Unlocking car using phone, urban myth?

Going Forward

Maybe someone else heard the story on Liveline today, keys locked in car, owner phoned home and got them to press fob over phone call and car unlocked!

Possible or not?

Paulw

Maybe Mythbusters should prove or disprove this one. I doubt it's possible.

honeybear

Caller sounded genuine

pippip

Paulw wrote: »

Maybe Mythbusters should prove or disprove this one. I doubt it's possible.

Paulw

Oh wait ... Mythbusters did try it.

slimjimmc

It's bs
http://www.wikihow.com/Open-a-Locked-Car-With-a-Mobile

Many remote locking use radio, some use infra-red, neither of which can be sent nor received. Mobile phones cannot receive and transmit the signal produced from the key fob.
I believe mobile networks don't transmit ultrasonic tones (no point since they're inaudible) so even if your remote locking uses ultrasonics it won't work.

Audi have teamed up with Amazon so that Amazon can open Audi car boots with a phone code and deposit your delivery there. The code will be single use only.

So yes, it seems possible.

slimjimmc

Deleted User wrote: »

Audi have teamed up with Amazon so that Amazon can open Audi car boots with a phone code and deposit your delivery there. The code will be single use only.

So yes, it seems possible.

It's possible but it needs technology that's not currently in production cars. Audi announced they're testing such a system but apparently Volvo are so far ahead they're ready to go live soon in Sweden.
http://time.com/3832703/audi-deliver-amazon/

Special Circumstances

slimjimmc wrote: »

It's bs
http://www.wikihow.com/Open-a-Locked-Car-With-a-Mobile

Many remote locking use radio, some use infra-red, neither of which can be sent nor received. Mobile phones cannot receive and transmit the signal produced from the key fob.
I believe mobile networks don't transmit ultrasonic tones (no point since they're inaudible) so even if your remote locking uses ultrasonics it won't work.

Exactly. Standard remote unlock signals are electro magnetic waves in the hundreds of megahertz.

Voice is sound waves in the low tens of kilohertz. The phones audio to digital conversion is only interested in the bare minimum range to reproduce audible sounds. As slimjimmc says, I doubt it even bothers with low ultrasonic frequency sounds. And would have no mechanism to convert or reproduce RF signals through a voice channel.

Even at that network itself fails to even transmit voice adequately sometimes after all the filtering, compression and muxing.

Can't see any of the video links here but I would be beyond amazed if anyone can demonstrate this over long distance.

R.O.R

We've tested it in the office with cars out the back of the garage, and it doesn't work.

Shame really, as it's relatively common for drivers to lock keys in their boot.

If this worked and they knew where the spare key was (we hold some), it would save time God costs. They may not learn not to lock keys in their boot though.

mickdw

My car manual says it won't lock the boot if it senses the key inside it.
I can confirm that this is bullsh1t.

jay48

Back in the day on the old 088 phones it worked , we heard the rumour and tried it , one of the lads went far enough away that the fob wouldn't open the van then rang me and tried it over the phone , sure enough the van unlocked .

LoonyLovegood

I did it on a 2011 Renault Megane and it worked well

Ardennes1944

It worked on our old 2004 Megane

colm_mcm

Are you sure it didn't just randomly unlock

Special Circumstances

jay48 wrote: »

Back in the day on the old 088 phones it worked , we heard the rumour and tried it , one of the lads went far enough away that the fob wouldn't open the van then rang me and tried it over the phone , sure enough the van unlocked .

088 was an analog 1G system and old enough that it's possible that the alarm/central locking was ultrasonic. So it would be possible in that case and maybe it's the origin of what has now been made a myth by modern 2/3/4G tech and RF central locking.

I doubt there's any modern system uses ultrasonic.

I'd have to see it being done with an RF signal over the phone before I'd believe it.

slimjimmc

LoonyLovegood wrote: »

I did it on a 2011 Renault Megane and it worked well

Ardennes1944 wrote: »

It worked on our old 2004 Megane

Odd, because the remote central locking on the Megane II uses radio frequency for both the standard keyless and the handsfree systems.

The door and tailgate control system on keyless vehicles
consists of:
- the UCH (with radiofrequency receiver),
- special cards in « standard » and « hands-free » version,
- an uncoded card reader (transponder receiver),
- door and tailgate locking / unlocking motors (built into the locks)

Source Renault workshop manual March 2003

Special Circumstances

Frequencies would be different but it would be like calling home on your mobile so you could use the house wifi for your laptop on the road.