Well, this is frightening to insurance companies everywhere.
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I’m quite dubious about this trick. Furthermore if you are going to carry around the ball as recommended, why not carry around an EXTRA KEY instead!
Well maybe because a ball cost only a few cents and new key with a chip is worth up to a few hundred dollars?
It was a good choice to pick a car with an electronic locking system. The girl pushes on the ball at the same time someone else presses the unlock button on the remote key.
funny thing that this was already old news when it was shown in polish movie “psy 2” (http://imdb.com/title/tt0110908/) in 1994!
More useful would be a tennis ball that can fix that girl’s teeth.
#2 You can buy a key with a chip for $15 on eBay and get it cut at your hardware store. You can program it yourself using two programmed keys. The steps are in your owner’s manual.
As for how useful this is, it might get you in your car but it wouldn’t start it for you. As for a car theif using this technique, it would be easier for him to just break your window and steal your laptop or iPod.
#5 She must be British!
#1 – You may not have an extra key to the car you want to get in.
I call shenanigans! You can see that the door is deformed around the lock cylinder. The force from pushing on the tennis ball is probably flexing the door enough to cause the lock cylinder to contact the switch that triggers the electronic unlock. While that is bad news for the security of the car, it may very well be specific to this model/make or this particular car.
I think #3 has this one figured out, that was my thought as well.
Ok, I can see it pushing air into the lock. I get that. But how does it turn the lock?
Last I checked, I had to insert the key which activates the pins inside (which the tennis ball does), THEN I had to turn the key a certain direction to either lock or unlock the door (which the tennis ball doesn’t).
So I call shenanigans also.
You people clearly have little training in either physics or lockology.
If you look carefully, you may notice that this attractive yet dentally curious young woman first squeezes the tennis ball, while you are otherwise distracted, thus removing air from the ball and creating a partial vacuum.
She then releases her grip at the keyhole, thereby sucking out the squad of Maxwell’s’ Demons who guard the Lock People.
Then, by explosively squeezing the ball again, she “bowls over” (technical term) the rather short and rotund Lock People, who are just eating lunch at that moment.
Of course, with no Lock People manning the machinery, a pulse of air is quite sufficient to turn the now unguarded cylinder.
Sheesh!
#11 has figured it out! Sounds as plausible as any armchair analysis.
Now with all these comments supposing this and that, have ANY of the posters actually tried this trick to debunk it or are we just blowing smoke?
Some stupid engineer placed the cylinoid behind the lock. The air pressure is enough to manipulate it and trigger the lock to release.
C’mon John, blowing smoke instead of having actual facts is what internet discussions are all about!
Back in the seventies and early eighties it used to be possible to break into some cars using the method described. Although a half tennis ball was the preferred tool. It also required a hefty thump to force enough air through to move the button.
I thought car designers knew this and since about 1981 have put a box around the button so that the burst of extra pressure didn’t unlock the door.
#11 – There are other ways to manipulate the Maxwell’s Demons who watch over locks. A video that went around last August showed (with German voice over) how to use “bump keying” to open most locks – see http://tinyurl.com/jheoy for the YouTube version. What happens is that “bumping” sets the mechanism to jiggling around and the Maxwell’s Demons get distracted by having to scramble out of the way.
There’s also a handy how-to at http://www.toool.nl/bumping.pdf
So I gotta ask – why bother carrying a tennis ball?
Have any of your ever actually opened a door and viewed the guts of the lock mechanism? The air, whether pressurized or vaccumed would blow right through. There’s usually a pushrod from the lock cylinder to the actual mechanism that has to be rotated.
Blowing on it is about as effective as trying to impeach Bill Clinton.
Some power locks are actuated by solenoids, others (usually cheaper and/or older) are pneumatic. Of the pneumatic actuators, I suppose some of them (tho I’ve never encountered one) may have a unitary lock module that’s sealed to some degree… Kinda doubt it.
Either way, I seriously suspect that if this worked even 10 or 20% of the time, it would have become common knowledge a long time ago.
I don’t think I’m too impressed.
She is a cutie, though. (Yeah, so I like bespectacled English girls with unusual dentition. Sue me.)
Cognito is correct, the method worked decades ago on certain cars. Howwever, the technique is faked in the video.
Time and effort went into producing good quality video that leaves plenty of room for doubt. They had the camera and the blonde and the post-production facilities. Yet the video remains firmly ambiguous. That wasn’t accidental
How does the air get past that thingy that covers the lock aperture?? Doesn’t it slide sideways?
I tried it on my ’06 Ford Focus……and another car…..doesn’t seem to work. Interesting though. It must only work on certain cars that are years old.
If one places the car’s key inside the tennis ball this trick will work every time – otherwise stick the tennis ball on your aerial
Mythbusters—-get on this!!!!!!
Well, the lockpicking is great and so on, but for all pratical matters all car thiefs can enter any car in less than 3 minutes, and usually take only seconds. I doubt that they carry a tennis ball around.
OK. Now with the second, and most important aspect of the video. The girl. What’s the matter with ya’ll Americans and teeth? Geez. She doesn’t have bad teeth, slightly less than perfect and that’s it. Second, she’s not british, she has Slavic appearence, and the driving wheel side implies continental Europe. And the mix of cars around with some recent Skoda and very old Renault 12, looks more like an ex-Eastern block country. Probably Poland or Chzech Republic, but most certainly Ex-Jugoslavia (and BTW Jugoslavia literally means “Southern Slavics”).
We’re just shallow JoaoPT.
she can hold my balls anytime;)
#6 JT is partially wrong about buying the key and programming it yourself. This only works with some cars, not all. I drive Honda Civic and Honda’s do not have Onboard Diagnostic and hence no instructions for programming like GM and Toyota do. I would have to goto dealer or locksmith shop.
Btw – I think that girl is very attractive and the overbite actually helps in this case (although she could use some whitening).
There are many types of different locks out there. Who is to say one method will or won’t work?
there is only one possiblility i can see, as i work doing security installs for cars, with an electronic locking system sometimes you dont have to get the lock all the way open, just a certain amount of pressure along the bars inside the door will caue the electronic locking system to unlock, somewhat similar to the effect o the cd tray on your computer or dvd player, you dont have to push it in all the way to get it to close, jsut a certain ammount and it will close itself to afoid breakage, the part that does this on a car is the actuator, to prevent forcing the actuators and to protect them the alarm system will unlock when they are forced, you may have noticed this when you unlock your car from the inside, you only move the lock about half way at most and then the alarm takes over and snaps it the rest of the way, note that only some alarm systems do this, it will still cut the ignition and set off the alarm, and just how the tennis ball would mak it happen are all very dubious, or that that woman with her bad teeth and petite frame could exert enough force to do it. (Mythbusters anyone?) in this video it is almost certain that someone is jsut using the electronic lock to unlock the car, seems that through youtube we’ve found more interesting and inovative “crop circls”, but just as fake nonetheless.
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Wow…..all too too funny and very entertaining. I’m reading this because I just locked my keys in my car tonight. Anyway, I was just wondering if it was a man in the video, would there be so many comments on his appearance?? I think not….leave the girl alone…it must be fabulous to be American and perfect!!