I am sure all of you know this, but just in case you didn't, did you know that often you can open a locked car via a cell phone and the cars remote control? It didn't work with our car, but a couple friends swear it does for them.

Someone with the remote to your car and holding such in their hand can call you thru your cel and if you hold the phone near the lock they can unlock the door for you.

Am I the last person in the world to know this?

Where have I been?

Dale

P.S. We have learned from some of our Avis customers that they carry the remote in their pocket rather on the key chain so as to prevent their being locked out. Often the new cars will find a way to lock you out and this will give you peace of mind.

[This message has been edited by Smith Brother (edited July 07, 2005).]

In a Toyota you can't lock the door if the key is in the ignition and the engine is stopped.

Hey Dale, how long have I known you 3-4 years I have a great deal of respect for you but I don't believe it for even a second....

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But people pull up to a RED LIGHT, get out and run around to switch drivers and get locked out. CAR IS RUNNING AT STOP SIGN AND BLOCKING TRAFFIC. Believe it, or not.

You will know before the night is out.

Dale

From "Breakthechain.org dedicated to untrue chainletter email"

(3/13/2005) 'OnStar, can I help you?' We've all seen or heard the commercials about friendly operators who help motorists in trouble with just a phone call. But can you really create your own remote assistance by doing what this chain letter suggests?

SAMPLE CHAIN LETTER TEXT

This only applies to cars that can be unlocked by that remote button on your key ring. Should you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are home, and you don't have "OnStar," here's your answer to the problem!

If some one has access to the spare remote at your home, call them on your cell phone (or borrow one from someone if the cell phone is locked in the car too!)

Hold your (or anyone's) cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the other person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the phone.

Your car will unlock. and it works. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk, or have the "horn" signal go off, or whatever!)

END CHAIN LETTER TEXT



It's possible that this chain letter owes its origins to a misunderstanding of General Motors' popular On-Star service that, among other things, allows an operator to unlock your car remotely in response to a phone call. However, that services uses a combination of sophisticated cell phone and satellite technology, along with human operators, to work its magic. An On-Star operator can unlock your car from miles away because the On-Star system allows him or her to locate the car and access its internal computer. Because of its sophistication, the system is relatively pricey, with the equipment being installed mostly on higher-end GM vehicles and the service requiring an annual subscription fee.





Perhaps one reason this chain letter has proven so popular, then, is that it suggests that the conveniences of OnStar are already at your fingertips and at no extra cost. The letter's basic premise - that you can 'beam' your car's remote lock signal through your cell phone - is utter nonesense, though. While both your cell phone and your key chain remote are based on radio transmissions, they operate on very different frequencies.

Your remote door lock keychain works by emitting a low-power radio signal to a receiver in your car. The signal is encrypted specifically to work on your vehicle and to be very hard to duplicate. Cell phones use a higher-powered and higher-frequency radio signal (800 MHz and up, whereas your remote locks operate between 300 and 500 MHz). Cell phones transmit voice and data – they cannot "carry" other radio signals, which is what this letter is suggesting (unless the author was foolish enough - or thinks you are - to believe that your car lock remote works on audible signals that could be 'broadcasted' through the phone's speaker).

Nonetheless, I've had many readers write me to insist that it is possible to unlock your car doors from a great distance using their cell phones - most with first- or second-hand accounts of trying it. None, however, provided details about their "experiments," and I was able to find just as many (if not more) people who claimed to have tried it and failed. But a few persistent folks insisted I was wrong in my assessment. So, under much protest, I decided to try it myself and provide the details of my experiment for your consideration:

My accomplice was in 'location A' with the vehicle - a 2000 Chrysler Grand Voyager minivan with remote door locks and starter. I was 9 miles away in 'location B,' my office. From beside the vehicle, she called from her Samsung digital phone to my Samsung digital phone on the Sprint PCS network. Both of us had a strong digital signal and ample battery strength.

She held her phone about 6-12 inches from the driver's door of the van. I held my remote about 1 inch from the mouthpiece on the phone, pushed the unlock button and held it for 5 seconds...

...nothing happened.

I tried several more times, using the lock button, the panic button and the start engine combo...

...nothing happened.

I tried again, holding the remote directly against the phone mouthpiece and alternately the antenna...

...nothing happened.

I tried again, having my accomplice put her phone in speakerphone mode...

...nothing happened.

Finally, we performed our control case. To ensure that the van was working properly and responding, she activated her remote from the same distance she had been holding the phone and the doors promptly unlocked.

The facts are clear. What this chain letter suggests is technologically impossible. It's a popular technique in urban legend to suggest that those better off than we don't really have anything we don't - that we can approximate what they have with no extra cost, using what we already have on hand. Of course, it's just as likely that this is just a juvenile prank designed to get a chuckle out of the thought of those foolish enough (or pressured by readers) to try it. Break this chain.


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Dave, I agree it does not make sense. I am really confused though by the fact that in the past 2 hours an employee of ours that has been with us 18 years opened her car door several times today via her phone. She claims her sister has done such too. I suggested she was close enouth to her car with the remote that she just thinks she did such. She SWEARS by such. What really makes it stupid is that she says she held the remote next to the EAR part of the phone rather than the mouth piece. I had told her if wasa chain letter, but she says I AM WRONG.

Dale

quote:

Originally posted by Smith Brother:
But people pull up to a RED LIGHT, get out and run around to switch drivers and get locked out. CAR IS RUNNING AT STOP SIGN AND BLOCKING TRAFFIC. Believe it, or not.


Dale

In the 50's we called this a Chinese Fire Drill.

BTW, a cell phone speaker is an analog audio device with a typical response well below radio frequency range.

To all who don't believe this is possible - Snopes.com says it is an 'urban legend'.

See this link.

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

Dennis

[This message has been edited by pppitiful (edited July 07, 2005).]

Sorry you all for bringing this out on this site.

I tried to tell our employee that she was within the distance that allowed her remote to do its thing, and not thru her cel, but she said NO... I will learn Monday where she was standing when see did her test.

I do know that cel phones will soon be available if not already that will do such, plus other things we haven't dreamed of, but with different equipment than what is presently inside a cel. I sometimes wonder where this is leading us. It will be fun. FUN IS GOOD.

Dale