For car companies, a fix for the problem they’ve uncovered won’t be easy, Garcia and Oswald contend. “These vehicles have a very slow software development cycle,” says Garcia. “They’re not able to respond very quickly with new designs.”
Until then, they suggest that car owners with affected vehicles—the full list is included in the researchers’ paper (see below)—simply avoid leaving any valuables in their car. “A vehicle is not a safebox,” says Oswald. Careful drivers, they add, should even consider giving up on their wireless key fobs altogether and instead open and lock their car doors the old-fashioned, mechanical way.