I got the impression that the hardware installed in your car for this includes what amounts to a cell phone receiver that receives a command from your phone via cell towers.
My co-workers insist there is satellite communication involved. That the command goes through my smart phone’s “data” system to a cell tower, up to a satellite and back down to a satellite receiver in my car.
Bonus question: do smart phone data communications travel by different routes than cell phone calls? I understand they’re not from one phone to another, but do they use anything other than cell towers and/or land lines? Oh, and let me exclude GPS signals from this – I understand that my phone can receive signals from GPS satellites.