AUDIIOS

Being next to the car doesn't allow anyone else next to the car to open any of the other doors, passenger for example. If I walk next to the car, close enough to open the driver door, and someone else is at the passenger door, they cannot open the door just because I am within range. I need to unlock all doors then they could enter the vehicle. If you're concerned about this type of security issue, Audi has worked out the details. As someone else mentioned, you should set the fob to unlock driver only if you have any other concerns.

Redd

" If a car of mine does get stolen then as long as I have insurance I don't really care that much."
Some of us pay 6-8% sales tax plus registration, plate, and title fees that can quickly add another $500, and none of that is repaid by your insurance.
Also, if you keep your car more than 2-3 years, bear in mind that the depreciation in the first year and the second is MUCH higher than in subsequent years, and your insurance isn't going to pay for that either. And then you'll have to spend another day or two shopping around and dealing with paperwork, unless you also pay the dealer to do more of that. If you have a vanity plate or a handicap plate, in some states that can mean more money and more expense--and the vanity plate may not be safe to be re-issued, since some criminal is out there using "the same" plate now.

If you don't mind taking maybe a five or ten grand hit when the car is stolen and the insurance offers you substantially less than you paid for it...or you are paying for one of the few and expensive policies that pays a higher rate....Good excuse to buy a new toy, sure.(G)

And of course, you'll be using a rental car for the month it takes to get your settlement, sometimes you can make do with what they'll pay for, otherwise, more money out of pocket.

Most folks feel a little different about it, once they have been through the process. All in all, a RFPITA and if it could be prevented, say, by simply being told "Sure, pull this fuse" wouldn't you feel someone had been awfully callous not to bother sharing that information with you?

snagitseven

Not that I agree with all of the points mentioned but what is the alternative? Staying awake every night worrying that someone will steal your car? That a storm will destroy your house or that you will be hospitalized with some expensive affliction? All you can do is take whatever measures are available to protect yourself and your property including having insurance.

Mrclopec

+1

Redd

The alternatives?

Well, number one would be as I suggested, disable the radio system and revert back to keyed entry. On some cars you can slap the key cylinder out with a screwdriver and enter the car, on others, that's not so easy. No idea on Audi, but it can be LOUDER and more VISIBLY OBVIOUS (you can't drive the car away with everything looking normal, the lock is obviously punched) so yes, simply disabling the radios would help.

Other alternatives include many better aftermarket security systems, including tracking systems and "silent alarms" that phone and text the owner. Of course, if you had been told that your car had a great factory security system, you might not install one of those.

Or you could just leave it unlocked, so you don't have to clean out all that nasty broken glass.

snagitseven

I WAS speaking to alternatives TODAY with the cars we own NOW, not some dystopian future WHERE manufacturers are REMOVING convenience features that most CUSTOMERS want. Also I wrote TO take whatever MEASURES are available TO protect your property. That, of COURSE, could include OTHER things you mentioned. However, NONE of these things now OR in the future alleviate THE need for INSURANCE.

(Sorry, my caps key was sticking).

Redd

Alternatives for today? I doubt the radio modules (or fobs) could be made smarter. That would leave some costly options, like asking Audi to replace the radios with IR transceivers that only have line-of-sight connections. Or perhaps, simply reducing the range of the current radios, so that booster boxes couldn't be of any use.

No doubt someone at one of the hacker conferences can solve this.

SteamDonkey

this guy shows how it's done and has a website to purchase everything you need including a new key fob to reprogram. That way you can disarm and start your newly "acquired" Audi.

spijun

This exists 4-5 years but you forget that you need original key to open the car

AVDI is the strongest and the best program in the world for VAG vehicles BUT the price for all functions cca €10600 / €12720 (including VAT -TAX)

Redd

"Ignore the man behind the curtain." [The Wizard of Oz]

This just proves that Audi uses the same "add a key, program a key" system as pretty much every other car maker. First, an original key to re-assure the car's computer. Then an unlikely sequence of presses and pushed and resets, to further command the car;s computer into program mode "definitely not by accident". And the little computer box, to enter a correct series of prompts and instructions to the computer, via the OBD bus.

Most car makers have denied that intentionally obscured "back doors" or features into their security coding exist. My Audi dealer's story was that the car has to be connected via their dealer-only network to Audi in Germany for top-secret programming. Ahuh, maybe that works too.

Mainly it seems that car computers today have something like 50 million lines of code that they are running, making them into very tedious and unrewarding targets for hackers and competitors, but targets that CAN be reached, with just minimal skills and lots of patience. And then of course once that happens, all the fancy security is no better or worse than when a car valet could literally read the bumps on your key, rifle through your glove box for your address, and then cut a new key and take your car away. (Yes, you could visually read keys and easily buy blanks, I made many legitimate spare keys that way once upon a time.)

Now, without a genuine key to begin the encryption authorization procedure...that gets much harder. Unless you've got a black box. That could easily be placed under a finder with a magnet and picked up a couple of days later, full of codes.

Here in the States, cars with good antitheft systems are more easily and commonly carjacked, with the keys still in them, these days. Some aftermarket alarms have long offered carjack protection, but I don't think any of the factory systems do.