What Does Keyless Entry Mean for Your Vehicle?

The year is 2023, and the technological advances made in society are happening on an almost daily basis. Designed to save us time and make our lives easier, these advances spread across every aspect of our lives; construction, automobiles, cell phones, you name it. If you’ve browsed the features included in new vehicles over the last few years, you’ve surely seen several changes that make things more convenient. One such change is the wide adaptation of keyless entry and keyless start/stop.

It’s simplified car ownership in obvious ways, as well as ways that are not so obvious. When you talk to people who have switched to a vehicle with keyless entry, the vast consensus is that it makes things more streamlined. If you’re on the hunt for your next vehicle and are looking at used cars for sale, keyless entry is an innovative feature you may want to keep an eye out for in your search. Let’s take a closer look at this modern convenience and how it can enhance your car driving experience.

How Did Keyless Entry Emerge?

Keyless entry has spread across a multitude of things we use every day. It’s used in cars, trucks, houses, apartments, and malls; anything you can put a lock on, you can equip with keyless entry. For the purpose of this post, we’ll be zeroing in on how keyless entry impacts vehicles. It affects the lock, the type of key you use, and often the start and stop functions.

As a culture, people don’t consider vehicle security until something unfortunate happens. If your vehicle is broken into, stolen, or left somewhere unsafe, that’ll prompt you to think about what keeps people from entering your car without permission. Perhaps getting locked out of your own vehicle has triggered some feelings about your keys. It’s hard to believe, but automobiles once had no security at all.

When automobiles were first invented and sold to the public, they were fairly rare. Only the highest earners could afford a vehicle, and those early vehicles looked incredibly different than what we’re used to seeing today. The first car key was invented in 1910; however, it only functioned to lock and unlock the actual ignition. Before this, removing the steering wheel anytime you parked was the only effective way to prevent car theft.

Instead of the key turning on the ignition, you’d have to use a crank to turn over the engine. For decades, it went on like this until the 1940s, when the first manufacturers started building vehicles that used keys to start the car. These first renditions in the 1940s used ignition tumblers and tumblers in the doors that resembled those used in homes. Without the advancements of electric wiring, these original locks were fully mechanical.

One major problem with the first sets of car keys was a lack of variety. Many keys could be used in many different cars, making it easy for a thief to climb into a car and steal it. In the 1970s, manufacturers finally began overcoming these shortfalls. The initial fix involved issuing separate keys for the car door and the ignition. As technology continued to get better, so did the innovations around vehicle security.

Two types of locks emerged as the main systems; pin tumblers and wafer tumblers. Within the pin tumbler, a key must be cut to a certain height to raise the pins and open the lock. On a wafer tumbler, each lock is made of a flat, one-piece with wafers in varying sizes. The key will push the wafers into the position that unlocks it. These two styles were cost-effective for the manufacturers and simple enough for locksmiths to assist drivers who lost their keys.

However, the simplistic mechanisms still left plenty of room for thieves to learn their way around. By 1998, many automakers had adopted a central locking system that eliminated the need to open each door individually. This was right around the same time that transponder keys became a thing. The transponder key works by communicating with the vehicle’s computer to start the engine. It also functions to increase security. This began the series of improved technology that would lead to getting rid of keys altogether.

What Exactly Is Keyless Entry?

Transponder keys evolved into entirely remote systems. The term “keyless entry” refers to the ability to lock and unlock your car without a traditional key. When keyless fobs debuted in the late 1990s, they were only available for luxury vehicles. It goes by other names like keyless start, intelligent key, push-start, or smart key. Whatever you call it, the key fob transmits low-frequency signals to your car’s computer. When your car validates the signal, it will unlock the car and allow you to start the engine.

Key fobs also function to open the trunk, set off alarms, and alert those around the vehicle, all while at a distance. While they started as a luxury, these keyless entry tools are now standard across most automotive brands. On the off-chance that you have a vehicle without keyless entry, it is available to be installed aftermarket. Newer vehicles even allow you to unlock your car with the use of an app. You can connect your smartphone to the vehicle and use it to lock, unlock, track, and remotely start it.

Keyless entry has plenty of benefits and very few downsides. Key fobs are easier to track since they’re larger than keys. They open the vehicle from a distance, saving you time. Many of today’s keyless entry devices don’t even require hitting a button. These newer remotes automatically open the vehicle when you’re close enough to it with the key fob in your pocket or purse. Having a keyless start/stop button also prevents the wear and tear on the starter that occurs if you hang a heavy keychain from the ignition.

Of course, there are downsides to everything. When you lose a key fob, it’s far more expensive to replace than a conventional key. Since it’s a fob with a computer chip, it can cost around $100 to replace if you break or lose it. You’ll also have to replace the battery from time to time. While security is much better for keyless entry than for a mechanical key, there are still methods for thieves to learn to block the signal between your fob and the car in order to keep it unlocked. If you’re concerned about security, you can always add a steering wheel lock to deter attempts at theft.

Keyless Entry Is Here to Stay

Whether it’s a key fob, keyless start/stop, or a passive keyless entry that works to unlock your vehicle just with proximity, the keyless entry model has become the standard. We’ve come a long way from the days of cranking your engine or having to walk around the car to lock and unlock all four doors and the trunk. Keyless entry went from being considered an upscale feature to becoming an expected feature that serves to make our commutes a little easier. With so many other things to worry about, it’s nice to remove locking and unlocking your car from the equation. Keyless entry and keyless start/stop seem to be an obvious progression in making the operation of our vehicles more streamlined. Once you get used to it, you’ll never be able to go back.