Smart key and sensitive door handles

[mingoglia]

Originally Posted by ceric

cyberbro,
It is called "SmartKey" for a reason.
There are several interior sensors and three exterior sensors (one inside driver's door, one inside passenger's door, and the last on inside the hatch). The SmartKey system 'knows' where the key really is by comparing signal strength among all sensors (interior and exterior) and approximate the position of the key. It works very well.

In your scenario, the key is determined to be inside the cabin and somewhere near the driver seat so that the door would not open from outside. The door can be opened only when the key is determined to be outside the cabin and near that specific door (or hatch). The range of sensor is only a 3ft, so its signal weakens very quickly by distance.

This isn't exactly the reason why someone won't be able to unlock the door while his wife is driving. The doors will not unlock by touching the door handles while the car is running. You can test this by locking the car with it running (close door with drivers window down, reach in, lock the door, then hit the auto window up). If the car's running and the doors are locked you can only unlock the door from the inside, or using the metal key.

Mike

[Silver 2008]

Originally Posted by kjconrad

What I thought would be cool would be to encase the part of the fob that the car senses in stainless steal and having it embedded under your skin like on of those crazy body mods... only you'd have to have surgery every time the battery ran out.

You could just put in a zipper. LOL

I had the car open a couple of times without ever touching the handle (just getting close). I can't duplicate it when I try to. Anyone else?

Mike

[pdhenry]

I found that simply by passing my fingers behind the dooor handle without touching anything the doors will unlock.

I've also noticed that when you approach the car at night the interior lights will come on before you even reach for the door - try it! If you just reach for the door as you approach, the door will unlock first, but just walk up to the car (with the fob) and look inside for a second or two - the lights will come on.