Hot-wiring a Prius?

You need the cooperation of the computer in the car to run it. You could hack the computer but hot wire in the conventional sense will not work. Everything I have read about this wonderful system says that unless the computer that runs the systems is on board and working for you the car is a door stop. The only hot wire would be to replace the computer with one you can activate.

 

Ouch. I had not thought of the dealer of mechanic thing. A shady dealer or group or just a disgruntled employee. The risk would be small but it gives one pause. (also I love a good conspiracy theory, now if we can just weave; Elvis, the bay of pigs, and Sadam into it then it would be great!!)

 

Wow, that's clever thinking!

Perhaps a little too clever... So, how much do you know about the past of this woman you've married? And how often do you receive gifts of big-screen TVs and furniture with change prepackaged in the cushions? :lol:

Also, what about the GPS that are in the BCs? (They aren't in the non-navigation packages, are they?) Could they be used for tracking in some fashion, if not on their own, when a bluetooth-enabled phone got close and possibly reported the location?

Brad

 

Similar to another thread on one of the yahoo boards recently regarding the NAV system. Alarmists caution against programing your home as "home" in the unit lest the unscrupulous dealer or service tech use it to drive to your house, use the Homelink to open your garage and possibly house doors, pack all your belongings into the hatch back, drive them to a convenient location for storage and then get back to the service department to deliver your car after its oil change. All while you patiently read the newspaper in the service dept. waiting room.

I guess I'll take my chances.

Matt
[I love living on the wild side]

 

with an active enough imagination anything can happen.. . for the most part, a thief will have a very difficult time taking your car.

it however, is not likely chained down (unless you havent paid your parking fees this month) so they can still tow it away.

without the fob the car will not run. however, it still has some very valuable and as yet some very rare parts that will fetch good money (witness reports of people paying $5000 over sticker to own a Prius)

 

I can vouch for this! When I had the rental I once pulled my keys out of my pocket as I have done several times a day for years and put the remote starter fob in the slot. Fit JUST FINE as it is almost exactly the same size, but the car wouldn't start until I replaced it with the Prius fob. DOH!!

 

If they are open that much, why bother to lock the car at all, just leave the windows all the way down

 

Lol, Had the same thing happen years ago to my dad. He had just bought himself a new car when I was a teenager, and I was badgering him for a pair of keys (as kids will do). He finally caved and got me a set of keys made.

The following week, he locked himself out of the car with the engine (and air conditioner) running on probably the hottest day of the year.

I drove my old car down and opened it for him, and he thanked me by letting me drive the new car home while he drove my old beater back.

Dads can be cool

Dave.

 

rick,

a person at work was telling me he might be able to hack the bluetooth and gain control off the computer through that. i told him to go ahead, i'd love to know if that actually would work

i don't think it will, but it's interesting to think about none the less.

in regards to the dealer programming an additional key paranoia. car dealers can do this already with regular keys. and the old way is a lot cheaper to copy.

-drew

 

all they do is write down the key code on the invoice (their copy) and they have the ability to make a copy any time they want. We used to do this in the dealership I worked at to be able to repo the car without any hassel. Walk up unlock start up and drive to the tow truck a few blocks away, waiting with the sling down and ready to drive on hook up and roll.

 

I'll see your doubt and multiply it by 1*e24.

Breaking into the ECU via Bluetooth sounds like the kind of wacky scheme you'd see on Alias. I.e., smoke & mirrors & Marshall, but nothing behind the offhand tech references.

 

i worked for a high risk repo specialist and the average model of car only had 20-50 different possible keys anyway. a few hig end cars might have had 200 but there were also some cars (namely Ford Pickups) that only had a dozen different combos. (that is the reason why they used different keys for ignition and door to double the odds, but as you know the door was nothing to open. realize that we were penalized BIGTIME for damaging the vehicle so breaking stuff was out of the question)

so that method is pretty much useless on the Prius. besides i was under the impression that the keycode was reprogrammed everytime the fob was removed.

is that not right?

 

Just curious: how'd AAA open up the door? Was it one of those doodads they slide down the window to hook the lock?

 

Read Tony's post again more carefully!