How to configure phone proximity without using unreliable GPS

Configuration
1

I am having a hard time trying to configure an automation that allows me to walk up to my car and it unlock and walk away from it and have it lock?

I have the Mercedes integration which allows HA to run the unlock and lock commands but I cannot get a solution that involves a variable location. There does not seem to be a way to create a ‘variable’ zone that updates based on GPS coordinates from the car device tracker. Even then the GPS location from the companion app on the phone is not accurate enough when 'high accuracy mode ’ mode is off.

I need high accuracy mode off as it is very unreliable indoors and can ping me to near my car when it can’t get an accurate fix. This can be terrible as my car may unlock when I’m not actually there to witness it; high accuracy mode is also very battery draining.

I was thinking of either a zone that is dynamic based on where the car is parked but this doesn’t seem possible. Or possibly a BLE beacon in the car that my phone picks up when nearing the car, but the companion app doesn’t allow for scanning of these?

Any suggestions would be amazing!

2

You can use the distance filter in a template to see how far apart two things are.

You’d want to exclude any location update with a low accuracy, and of course it may not update at a convenient time. You could try switching to more regular updates and/or using high accuracy mode only when within a certain distance of the car.

3

Thanks for the response…

I have the distance filter added already with the two device trackers being ‘the car gps’ (which is always on and accurate) and my mobile phone (which is only accurate and updates quickly enough if high accuracy mode is on)

I would love to only enable high accuracy when near the car as I feel this might solve my issues, but the companion app only allows you to enable when connected to a bluetooth or within a zone??

I wouldn’t be connected to a bluetooth when approaching the car and I can’t have the car as a zone due to zones not being able to be dynamic.

4

You can use HA to turn high accuracy mode on and off, with the distance filter above you can easily automate that being turned on only when the two are within (say) 200 meters of each other.

5

Amazing! Didn’t realise that you could enable or disable the high accuracy from an automation.

This has solved the problem and fixed what I needed to achieve.

Thanks for this!

1 Like
6

Hi Dan, I am trying to do the same thing with my Subaru. I have created a binary sensor using “Distance” function but I don’t know how to trigger an automation

7

A simple state trigger will do for that, when the sensor turns on.

Or create a sensor with the distance and use a numeric state trigger.

8

okay let me try, thank you.