High-tech thieves would often target vehicles equipped with keyless entry systems by intercepting the signal used by the key fobs via a “relay box” equipment. This is especially true if the key fobs are located in near proximity to the car such as when the fobs are inside the house, and the car is parked outside.

While Ford’s key fobs are only designed to operate within a two-meter radius of the cars they are bonded to, the carmaker adopted another layer of security.

Ford’s solution is to incorporate a motion sensor in their key fobs. When it’s been stationary for longer than 40 seconds, say being placed on a table, it will trigger sleep mode which will make it unresponsive to any signal hacks be it through a relay box or any other specialist equipment.

Moving the keyless fob by picking it up inside the home, and taking it to the car will restore full functionality by the time drivers approach their cars.

The feature is now standard elsewhere on vehicles such as the all-new Escape, Fiesta, and Mustang Mach-E, but they will also start to offer it for existing models as well starting with the 2017 Fiesta and 2018 Focus.

Europe is the first market to benefit from this and it’ll cost around £74 (P 5,000) to £94 (P 6,400), plus around one hour of labor to program and test the system.