Car security

Mildly_Miffed

Bigbeinn said:

I know it's ‘cheap’ to buy a faraday pouch or box but there’s a lot of people who don’t seem to know how easy it is to access a keyless car if they leave their keys lying around in their house where signal can be picked up. I was only thinking car dealerships could take some responsibility to ‘educate’ their customers by perhaps offering a free pouch & helping reduce the crime rate of stolen cars which runs in to tens of thousands 

Absolutely any dealer could choose to provide a branded faraday pouch as a marketing incentive.

If they thought there was benefit in doing so, they would - it's cheap enough.

First branded merch site I looked at - less than £3 each from 500 units.
https://www.totalmerchandise.co.uk/branded-products/promotional-lifestyle-and-outdoor/signal-blocking-car-key-pouch

So there's really two options here...
1. Not a single dealership or importer has ever thought of this.
2. They've thought about it, and don't believe there's any commercial benefit.

I know which of the two I find more likely.

Herzlos

"Would you like a faraday pouch to stop your keyless entry car being stolen? It's only £10"
"Can I just get a car without keyless entry, then?"

Emmia

Mildly_Miffed said:

Bigbeinn said:

I know it's ‘cheap’ to buy a faraday pouch or box but there’s a lot of people who don’t seem to know how easy it is to access a keyless car if they leave their keys lying around in their house where signal can be picked up. I was only thinking car dealerships could take some responsibility to ‘educate’ their customers by perhaps offering a free pouch & helping reduce the crime rate of stolen cars which runs in to tens of thousands 

Absolutely any dealer could choose to provide a branded faraday pouch as a marketing incentive.

If they thought there was benefit in doing so, they would - it's cheap enough.

First branded merch site I looked at - less than £3 each from 500 units.
https://www.totalmerchandise.co.uk/branded-products/promotional-lifestyle-and-outdoor/signal-blocking-car-key-pouch

So there's really two options here...
1. Not a single dealership or importer has ever thought of this.
2. They've thought about it, and don't believe there's any commercial benefit.

I know which of the two I find more likely.

Fundamentally though someone would need to use the pouch. If they were supplied by the dealer I imagine that a good proportion would just be slung in a drawer / bin along with other branded junk like pens and key rings.

flaneurs_lobster

Emmia said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

Bigbeinn said:

I know it's ‘cheap’ to buy a faraday pouch or box but there’s a lot of people who don’t seem to know how easy it is to access a keyless car if they leave their keys lying around in their house where signal can be picked up. I was only thinking car dealerships could take some responsibility to ‘educate’ their customers by perhaps offering a free pouch & helping reduce the crime rate of stolen cars which runs in to tens of thousands 

Absolutely any dealer could choose to provide a branded faraday pouch as a marketing incentive.

If they thought there was benefit in doing so, they would - it's cheap enough.

First branded merch site I looked at - less than £3 each from 500 units.
https://www.totalmerchandise.co.uk/branded-products/promotional-lifestyle-and-outdoor/signal-blocking-car-key-pouch

So there's really two options here...
1. Not a single dealership or importer has ever thought of this.
2. They've thought about it, and don't believe there's any commercial benefit.

I know which of the two I find more likely.

Fundamentally though someone would need to use the pouch. If they were supplied by the dealer I imagine that a good proportion would just be slung in a drawer / bin along with other branded junk like pens and key rings.

People have not thought this through, is not the loss of a car ultimately to the advantage of the car dealers? The car after all will need to be replaced.....

Emmia

flaneurs_lobster said:

Emmia said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

Bigbeinn said:

I know it's ‘cheap’ to buy a faraday pouch or box but there’s a lot of people who don’t seem to know how easy it is to access a keyless car if they leave their keys lying around in their house where signal can be picked up. I was only thinking car dealerships could take some responsibility to ‘educate’ their customers by perhaps offering a free pouch & helping reduce the crime rate of stolen cars which runs in to tens of thousands 

Absolutely any dealer could choose to provide a branded faraday pouch as a marketing incentive.

If they thought there was benefit in doing so, they would - it's cheap enough.

First branded merch site I looked at - less than £3 each from 500 units.
https://www.totalmerchandise.co.uk/branded-products/promotional-lifestyle-and-outdoor/signal-blocking-car-key-pouch

So there's really two options here...
1. Not a single dealership or importer has ever thought of this.
2. They've thought about it, and don't believe there's any commercial benefit.

I know which of the two I find more likely.

Fundamentally though someone would need to use the pouch. If they were supplied by the dealer I imagine that a good proportion would just be slung in a drawer / bin along with other branded junk like pens and key rings.

People have not thought this through, is not the loss of a car ultimately to the advantage of the car dealers? The car after all will need to be replaced.....

Exactly - thus is why I also think it's more likely insurance companies would provide them??

Ectophile

Mildly_Miffed said:

Bigbeinn said:

I know it's ‘cheap’ to buy a faraday pouch or box but there’s a lot of people who don’t seem to know how easy it is to access a keyless car if they leave their keys lying around in their house where signal can be picked up. I was only thinking car dealerships could take some responsibility to ‘educate’ their customers by perhaps offering a free pouch & helping reduce the crime rate of stolen cars which runs in to tens of thousands 

Absolutely any dealer could choose to provide a branded faraday pouch as a marketing incentive.

If they thought there was benefit in doing so, they would - it's cheap enough.

First branded merch site I looked at - less than £3 each from 500 units.
https://www.totalmerchandise.co.uk/branded-products/promotional-lifestyle-and-outdoor/signal-blocking-car-key-pouch

So there's really two options here...
1. Not a single dealership or importer has ever thought of this.
2. They've thought about it, and don't believe there's any commercial benefit.

I know which of the two I find more likely.

How about:

3. Handing out Faraday pouches would be admitting that the car's security system is no good.

forgotmyname

They maybe £3 or less in volume but they are unreliable. When closing if you leave a gap then it will not do the job.

With repeated use it's going to fail. So it will not just be £3 it will be replacement after replacement and then a big fuss
when someone unlocks their car with the key inside a pouch.

It's like a dealer giving away steering locks made from cardboard, not fit for purpose but hey it was only £3 even with the
branding.

Car_54

forgotmyname said:

They maybe £3 or less in volume but they are unreliable. When closing if you leave a gap then it will not do the job.

Do you really understand the physics?

Herzlos

Car_54 said:

Do you really understand the physics?

I don't, so did a quick bit of digging. Keyfobs are at a surprisingly low 434MHz which means a wavelength of 70cm. 
A faraday cage needs a gap of about 0.5 wavelengths to allow the signal to penetrate, so a faraday pouch would need a gap of about 35cm in order to fail. 

So assuming the pouch somehow doesn't stop being conductive (via rust or disintegration?) it should work fine. 

Though from a useability perspective, a faraday key safe / cupboard may be less hassle than closing a pouch. 

facade

I don't either, but understood that there needs to be a substantial gap, yet if my "key" is inside my metal toffee tin, (that I have bonded the lid to the base by soldering a thick copper wire between them) I can still open the door, and when the key (inside the tin) is inside the car I can still start it!

I just hope that the tin cuts the signal down enough so that a relay device won't work from outside the house.