »

globular-toast wrote: post #74
bsd44 wrote: post #71

I once found out that that the reason why people parked next to my car can't unlock their cars is because I had my rear parking sensor switched on. As soon as I switched them off, their car fobs would start working again. I had some custom Chinese-made rear parking sensor installed. So nothing "mysterious", just radio frequency interference.

I mean, it's not a mystery to you, but it's certainly a mystery to most of the general public. You can't see radio waves and most people have no idea that their car remote is operating in the same space as dozens of radio stations, GPS, Wi-fi etc. The vast majority of the population is quite happy to accept technology as magic.

I didn't mean "mystery" as "unexplained", I meant "mystery" as "magic, conspiracy, aliens..." type of interpretation which general public seem to take on lately.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#93

Post by gyz »

I had an experience like this in a parking lot in Belarus: our van wouldn't react to the keyfob. A man soon came by offering to help for some money, but some others warned us he was using some kind of jammer to make this happen on purpose.

In fact I think it wasn't specifically made to be a jammer, he was just trolling with an accidentally-discovered device causing interference

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#94

Post by JdeBP »

dkdbejwi383 wrote: post #46

They must not have been from around there. It’s a local shop, for local people.

It's yet another large Tesco Extra on the edge of a town, in this particular case just off the Royston Bypass, with the intended large catchment area of such hypermarkets. The "local shop" on the other hand would be the Tesco Express in the town centre.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#96

Post by harg »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #91
moonbug wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the cars are transmitting? are you quite sure?

Unless you want to recharge your fob every week it has to stay passive as much as possible. The car has a bigger battery.

Some older fobs do recharge when in the car’s ignition. My old bmw did this and it was recommended to swap the keys from time to time to make sure they didn’t run out off battery. I guess this can’t be the case with the “keyless” keys though

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#97

Post by sathomasga »

OJFord wrote: post #55
pintxo wrote: post #2

> "I thought it was some kind of alien phenomena." Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. For some (a lot?) of people, keyless entry seems still to be an advanced technology.

I have an EE degree and I firmly consider even the simplest forms of radio communication insane magic.

I have two degrees in electrical engineering and feel the same way.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#98

Post by kyriakos »

fy20 wrote: post #82
kyriakos wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my 6 year old nissan doesn't have a physical key. most keyless cars you can open the door but not start the engine without a functioning wireless key

Are you 100% sure? My car (12yo Toyota) has keyless entry and start, and the fob has an RFID chip inside. If the car can't detect the fob (e.g. the battery is dead) you can hold it against the "Start" button which has a RFID reader. I ask, because this feature is not advertised other than a few sentences in the manual, and it seems a pretty badly designed feature to not have a backup. The fob also has a physical key…

I found this https://www.douglassnissanofwaco.com/service/service-tips/ho...

So you may be right after all. I knew about the physical key but at the dealership they only said its used to open the doors.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#99

Post by dfn43589 »

tomxor wrote: post #75
Nanite wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

hmm? > In 2008, a logo very similar to CE marking was reported to exist and alleged to stand for China Export because some Chinese manufacturers apply it to their products.[14] However, the European Commission says that this is a misconception [... ...] despite the Commission's assurance that it is without foundation, this urban myth continues to be available on many websites. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_marking…

The wikipedia article is contradicting it's own sources and links to the incorrect mark, the China Compulsory Certificate mark. The European Commission hasn't confirmed the existence of the China Export mark, but claims that it is illegitimate if it does exist. The EC is "...in constant discussion with Chinese authorities..." and intends for Member States to potentially "impose sanctions".

>The Commission ... considers that the mark [China Export (CE)] ... constitute the CE marking as foreseen in the European legislation without, however, respecting the dimensions and proportions prescribed therein.

>...the Commission deems it necessary to establish a comprehensive Community legislative framework in order to ensure coherent market surveillance ...

>...It also provides for the legal basis for Member States to impose sanctions in the case of misuse which should serve as a deterrent.

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?refere...

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#100

Post by dkdbejwi383 »

JdeBP wrote: post #94
dkdbejwi383 wrote: post #46

They must not have been from around there. It’s a local shop, for local people.

It's yet another large Tesco Extra on the edge of a town, in this particular case just off the Royston Bypass, with the intended large catchment area of such hypermarkets. The "local shop" on the other hand would be the Tesco Express in the town centre.

> Royston Bypass

New road bad! There's nothing for you here.

Post reply on HN