Why You Can Trust CNET Viper SmartStart and SmartKey review: Viper SmartKey unlocks cars with hands-free ease, but requires alarm
Viper's new SmartKey system unlocks your car when it detects your phone, but it's a big installation and setup for a fairly minor task.
For many of us, our smartphones become the center of our lives, reminding us of appointments, keeping us up on the latest news, letting us know what friends are up to, telling us how to get to places, and even being a conduit to pay for products or services. At the same time, many new cars don't require a traditional key, instead letting us use a plastic fob transmitting an RF signal to unlock the doors and start the engine.
Viper SmartStart and SmartKey
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Viper, a company known for car alarm products, integrated the functions of that plastic fob into the phone, making one less thing to carry in your pocket.
As a new addition to Viper's alarm system, SmartKey works with the Viper Bluetooth module. With it, you can set your car to unlock the doors when you come within a set distance. Likewise, it will lock the doors when you leave the car's perimeter.
To test SmartKey, Viper installed the system in my car. Actually, Viper installed its Security system, SmartStart GPS module, and SmartStart Bluetooth module, all the components necessary to run SmartKey and some location features. There are quite few features beyond SmartKey in this system. It includes the basic whoop whoop car alarm (being a city dweller, I'm not a fan of this feature), remote engine start (not installed on my car because of its manual transmission), car locator, cloud-based remote unlocking, and geo-fencing.
An installer shop handled wiring the components throughout my car -- I just had to install the Viper app on my phone, sign up for an account, and pair my phone with the Viper Bluetooth module.
Proximity unlock
Setting up SmartKey involved a little extra trial and error, although a good shop will walk you through this procedure when you pick up your car after the installation. The Viper home screen, which shows lock and unlock buttons, includes a large Bluetooth icon in the upper left corner when the system is enabled. That button can also serve as a shortcut to turn off SmartKey, useful when you walk by your car but don't want it unlocked.
Opening up the SmartKey screen, located in the setup menu for my specific car, I found a slider control with lock and unlock icons at each end. I could drag red and green dots along the slider to indicate at which distance I wanted SmartKey to automatically unlock or lock my car when my phone was in Bluetooth range.
This slider control is not all that intuitive to use, and it is difficult to differentiate the red and green dots when their positions overlap. Two separate sliders would be easier to use, something Viper could implement with a simple app update. I should also point out that I was testing SmartKey with beta software.
Setting the distance for SmartKey to unlock the doors involves a bit of trial-and-error, as there are no distance markings on the slider control. I spent a bit of time adjusting the slider, walking away from my car and then turning around and walking back to determine at what distance the doors unlocked. Getting that distance right will vary by your parking situation. If your driveway is next to your house, you might want to set a close proximity, otherwise your doors might unlock and lock every time you go in and out of the kitchen.
I set mine with a close proximity activation, the safest bet, so that when I walked by my car from about 6 feet away it didn't unlock, especially important for curbside parking in a city. And once the distance was properly set, I didn't have to mess with it again. The doors faithfully unlocked whenever I was within my set opening distance.
Included with the system were a couple of other ways to remotely lock and unlock my car. Viper included two key fob remotes with lock and unlock buttons. Those fobs send an RF signal to the SmartStart system, not only activating the locks but arming or disarming the car alarm.
For an even more remote solution, I could use the smartphone app. As it sends a signal over its data connection to Viper's server, which then sends the lock or unlock signal to the car, there is no distance restriction. I could activate the locks from anywhere in the world that I had a data connection for my phone. The downside of the app locking is the time it takes, about five seconds. However, if you have the Bluetooth module up and running, the unlock or lock command is also sent through Bluetooth, making it much quicker.
Viper, where's my car?
The cloud-based component of SmartStart allows a set of useful features for security and parenting. The included GPS module let me locate my car from anywhere I had a data connection. Touching the GPS button on the home screen brought up a map showing my current location. When I tapped the car button, it showed where my car was on the map. Even better, I could also view my car's current speed and direction, if it was moving.
If the Viper car alarm didn't prevent thieves from driving off with your car, then you could call the police and tell them exactly where it is. However, driving the car into a garage or area where data and GPS is blocked will defeat that location feature.
The app also let me share the location of my car through Facebook or a text message, useful if I wanted to let a family member or friend drive it.
The GPS module enables a geo-fencing feature useful for parents. With that, I could use the app to define a circular area around a central point. If the car was driven outside of that area, the Viper app shows an alert.
Viper includes some convenient parking features in the app, as well. When I hit the lock button on the app, a dialog box popped up telling me the parking spot was saved in the app's memory, and gave me the option to take a photo. Even more useful, the app includes a parking meter function that let me manually set how much time I had on a meter. I could check it to see when I next need to run out and feed the meter, and it alerted me when the time ran out.
Appropriate vehicles
Many new cars come with Viper SmartStart's GPS features built-in. All GM vehicles, for example, include OnStar, which duplicates a few of these features and includes a stolen vehicle service. Data connections and GPS chips are becoming very common in the automotive market, which might make the Viper system redundant for your vehicle.
I have also reviewed a number of easy OBD-II plug-in devices, such as the Zubie Connected Car Service , which use GPS and a data connection to locate your car, define a geo-fence, and even serve as a driving coach to encourage fuel efficiency.
The Viper SmartStart and SmartKey stand apart in that they offer car alarm features and the aforementioned Bluetooth unlocking mechanism. However, some of these features will require additional equipment in the car. For example, if you want to keep your 1959 Ford Ranch Wagon safe and include the convenience of remote unlocking, you will need to have a central electronic locking system installed.
The type of car you own, and the environment where you live, will be big determining factors in if Viper SmartStart is right for you. Given that I mostly park my car in a garage, the security features are of little interest. The Bluetooth proximity unlocking certainly makes for hassle-free car entry, but that convenience gets sidelined by the need to use a key to start the engine.
What might add to the attraction of Viper SmartStart is its integration with Viper Home, a home security system that can also be controlled from a Viper app. Read CNET's review of Viper Home to find out more about this system.
The cost of the Viper SmartStart system with its Bluetooth module will vary from installer to installer -- this is not a DIY system. In addition, for the cloud-based services you will need to sign up for one of Viper's data plans. That will cost you $99 for one year, or $199 for a three-year subscription.