4 ms·

All modern cars have been locking the doors for the last 20 years or so, as far as I know. At least here in Western Europe. The door handles still work from th

All modern cars have been locking the doors for the last 20 years or so, as far as I know. At least here in Western Europe. The door handles still work from the inside, they mechanically unlock the door unconditionally, meaning nobody can be trapped inside even by manually locking the doors. The exception is if you flip the "child safety" switch which disconnects the inside door handle of the rear doors.

freetonik 1y ago
>All modern cars have been locking the doors for the last 20 years or so, as far as I know. Yeah, and I would always disable that feature. Perhaps that was wrong to do, and now that I don't have a choice it's actually safer for me and my passengers.
- piker 1y ago
  I hate this "feature". Was there a rash of children jumping out of cars that lead to its creation? It just seems like such a narrow set of facts where a child is big and smart enough to open the door but dumb enough to jump out and get seriously hurt. Opening a moving car door is presumably quite difficult given the aerodynamic pressure on the body. So the car would have to be moving rather slow and yet turning and moving fast enough that the child couldn't avoid disaster.
  - pmg101 1y ago
    I always assumed it to was prevent carjacking?
    - blooalien 1y ago
      > I always assumed it to was prevent carjacking? There can be more than one valid reason for a thing.
    - piker 1y ago
      I was talking about child locks which can be opened from the outside and increase the risk to children in the event of a car jacking.
  - seszett 1y ago
    If you're talking about the child safety, it's unrelated to door locking. It prevents children from exiting the car before an adult can ensure it is safe to do so. Mostly to prevent the child getting run over by a passing car, or dooring a passing bicycle. If you don't like it you can just not enable it.
    - piker 1y ago
      Yes, and actually this makes a ton of sense. I perceive the risk of my children opening and falling out of the moving car as low relative to being trapped in a car in a bad situation. But I could absolutely see the idiots trying to bolt 0.28273 seconds after I put the car in park. I'll update my thinking.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - ehnto 1y ago
    You may be on to something. I drove a BMW that, when the electric window position sensors went bad, the whole car went into limp mode and didn't let you accelerate over a certain speed. I imagine the rationale being out could not verify the windows were not down? Crazy still... the first and only BMW. I should have stuck to old Nissans
    - mattmanser 1y ago
      Things go wrong on cars, it doesn't mean they're bad as a brand. I loved my BMW. Have a Volvo now and apart from the slightly crap entertainment software I love it. They're replaced the software with carplay in the newer models, and updated older models, but alas they can't update my model due to a hardware mismatch. It's the cars where things constantly go wrong that you should avoid. Jags + Land Rovers have those reputations in the UK.
      - Zak 1y ago
        It's fine that a window position sensor might eventually fail on a car. It's not fine that a window position sensor causes the car to limit its maximum speed.
      - ehnto 1y ago
        It was less that it went wrong, and more that when something small went wrong it became a complex issue due to how the system was built, and how it handled a module failure. The car was entirely capable of continuing to operate normally, but the operator is not trusted by BMW. Their ecosystem locks out the owner from easily maintaining their car as well, which made even more painful as I had no trouble identifying and sourcing a new module.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - gwbas1c 1y ago
    > Was there a rash of children jumping out of cars that lead to its creation? No, there was a rash of carjackings in the 1990s. It was where someone would walk up to a car stopped at an intersection and open the door.
    - ethbr1 1y ago
      That seems an equally insane reason to make every car everywhere auto-lock on drive, given the safety considerations of default unlocked. By all means let's increase common risk severity for everyone in order to demonstrate we're doing something about a rare tail risk. /s
  - moepstar 1y ago
    > Opening a moving car door is presumably quite difficult given the aerodynamic pressure on the body. So the car would have to be moving rather slow Actually, no - at least not slow by my definition. You’d have to drive over 130km/h, this is when you need some serious force to open the door more than maybe 10-20cm - but anything slower than that, it’s still pretty easy, certainly easy enough for a kid to open the door wide enough to fall out or get in serious trouble.. Source: 18 year old stupid me and buddies, doing stuff like opening driving cars doors, going over 100km/h
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - BrandoElFollito 1y ago
      Also source: 14 yo me opening the door of my parents car on a speedway (Europe, so around 90 km/h) and having stuff fly off the car door
  - EForEndeavour 1y ago
    > It just seems like such a narrow set of facts where a child is big and smart enough to open the door but dumb enough to jump out and get seriously hurt. I had to guess, I'd guess you aren't a parent or spend much time interacting with children :) Also, auto-lock reduces theft and carjacking risk, which is nice.
    - piker 1y ago
      Parent of 2 actually, and lots of time. I'm talking about child locks, not auto-lock. Locking the door from the inside. A commenter above suggests that it's to stop the little idiots from popping out into the middle of the street .7845 seconds after I put it in park. That actually makes some sense.
      - EForEndeavour 1y ago
        Ah got it. The conversation upthread had focused on auto-lock, and someone had mentioned child locks in passing, and my read of your comment was on the auto-lock on shift to drive (or on starting to move). And my bad for falsely guessing you weren't speaking from personal experience!
  - dsego 1y ago
    A friend's 3 year old absolutely opened the door last year while we were driving. Luckily she was strapped in her car seat, but otherwise could've easily fallen out.
RandomBacon 1y ago
I'm renting a 2025 Chevy Malibu sedan in the U.S. right now, and for the driver door, I have to pull the handle twice. The first pull unlocks it, the second pull opens it. I think it is digital and not mechanical. There is no mechanical lock I can pull on, just a push button with a light to indicate that the door is locked. I hate this car.
- MarkusWandel 1y ago
  I thought that about my car (a Honda) as well, having not RTFM. In this case at least, there's a touch sensor on the inside of the handle. Lay hand on it, wait half a second to unlock, pull. No double pull needed.
tpm 1y ago
I've got a 2012 Toyota Avensis and it does not lock the doors automatically.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
TheChaplain 1y ago
> All modern cars have been locking the doors for the last 20 years or so, as far as I know. No? My Honda Civic from 2016 certainly does not.
- senordevnyc 1y ago
  I was curious, so I googled it. Here's a video showing the settings for a 2016 Civic...maybe you have it turned off? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkEvKIik52k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkEvKIik52k
  - TheChaplain 1y ago
    The Civic Touring is/was high end, and rather more expensive. Mine is a cheaper, european model, which if you are willing to pay for it, of course have all the fancy stuff like keyless ignition, auto door locks, auto high beam system, security systems etc as addons to the standard model. I'm not that rich so..

freetonik 1y ago

>All modern cars have been locking the doors for the last 20 years or so, as far as I know. Yeah, and I would always disable that feature. Perhaps that was wrong to do, and now that I don't have a choice it's actually safer for me and my passengers.

piker 1y ago
I hate this "feature". Was there a rash of children jumping out of cars that lead to its creation? It just seems like such a narrow set of facts where a child is big and smart enough to open the door but dumb enough to jump out and get seriously hurt. Opening a moving car door is presumably quite difficult given the aerodynamic pressure on the body. So the car would have to be moving rather slow and yet turning and moving fast enough that the child couldn't avoid disaster.
- pmg101 1y ago
  I always assumed it to was prevent carjacking?
  - blooalien 1y ago
    > I always assumed it to was prevent carjacking? There can be more than one valid reason for a thing.
  - piker 1y ago
    I was talking about child locks which can be opened from the outside and increase the risk to children in the event of a car jacking.
- seszett 1y ago
  If you're talking about the child safety, it's unrelated to door locking. It prevents children from exiting the car before an adult can ensure it is safe to do so. Mostly to prevent the child getting run over by a passing car, or dooring a passing bicycle. If you don't like it you can just not enable it.
  - piker 1y ago
    Yes, and actually this makes a ton of sense. I perceive the risk of my children opening and falling out of the moving car as low relative to being trapped in a car in a bad situation. But I could absolutely see the idiots trying to bolt 0.28273 seconds after I put the car in park. I'll update my thinking.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- ehnto 1y ago
  You may be on to something. I drove a BMW that, when the electric window position sensors went bad, the whole car went into limp mode and didn't let you accelerate over a certain speed. I imagine the rationale being out could not verify the windows were not down? Crazy still... the first and only BMW. I should have stuck to old Nissans
  - mattmanser 1y ago
    Things go wrong on cars, it doesn't mean they're bad as a brand. I loved my BMW. Have a Volvo now and apart from the slightly crap entertainment software I love it. They're replaced the software with carplay in the newer models, and updated older models, but alas they can't update my model due to a hardware mismatch. It's the cars where things constantly go wrong that you should avoid. Jags + Land Rovers have those reputations in the UK.
    - Zak 1y ago
      It's fine that a window position sensor might eventually fail on a car. It's not fine that a window position sensor causes the car to limit its maximum speed.
    - ehnto 1y ago
      It was less that it went wrong, and more that when something small went wrong it became a complex issue due to how the system was built, and how it handled a module failure. The car was entirely capable of continuing to operate normally, but the operator is not trusted by BMW. Their ecosystem locks out the owner from easily maintaining their car as well, which made even more painful as I had no trouble identifying and sourcing a new module.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- gwbas1c 1y ago
  > Was there a rash of children jumping out of cars that lead to its creation? No, there was a rash of carjackings in the 1990s. It was where someone would walk up to a car stopped at an intersection and open the door.
  - ethbr1 1y ago
    That seems an equally insane reason to make every car everywhere auto-lock on drive, given the safety considerations of default unlocked. By all means let's increase common risk severity for everyone in order to demonstrate we're doing something about a rare tail risk. /s
- moepstar 1y ago
  > Opening a moving car door is presumably quite difficult given the aerodynamic pressure on the body. So the car would have to be moving rather slow Actually, no - at least not slow by my definition. You’d have to drive over 130km/h, this is when you need some serious force to open the door more than maybe 10-20cm - but anything slower than that, it’s still pretty easy, certainly easy enough for a kid to open the door wide enough to fall out or get in serious trouble.. Source: 18 year old stupid me and buddies, doing stuff like opening driving cars doors, going over 100km/h
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - BrandoElFollito 1y ago
    Also source: 14 yo me opening the door of my parents car on a speedway (Europe, so around 90 km/h) and having stuff fly off the car door
- EForEndeavour 1y ago
  > It just seems like such a narrow set of facts where a child is big and smart enough to open the door but dumb enough to jump out and get seriously hurt. I had to guess, I'd guess you aren't a parent or spend much time interacting with children :) Also, auto-lock reduces theft and carjacking risk, which is nice.
  - piker 1y ago
    Parent of 2 actually, and lots of time. I'm talking about child locks, not auto-lock. Locking the door from the inside. A commenter above suggests that it's to stop the little idiots from popping out into the middle of the street .7845 seconds after I put it in park. That actually makes some sense.
    - EForEndeavour 1y ago
      Ah got it. The conversation upthread had focused on auto-lock, and someone had mentioned child locks in passing, and my read of your comment was on the auto-lock on shift to drive (or on starting to move). And my bad for falsely guessing you weren't speaking from personal experience!
- dsego 1y ago
  A friend's 3 year old absolutely opened the door last year while we were driving. Luckily she was strapped in her car seat, but otherwise could've easily fallen out.

RandomBacon 1y ago

I'm renting a 2025 Chevy Malibu sedan in the U.S. right now, and for the driver door, I have to pull the handle twice. The first pull unlocks it, the second pull opens it. I think it is digital and not mechanical. There is no mechanical lock I can pull on, just a push button with a light to indicate that the door is locked. I hate this car.

MarkusWandel 1y ago
I thought that about my car (a Honda) as well, having not RTFM. In this case at least, there's a touch sensor on the inside of the handle. Lay hand on it, wait half a second to unlock, pull. No double pull needed.

tpm 1y ago

I've got a 2012 Toyota Avensis and it does not lock the doors automatically.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

TheChaplain 1y ago

> All modern cars have been locking the doors for the last 20 years or so, as far as I know. No? My Honda Civic from 2016 certainly does not.

senordevnyc 1y ago
I was curious, so I googled it. Here's a video showing the settings for a 2016 Civic...maybe you have it turned off? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkEvKIik52k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkEvKIik52k
- TheChaplain 1y ago
  The Civic Touring is/was high end, and rather more expensive. Mine is a cheaper, european model, which if you are willing to pay for it, of course have all the fancy stuff like keyless ignition, auto door locks, auto high beam system, security systems etc as addons to the standard model. I'm not that rich so..