There was an ad for a minivan that had one of those automatic lift gates, where you wave your foot underneath the rear bumper to make it open. I started thinking...what happens if a cat wanders by and walks under the car, will it make the lift gate open as well?
Usually you need the key fob close enough for the car to sense it for those things to work.
Yup. It needs to be within transponder range of your key, or in the case of non-transponder keys it has to be unlocked.
So, if you unlock you car, or are sitting in it and a badger walks under your rear bumper, the lift gate opens?
What's the Venn diagram of cars with automatic lift gates and cars without transponders? Is there any overlap?
If there's overlap, there's still the question of what the sensors "see," and whether an interpreting algorithm can distinguish between "shoe" and "badger." And possibly even simpler solutions that haven't occurred to me...
Ransom said:What's the Venn diagram of cars with automatic lift gates and cars without transponders? Is there any overlap?
If there's overlap, there's still the question of what the sensors "see," and whether an interpreting algorithm can distinguish between "shoe" and "badger." And possibly even simpler solutions that haven't occurred to me...
Transponder systems can tell the difference between keys inside the car and keys outside the car. They can usually even tell which door you're standing next to.
At least with honda's, you need to double straight 'kick' fairly quickly under the sensor in order to get it to open. And like others have said, the key fob needs to be at the rear of the vehicle within ~2 feet of the rear hatch.
In reply to 1kris06 :
looks like you also need to wear some pretty sweet pumps as well.
Ransom said:What's the Venn diagram of cars with automatic lift gates and cars without transponders? Is there any overlap?
Not a huge overlap, but they're out there. Neighbor's Caravan is that way. You could get the auto liftgate as an option and could get the transponder key as an option, but they didn't have to come together.
Something tells me, though, there might be a wee transponder in the key just for some functions. It's not the full-on keyless entry and keyless start (you have to physically put a key in the dash and turn it.) but they could easily stuff a little transponder in any key.
I would walk up to one of those carrying an armful of junk, wave my foot hopelessly under the bumper, set my stuff down, get the key from my pocket, realize there is no key slot, curse, figure out which fob button opens it, open it, set my stuff in, reach up to close the auto close door and listen to the warning chime as it fought me, hit the fob button to close it, the have the sensor pick up my foot as I walk past, reopening the door.
Automatic stuff argues with me, and me with it.
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :
Great, the future is going to be murder on my ankles.
I like the way my sedona does it.
If you have the van locked and walk up behind the van with the keys in your pocket, it starts beeping at you. Three warning beeps later and the hatch opens all by itself. No foot waving, no magic dance. Just stand there like an idiot with his arms full.
Of course, if you DON'T want it to open, you just walk away before it finishes beeping at you. Which makes the spot right behind the hatch a "no loitering with keys in your pocket and a locked van" region. But that's not so bad.
Doesn't work if the van's unlocked, doesn't work if you don't have the key. But I probably use it once a week with arms full of coolers/bags/etc.
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