New way to unlock Pruii when keys misplaced

Skeptical is more like it.

I'll agree with Dr. Evan on this one...

Better Than On Star? Thread

just click the link it contains labeled "Urban Legend." And note that he thinks the thread belongs in Fred's.

 

It isn't even April 1st.

 

Three much more likely scenarios:


1) You only tried the back doors, called the wife, then tried the driver’s door (which was already unlocked).

2) You’ve been Punk’d, and the episode will be aired sometime in August!

3) You have one of these things in your back yard and have rigged it up to your Prius SmartKey.

 

More fiction from raintree coming soon...

 

I tried to recreate this at home last night, but discovered that, while at home, the car responds to the fob through several walls and at greater distances than, say, the parking lot at work.

Why I need to walk back to it sometimes to get it to listen is something that bugs me now, but so far I can't say it won't work...

 

I think the range is about 30 feet, less through walls, especially concrete and steel ones.

 

But even if one could get into the Prius, you can't drive it without the FOB right? So, when you have to use the little key because your FOB is dead, you still can't drive it, or can you?

 

I have the base model so I have to use the remote buttons (no SKS). I have not done exact measurements but I know it stops working long before 15 miles. I once forgot to lock the car and then I locked it from inside a restaurant about 100 feet away, the walls were mostly windows. Another time I tried in a large parking lot when I was about 200 feet away and it did not work. When I was at the beach I did an experiment where I slowly walked towards the car and kept hitting the unlock key, it worked when I got about 150 feet away. I didn't actually measure the distances, I'm just guessing so I could be off by maybe 50+/- feet of my actual distance.


Prius-a-rama: From what I have read, when the fob is dead you have to stick it in the slot on the dash and then you can still drive even though SKS isn't working.

 

Place the FOB in the slot like with a non SKS Prius, then drive straight to a hardware store and replace SKS battery- because the thought of having to constantly grab for your key is repulsive.

 

Prius-a-rama: The car cannot be driven without the FOB. If the battery is dead, turn off the smart key system (pushbotton next to slot) insert FOB into slot and fire her up!

 

You don't have to turn off SKS to use the slot. Slot works anytime.

 

Unless there's magic that causes the fob signal to be sent to a cell phone but not a 2.4Ghz wireless phone, it doesn't work.

Called the wireless with the cell, left the wireless sitting on the hood of the car, walked over 200 feet away until the car was out of sight, and pressed the unlock button on the fob 6 times. Walked back to the car, and it was still locked.

While I could get somebody at work to take my spare fob home and call my cell phone some night to see if that works, I probably won't...

 

The fob does not run on sonic or even ultrasonic frequencies, it works with radio waves. Even if the fob somehow could get its raw digital information impressed on the source phone's carrier, I doubt the receiving phone would rebroadcast that properly for the car's receiver to pick it up. If the phones were analog, there might be a very slight chance, but these days phones use digital to carry the voice and control data, so the receiving phone, if it were to repeat at the same frequency as the car receiver, and the fob's digital information managed to get carried, the receiving phone would be repeating digital information about digital information, which to the car would be giberish.

Think of it this way. Think of an English person saying something, and a French translator repeating it over a phone or radio. Another French person at the other end of the transmission would repeat the same french words that were the English translation, but the English speaking person at the other end would have no idea what was said.

 

Here in North America, analog AMPS cell phones and TDMA digital cell phones (All circuit switched) use the band between 800-900 MHz.

The newer GSM and CDMA 1X digital phones (Packet switched, not circuit switched) usually operate in a band between 1800-1900 MHz or 1900-2000 MHz. I'll have to look up the exact upstream/downstream bands.

Either way, since the FOB most likely works in the 130-140 KHz band, it would be highly improbable to "phone home" to get the car going.

 

A few cheap experiments to see if something works is always better than assuming something doesn't. There's always a chance that if you build a tiny bridge, something even tinier might cross it.

If I remember the spare fob, I can get two experiments in next week: desk-phone-to-cell and cell-to-cell retests. Spare fob is important since I'm not going to walk all the way to the car at lunch then have to go back for the fob.

At worst, I'll never trust any "I kid you not" posts anymore...

 

Sigh...

Someone trying to restart the "unlock your car with your cell-phone" urban legend...

http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/keyless.asp

Dave