Just had a weird experience could somebody have been trying to clone my key?

[f1eng]

I just left my daughter’s house and when I shut the door and the car booted up the music I had been listening to started for a moment then some loud music I don’t recognise started and a window came up in the PCM asking something - I was surprised and not sure what was going on - but it said something like do you accept this somethingorother.
It went away when I drove off and I didn’t accept anything but how come somebody somewhere (with appalling musical taste) is suddenly communicating with my car?

On reflection I wonder whether one of her neigbours was trying to clone my key.

Any ideas from people familiar with these sort of devices.

I was content with the old style keys from a security pov…

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[McgR]

I just left my daughter’s house and when I shut the door and the car booted up the music I had been listening to started for a moment then some loud music I don’t recognise started and a window came up in the PCM asking something - I was surprised and not sure what was going on - but it said something like do you accept this somethingorother.
It went away when I drove off and I didn’t accept anything but how come somebody somewhere (with appalling musical taste) is suddenly communicating with my car?

On reflection I wonder whether one of her neigbours was trying to clone my key.

Any ideas from people familiar with these sort of devices.

I was content with the old style keys from a security pov…

This sounds more like a CarPlay / Bluetooth connection issue.

Still weird because you need to enter a code from the car on the phone to approve a connection for car play and accept a connection for Bluetooth . Are you sure your daughter didn’t connect to your car earlier.

 

[tigerbalm]

There is no connection between your key and the PCM stereo/bluetooth (other then which key you use could decides with PCM profile to set as active).

I think it is very unlikely – whatever happened – is related to a key cloning risk.

Did you happen to notice what the "source" on the PCM of the unexpected music was? I've seen the PCM fall back to "radio" or "DAB" in some cases where it really should not. Any chance you were hearing a shitty radio station?

 

[f1eng]

There is no connection between your key and the PCM stereo/bluetooth (other then which key you use could decides with PCM profile to set as active).

I think it is very unlikely – whatever happened – is related to a key cloning risk.

Did you happen to notice what the "source" on the PCM of the unexpected music was? I've seen the PCM fall back to "radio" or "DAB" in some cases where it really should not. Any chance you were hearing a shitty radio station?

Thanks for the reassurance about key cloning.

My first thought was the car was connecting CarPlay which I have initiated twice so far but up to now has never connected on its own, which I haven’t bothered about but why would it ask for me to agree to something?

It certainly wasn’t trying to connect to anything I was familiar with. I am annoyed I can’t remember exactly what the pop-up box was all about, my short term memory is pathetic these days. I am pretty sure it wasn’t being specific though because I was looking for a clue where it was coming from.

 

[tigerbalm]

Do you have the car's internal wifi active/on usually? Like yourself, I do not tend to use CarPlay – happier to stay within the PCM native environment.

But when setting up CarPlay and if wifi on the PCM is off – you'll get a pop-up asking to activate/turn on wifi as part of the initial connection process. It's not required if you use wired CarPlay but I think both Apple and Porsche assume you'll probably want to use wireless CarPlay so you get that dialog to encourage it.

In the meantime while that box was showing – the PCM might have switched to Radio.

Just a guess.

 

[f1eng]

I don’t know whether I have the car wifi on or not I’m afraid, not something I have knowingly checked or changed since I got it…
It went back to playing the track from my thumb drive I had been listening to before after a short time.

 

[Fantasmos]

This happens when my home Alexa is linked to my Spotify account that I am logged with in Carplay and my wife tells Alexa to play something…

 

[f1eng]

This happens when my home Alexa is linked to my Spotify account that I am logged with in Carplay and my wife tells Alexa to play something…

I don’t have a Spotify account, though, and CarPlay hasn’t once connected to the car automatically before in 12 months.
My daughter does have a device you can talk to but she was in my car not her house…

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

I would second @tigerbalm ’s theory - it’s likely the PCM simply changed the source and, at the same time, a nearby device was discovered (or requested pairing). Definitely not related to the key, and I don’t see a reason to suspect an attack.

 

[daveo4EV]

I just left my daughter’s house and when I shut the door and the car booted up the music I had been listening to started for a moment then some loud music I don’t recognise started and a window came up in the PCM asking something - I was surprised and not sure what was going on - but it said something like do you accept this somethingorother.
It went away when I drove off and I didn’t accept anything but how come somebody somewhere (with appalling musical taste) is suddenly communicating with my car?

On reflection I wonder whether one of her neigbours was trying to clone my key.

Any ideas from people familiar with these sort of devices.

I was content with the old style keys from a security pov…

bluttooth device discovery and pairing can sometimes be a problem - and lead to these sorts of problem - sometimes's I'll be in the car in the garage (near the kitchen) and when I pull in if my wife is on her phone sometimes the car will 'switch' to her phone for unclear reasons…

no fob cloning here - just lack of end use control on switching which paired device is "active"…

 

[Kev.k]

One of the reasons im interested in a Taycan is because I thought no one would be interested in stealing it.

Even 911’s don’t attract scumbag thieves in the U.K. like Bmw M, Audi RS and even VW R’s do.

 

[snstevens]

bluttooth device discovery and pairing can sometimes be a problem - and lead to these sorts of problem - sometimes's I'll be in the car in the garage (near the kitchen) and when I pull in if my wife is on her phone sometimes the car will 'switch' to her phone for unclear reasons…

no fob cloning here - just lack of end use control on switching which paired device is "active"…

Since my wife and I are both registered devices in her car, if she's on the phone in the house and I start her car, the phone will transfer to the car and I find myself talking to her friend, even though I'm trying to connect my device.

@f1eng - Always a good thing to check the list of devices periodically. If you see anything you don't recognize, swipe left and then hit DELETE.

 

[Vercingetorix]

Just don’t do what the voices tell you to do.

 

[whitex]

Too bad you didn’t snap a picture of the screen with your phone @f1eng . I second @tigerbalm comment on the key cloning - not at all consistent with your symptoms. While all the theories mentioned here sound plausible, I have 2 more possibilities.

1. Could it be some free trial activation of XM radio? I recently had XM activated (or so the car said) for 5 days to give me “a taste”.

2. Do you listen to FM radio? Taycans have a feature that finds your FM station via the internet when the FM signal gets too weak, and it automatically switches to internet version of it, but the source still says FM. This results in an odd behavior when I travel out of state. The car plays an FM station I select at the start of the trip, it silently switches to online version while driving, all good until I park the car. When I get back in, the car is tuned to same FM frequency as before, but in the new location it is a completely different station, so in one case I remember some foreign language station came up when I got into the car. However, after a few seconds the car receives and decodes the digital station ID, realizes this is not the station I was listening to before, and it switches back to the online version.

My guess is you experienced a version of #2, even if you don’t listen to FM radio, somehow it might have gotten selected - my Taycan sometimes randomly switches audio sources on me. The popup window might have been something about online radio usage if you never used it before.

PS> Good old fashion mechanical keys are way to easy to hotwire. Try to insure a recent Kia nowadays

 

[sveinaan]

There is too often something-going-on when you start the car. Usually listening to spotify. Sometimes car switches to FM instead. Other times it pops up some question about Android Auto. I would almost say this i just the way Taycan sw works

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