Keyless Go - Security risk ???

[paulmon]

Strange thing happened this afternoon. A neighbour knocked on the door asking if I had a visitor, because they had left their car running with noone inside. As it turned out I didnt have a visitor but someone had parked in front of my house to attend the health centre round the corner. I had a look round the car which was a 10 plate Renault Scenic or some other Renault people carrier and sure enough the engine was running. I opened the door looked for a key but couldnt find anything. I did however manage to find the stop/start button so I turned off the engine and shut the door.

The lack of an obvious key leads me to think that the car is equipped with a keyless go system which is all well and good but surely such a system should have somekind of failsafe that automatically switches off the engine if running and secures the vehicle if the fob goes within a specified distance of the vehicle.

Anyone else have one of these type of systems to verify what happens when you get out of the car with the engine running (obviously dont do this with your brand new California in a dodgy part of town )

P

[Ramses]

paulmon said:

Strange thing happened this afternoon. A neighbour knocked on the door asking if I had a visitor, because they had left their car running with noone inside. As it turned out I didnt have a visitor but someone had parked in front of my house to attend the health centre round the corner. I had a look round the car which was a 10 plate Renault Scenic or some other Renault people carrier and sure enough the engine was running. I opened the door looked for a key but couldnt find anything. I did however manage to find the stop/start button so I turned off the engine and shut the door.

The lack of an obvious key leads me to think that the car is equipped with a keyless go system which is all well and good but surely such a system should have somekind of failsafe that automatically switches off the engine if running and secures the vehicle if the fob goes within a specified distance of the vehicle.

Anyone else have one of these type of systems to verify what happens when you get out of the car with the engine running (obviously dont do this with your brand new California in a dodgy part of town )

P

Mine has 'keyless go'. It is foolproof.....but not fkwit proof.

If you forget to turn the engine off - key or no key, it's not going to rescue you.

[groomi]

Reminds me of when I hired a Corvette in California. It was the first car I'd ever been in with a keyless proximity fob.

So, it's dark, I've arrived at my destination and I'm paranoid about whether the car is locked or not. Ofcourse I can't go and check without leaving the fob unattended... I'm sure there's a common sense solution to the problem, but I was damned if I could work it out!

[craigjm]

I had keyless go on my old XF and it would continue to run if you stepped out of the vehicle without shutting it off BUT if you got back in without the key it wouldnt drive away as it knew the key wasnt within the car. It would also lock itself after about a minute if you had walked away and forgot to lock it.

[PumpkinSteve]

The boot on my Fiesta can't be locked using the fob, it's always unlocked until you actually move away from the car and then it will lock automatically after a couple of minutes. I keep thinking that there is plenty of time for someone in the know to open my boot after I've parked the car up, I'm totally paranoid about it.

[geeksandlies]

The OH has keyless on her Fiesta, there is a button on the door to press that locks/unlocks the car and you can hear the locks go, that and the mirrors fold in when you lock it. As for the engine running when you walk away with the key, this is the "carjack" feature, basically if someone tries to car jack you and you get out with the key in your pocket the car still runs and they drive off, once they stop that's it it wont start again without the key.

[RenPug]

I always assumed they would shut down if they got a certain distance away from the fob but evidently not. My manager discoved this recently. Having an early morning flight booked from the airport he drove his Mondeo there with his wife as passenger, arriving at the airport he grabs his bags and his wife drives off in the car. Ten minutes later as he goes through security he empties his pockets in to the tray and there lies the car key. Cue an urgent phonecall to his wife telling her not to stall or stop off anywhere on the way home.

[tog]

A friend at uni years ago had a car with keyless go - the key had snapped off in the ignition. He kept the stump on his keyring with the housekeys, but after one incident where a flatmate took the keys in from the running car before he drove off, he started just using a teaspoon he kept in the car instead. Can't recall what sort of car it was now.

[davethebunny]

My A8 had keyless go.

It would keep the engine running if you got out.

However once stopped, you couldn't start it again.

[sebhaque]

Same in my old works Megane - did a little test, got a friend of mine to stand next to the car and hold the key - obviously the car let me in and started up without any problems. I proceeded to drive down the runway (was on a works airbase) and got pretty far down before getting bored and turning around. Car just kept bonging at me to put my seatbelt on and that I didn't have a key.

I wonder how many unassuming Megane/keyless car owners have the car parked on the drive with the keys left in range on the windowsill? Personally I'm not a fan of keyless go, although I will admit it was pretty convenient not having to find the car key (which stayed in my wallet).

[SlimRick]

We've got a new Megane with keyless entry/start. Not had a problem with it until I dropped the other half off at the station and off she goes, with the key in her handbag. I stopped on the way home to pick up a takeaway, went to start the car to go home....yup - no key card Taxi ride home to pick up the spare key card and spoiled food!

[wolf1]

Had to deal with a customer who had started his car last winter and popped back inside for a brew whilst the car warmed up. He then set off and upon getting to work turned the car off and found out he'd left the key 70miles away on his kitchen table.

[anonymous-user]

My car has it, I was told by the dealer that the car will not switch off if the key is out of range due to safety reasons, for instance driving at 100mph and the key fob fails, but once the engine has been switch off it will not restart.