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Keyless entry FOB idea

6K views 23 replies 18 participants last post by  ampera_jed 
#1 ·
If only GM or someone could make a smart watch that would also have the guts of a keyless entry key fob too!
 
#4 · (Edited)
GM is already working this to use a smart phone. It would probably be trivial to replicate the phone app to the watch.

This is for car sharing services, btw. You won't have a hard key for car sharing an autonomous vehicle.

BTW, I have driven Volt/ELR for over 4 years. I have never used the hard key. On ELR I have no idea how to do this either. (oops. rtfm.)
 
#6 ·
I recommend learning and practicing the steps. It is better to know how and not need it, than to need it and not knowing how!!
 
#7 ·
That would be good for people who already wear a watch. But for those that don't, just make the keyfob significantly smaller.

Most people are still going to need a keychain for house keys and whatever else. And with keyless entry I almost never need to take my keyfob out of my pocket to use any of the buttons on it. So just make the keyfob smaller/thinner/lighter so my resulting keychain isn't so bulky. :)
 
#14 ·
Most people are still going to need a keychain for house keys and whatever else.
Why? There's no reason to not use a fob-approach to a home too, and businesses are already working that angle.

One could imagine having a personal fob that could open your car AND your house, and anything else you need. It's only a matter of time before keys go bye bye. ;)

If you want to get REAL crazy, the fob could evolve into a chip/device implanted under your skin, powered by your own body. No more lost/forgotten fobs, or dead batteries. :p
 
#8 ·
I've never much cared for the entire fob idea. Mostly I wish we could get something like a fingerprint reader.
I suspect we might not be that far from a "face recognition" module on a car that just unlocks when it recognizes you.
 
#15 ·
I like the car from Bond or Mission Impossible or similar movie (can't remember which), where he basically just stuck his palm on the car window and it had an embedded scanner that acknowledged and unlocked. Of course, you'd have to clean your windows often. Perhaps it needs some work :)

Why? There's no reason to not use a fob-approach to a home too, and businesses are already working that angle.

One could imagine having a personal fob that could open your car AND your house, and anything else you need. It's only a matter of time before keys go bye bye. ;)

If you want to get REAL crazy, the fob could evolve into a chip/device implanted under your skin, powered by your own body. No more lost/forgotten fobs, or dead batteries. :p
I've seriously considered it after being freed from the key by volt.
Well, not the chip implant, but a wireless system that works just like the volt, with key staying in pocket. Bonus points if I could pair my existing key's wireless ID with it.
 
#9 ·
Yeah, I don't understand how this is not a phone app already. NFC or bluetooth or whatever should make it pretty easy to make the link, and encryption or rolling codes or whatever should make it possible to secure. I would love to carry one less device. And I wouldn't mind adding a small physical key to my key ring to get rid of the big fob.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Except the existing fobs probably don't use Bluetooth or NFC. I've used the onstar app for phones, and it's insanely slow to the point of being unusable. The phone sends data to the onstar mothership, which makes a cell call to the car to unlock the doors.

Making the fob smaller only increases my chances of losing the fob. i would be happier with a thinner fob, but making it smaller means smaller buttons. Then when your 12v battery dies, you have no physical key to unlock the car.

I personally don't want my vehicles and household devices to be Internet capable or use standard signaling (wifi, Bluetooth, NFC). Otherwise, anybody with a cell phone might find rogue tools on the internet to hack into our cars. I personally think we need to take some of this security out-of-band. So maybe a fingerprint reader on the car door is the ultimate way to go without a key fob. I hope to never lose my fingers, though wintertime usage after an ice storm poses some challenges.
 
#19 ·
I'm still accustomed to wearing a watch. Taking out my phone to check the time seems like going back to the days of pocket watches. Since lots of devices around us these days have a clock incorporated in them, I could adjust to not wearing one if there was a reason to.
 
#17 ·
The problem with bio-readers is that if you need your eyeball or hand to open a car, then that will be what a car thief will aim to steal. I'd prefer he aims his criminal attention towards a fob!

I think the whole idea of keyless entry is daft. I now need two key rings, one for the house keys and one for the 'keyless entry key'. I still need a keyring.

Even the idea of a 'keyless entry key' is oxymoronic!

The end of a key sticking out of an 'ignition' barrel seems a more than appropriate place to hang my house key, but it seems people with a hundred keys thought likewise and GM didn't seem to care, so now we get the over-reaction which is to not have an ignition barrel at all.

I don't even need to mention that Volt/Ampera door-handle access buttons fail if you use them too often, do I?
 
#20 ·
I don't carry a house key, as I installed one of those Schlage keyless entry door locks. I also did a recent Kickstarter for an Ultraloq which uses biometrics to unlock, as well as a credit card thingy, etc. Anyhow, I too would like to get rid of my car key. Perhaps, gutting a car key and putting just the minimum bits, security chip, into a smartphone case wallet would work.

As for smartwatches, I find mine very useful. I pull out my smartphone far less, which means both devices easily last a whole day. While pulling out your smartphone for notifications, etc seems easy, you'd be surprised at how much you appreciate how many times less you have to do it. And, if you got those notifications on your watch, it's far more subtle to check, especially during a meeting, etc., without anyone noticing. I just rotate my watch to the inside of my wrist, then put my folded hands on the desk, and if my watch vibrates for a notification, I can glance quickly down, without ever moving. Anyway, it works for me.
 
#22 ·
When I first got my Volt and added Onstar to it, I looked for an Android Wear app, which unfortunately doesn't exist (yet). I thought it'd be pretty cool to precondition? and check the charge status of my car with only my watch.

I think phones will likely become alternatives to keys in the near future. NFC would likely be the technology used, not unless Bluetooth could reliable detect range.
 
#23 ·
I'd like to see the key fob replaced with something that's credit card sized...even maybe up to 2 or 3 times as thick so you could just have it in your wallet which you carry anyway....and it would be protected better in your wallet from damage too
 
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