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A different type of problem with electronic keys, mainly for motorcyclists, is if you have the key laying nearby in, say, a garage, hop on and ride off (there a

A different type of problem with electronic keys, mainly for motorcyclists, is if you have the key laying nearby in, say, a garage, hop on and ride off (there are some bikes with keyless start), you just stranded yourself wherever you end up shutting the ignition off. Harder to do with a car unless you forgot your keys and someone playing a joke on you had an amplifier near your car.

mikeash 11y ago
I spoke to a Tesla owner who had spoken to another Tesla owner who locked his keys in his car. Normally this wouldn't be possible, except he apparently happened upon a dead spot in the interior of the car where it couldn't sense the key. The car automatically locked when he walked away, and that was that. With Tesla you have a backup, in that you can unlock the car with your phone, as long as both the car and the phone have a signal. Of course this fellow locked his phone in the car too....
- Swizec 11y ago
  This used to happen regularly before central locking systems. When I was a kid, buying a used car meant you didn't have central locking. I was probably 17 before my family had our first car with central locking. Anyway, what happens there is you usually lock all doors before closing them. Then when you close them, if the key is inside, oops. This is mitigated in slightly moderner cars by the fact that driver-side doors don't lock when they're open. So I guess we had this beautiful period of the last 15 or 20 years where we locked our cars by pressing a button on the key. Makes it impossible to lock your keys into the car. I wonder if we're going to decide that was better than keyless before keyless becomes widespread.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    Personally, I love keyless systems. I also habitually lock my car (happens automatically now, yay!) and never take the key out of my pocket, so leaving it in the car by accident isn't an issue. Old habits die hard, though.
zippergz 11y ago
I've had a few instances where my wife has the key in her purse, which allows the car to be started, and I don't even realize I don't have my key on me. I drop her off somewhere and then notice. But both of our cars sound a loud alarm and show an impossible to miss message on the dash the instant the key leaves the car, so it's pretty hard to actually drive off without the key.
DrJosiah 11y ago
Mazdas (at least the 6 and CX-9) will beep at you if the key isn't inside when the vehicle is running. If keyless ignition does make it big in the motorcycle world, I would expect that motorcycle manufacturers would add lights/beeping/ignition cutoff if you got too far from the key.

mikeash 11y ago

I spoke to a Tesla owner who had spoken to another Tesla owner who locked his keys in his car. Normally this wouldn't be possible, except he apparently happened upon a dead spot in the interior of the car where it couldn't sense the key. The car automatically locked when he walked away, and that was that. With Tesla you have a backup, in that you can unlock the car with your phone, as long as both the car and the phone have a signal. Of course this fellow locked his phone in the car too....

Swizec 11y ago
This used to happen regularly before central locking systems. When I was a kid, buying a used car meant you didn't have central locking. I was probably 17 before my family had our first car with central locking. Anyway, what happens there is you usually lock all doors before closing them. Then when you close them, if the key is inside, oops. This is mitigated in slightly moderner cars by the fact that driver-side doors don't lock when they're open. So I guess we had this beautiful period of the last 15 or 20 years where we locked our cars by pressing a button on the key. Makes it impossible to lock your keys into the car. I wonder if we're going to decide that was better than keyless before keyless becomes widespread.
- mikeash 11y ago
  Personally, I love keyless systems. I also habitually lock my car (happens automatically now, yay!) and never take the key out of my pocket, so leaving it in the car by accident isn't an issue. Old habits die hard, though.

zippergz 11y ago

I've had a few instances where my wife has the key in her purse, which allows the car to be started, and I don't even realize I don't have my key on me. I drop her off somewhere and then notice. But both of our cars sound a loud alarm and show an impossible to miss message on the dash the instant the key leaves the car, so it's pretty hard to actually drive off without the key.

DrJosiah 11y ago

Mazdas (at least the 6 and CX-9) will beep at you if the key isn't inside when the vehicle is running. If keyless ignition does make it big in the motorcycle world, I would expect that motorcycle manufacturers would add lights/beeping/ignition cutoff if you got too far from the key.