100% agree.
That, or James Bond’s Lotus Esprit…
Thanks for the articles. It seems like the criticism of the accelerometer method is that some fobs don’t go into sleep mode quickly enough, which seems nitpicky. It closes the window of attack quite a bit. It should prevent most relay attacks at home, however, it won’t help with relay attacks when out and about – at the mall for example.
It can also help reduce fob battery drain for fobs that get pinged by the car all night.
Ford has a patent for the car to track the fob’s distance so that it can ignore cases where the fob suddenly appears nearby.
I was also surprised that a few brands supposedly only allow a few miles of driving without the fob (Acura, Audi, etc.).
Nonsense. Many of us have found ourselves away from the house with no cigarette lighter. Pinto owners have one built into the car, right beside the accelerator.
Update: I have the new truck home and have experimented a bit with the faraday pouches. All seem to inhibit starting, but the two soft cases allow the lock/unlock signal through when the fob button is pushed. The hard case lets nothing through. Will talk to my mechanic soon to see if there’s an easy, non-electronic, way to install the kill switch. I wonder if interrupting the brake-depressed signal would work? Seems a simple circuit and the start button would refuse to actuate the starter without that signal.
Also, as some have mentioned, the truck gets really annoyed if I get out while it’s running while the fob’s in my pocket. I had to adjust the right side mirror and it honked repeatedly as I walked around. It also has a feature that will automatically put the transmission in Park should the driver exit the vehicle while in gear (or neutral). I don’t know a safe way to test this, but imagine it will save a lot of trucks at boat ramps.
The simplest way is to hack the Neutral Safety switch.
Just ground it (or open it) and the car won’t start.
I would not be surprised to find that most of these “switches” are no longer a mechanical switch. But rather something like a Hall effect sensor and digital interface on the CANBus addressible by the engine controller at address 0x03452A6D.
Good luck jumpering that.
Is this the same as the shipping pin that disconnects power to the vehicle until it gets to the dealership? An educated thief would know about that.
No, there is a sensor that tells the PCM what gear the transmission is in. In the “old days” ( ten years ago), there was a switch that indicated that the gearshift was in Neutral or Park, and disabled cranking unless it was.
Stop in a level parking spot, or even better, slightly downhill with your front or rear tires tires against the curb, put the truck in neutral, take your foot off the brake, and then lift your butt out of the seat.
Or use a closed course and professional driver.
According to the manual, it is activated when the truck moves. At least that’s how I interpreted it. I can’t think of a safe way to test this without a lot planning (chocks, someone in passenger seat to shove it into park, etc.). I wonder if this extra safety feature is due to no longer having a shift lever on the column. It’s a rotary switch on the dash similar to the A/C fan switch (just bigger). It’s not intuitively obvious it’s in park unless the driver looks at the lighted indicator (PRNDL) just above his/her knee.
My personal “boat ramp” rule has been always turn the truck off and take the key before exiting - no exceptions. Since this can’t be done without being in Park it seems to have worked so far. A little extra wear and tear on the starter, but better than getting it wet. I guess this policy is less effective with the fob keys and PTS.
These are both key-start cars -
Fresh news on the Kia / Hyundai problem …