> I developed
> Ultimately, it comes down to fairly tight timings, the speed of light and the rules of physics, but we could restrict things such that the cryptographic handshake would fail if you were more than about 30 meters away, corresponding to a timing window of about 0.0000001 seconds.
Prior art! ;)
There are actually a lot of patented ways to prevent relay attacks, mine is only one of them. And most of them are patented by NXP :)
Ultimately, this is a failure of prioritization on behalf of the car companies, or a sacrifice of security for usability, or both.
I don't have any links and found only [1] this one quickly.
[1] https://teamtalk.jaguarlandrover.com/news/jaguar-land-rover-...
Well, I'm sorry for your tech, but you're kind of making OP's point:
> Yes, 99.9% of consumers really like keyless entry and don't care too much about the potential of theft. For most, that is what insurance is for.
This isn't true, and I have the patent(s) to show it.
I developed (along with some truly talented security professionals and cryptographers) the active RFID security system for KIWI, a residential access control system here in Germany. One of the requirements, aside from not keeping a central log of access, was that the system should not work if you were further than 10 meters from the door you were trying to open. Things like measuring signal strength, etc. were not an option, as you might imagine repeaters render that moot.
Ultimately, it comes down to fairly tight timings, the speed of light and the rules of physics, but we could restrict things such that the cryptographic handshake would fail if you were more than about 30 meters away, corresponding to a timing window of about 0.0000001 seconds.
We offered to license the technology to car companies, but they weren't interested.