Those transponder-based security chips implanted in some car keys as a security device may have met their match. The Associated Press reports that researchers at Jonhs Hopkins University have found a way around the immobilizer units, which use the electronic components to bar thieves from starting and stealing vehicles. The team studying the security devices says a relatively inexpensive electronic device could obtain the information needed to bypass the chips. The specific radio-based units that could be overridden are featured on more than 150 million vehicles made by Ford, Toyota, and Nissan; the systems are similar to those found at some gasoline stations that allow customers to wave a fob at the pump, automatically charging the total to a credit card on file. The Hopkins researchers say they've cracked those devices too - but experts put the likelihood of thieves committing thefts by the school's methods low.

http://www.thecarconnection.com/