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Couple close to death after night in car

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Old 12-17-14, 06:03 AM
  #46  
4TehNguyen
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http://www.autoblog.com/2014/12/16/n...a3-nearly-die/
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Old 12-17-14, 06:05 AM
  #47  
tex2670
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Originally Posted by Sulu





You -- and most of you -- are making assumptions based upon your above-average aptitude with new car tech. And it is NOT just with senior citizens.

The new car with keyless entry, "smart" keys and push-button start is a world away from the century-old technology that is still in most cars, the ignition switch with a key. It is quite a technological leap, not to mention a leap of faith, to go from the ignition key that we are all used to, to the magical push button.

My wife wanted to drive my new ES to see her mother and her sisters soon after we picked it up. I said no because I know that my wife is not that comfortable with technology. When finally she drove it, I had to carefully explain how to open the door, how to start and stop the ignition, etc. And when we were ready to drive off, she had a problem with the foot-operated parking brake, even though she had driven my old Camry, which also had a foot brake. She still does not know how to open the door, even if I am standing next to the car with the smart key in my pocket. She has not asked again to drive the car, even though she was the one pushing for us to get a Lexus.

There are people -- regardless of age (not just senior citizens) -- who have problems adapting quickly to technologies that they have not seen before. They are no more moronic than those of us here who are comfortable with new car technology. By calling them morons is insulting a large group of people.

It is because of people like these that these new technologies have improved since they first came out, and have become more "idiot"-proof. So we should thank them, not insult them.
EVERY car still has mechanical door locks that can be flipped by hand. The assumptions that are being made is that someone "trapped" inside of a car would think to try those before a crow bar. 13 hours, and they didn't try that? Sorry--that's just stupid, and I don't care how old they are. And again, the article hasn't addressed how the car magically became locked, with them in it, without the keyfob; if the car can be locked without the fob, it can be unlocked without the fob--pretty simple. So I don't feel like anyone in this thread is being overly harsh at all.

There's a reason that the Family Guy clip a few pages up is funny--because it's the typical extreme, over the top humor that the show normally pokes fun at. It's a ridiculous scenario.

If they were locked out of the car, and didn't realize that there was a mechanical key that pops out of the fob to unlock the car, or struggled with the basics of grabbing the door handle properly to unlock the car (aside from the fact that the fob still can work like any other non-keyless fob) then I'm totally with you.

Last edited by tex2670; 12-17-14 at 06:20 AM.
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Old 12-17-14, 07:47 AM
  #48  
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Originally Posted by bitkahuna
the couple in this article is apparently just stupid. hey it happens. so you don't need to hope we all die young, kthxbye.
And just because they are on the older side doesn't mean that stupid things they do are automatically not stupid...its just because they're older. Thats age-ism just the same.

The reason this kind of stuff gets me so riled up is that the reaction the media tries to get from people is "Oh my god this technology is going to kill people"...instead of "Hey...look how stupid these people are". You see this when people leave their smart key operated cars running in the garage and they all die of carbon monoxide poisoning. I mean...when you get out of a car in a confined garage...how can you not know its running?!? The smart key didn't kill those people...being absent minded and stupid killed them. Thats not the story the media wants though.

I like technology, I think it makes cars and other things better. This sort of stuff and the outcry it creates stifles the technologies that can be made available to those of us that can unlock a door and can hear when a huge machine is running in a confined closed room.

Last edited by SW17LS; 12-17-14 at 07:54 AM.
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Old 12-17-14, 08:30 AM
  #49  
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Reminds me of this clip... the shiny thing, grab the shiny thing!

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Old 12-20-14, 07:05 PM
  #50  
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i don't think anyone really understands what happened here and the news outlet did a **** poor job of reporting. Why couldn't the reporter ask the followup question "so how is it supposed to unlock" to save the poor reader and owners of this model.

I've had a number of issues with keyless cars, I've gotten on airplanes with the keys in my pocket after returning the car to the rental outlet. I've managed to lock the key fob in the trunk by accident which according to the manul was impossible but I did it in a camry. My Porsche has the feature if you pull on the door handle twice it unlocks the door manually, does ANYONE own the car in this story. Can we get a break down of what happens when you pull the door handle? Does it auto lock? What happens with the fob inside/outside the car? Just too much going on with this story I don't really blame the couple, and how the hell did they get to the car jack to smash the window.... i really hate stories with so much informaiton missing.
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Old 12-22-14, 05:49 AM
  #51  
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Originally Posted by toy4two
i don't think anyone really understands what happened here and the news outlet did a **** poor job of reporting. Why couldn't the reporter ask the followup question "so how is it supposed to unlock" to save the poor reader and owners of this model.

I've had a number of issues with keyless cars, I've gotten on airplanes with the keys in my pocket after returning the car to the rental outlet. I've managed to lock the key fob in the trunk by accident which according to the manul was impossible but I did it in a camry. My Porsche has the feature if you pull on the door handle twice it unlocks the door manually, does ANYONE own the car in this story. Can we get a break down of what happens when you pull the door handle? Does it auto lock? What happens with the fob inside/outside the car? Just too much going on with this story I don't really blame the couple, and how the hell did they get to the car jack to smash the window.... i really hate stories with so much informaiton missing.
Locking keys in the trunk has occurred long before keyless ignitions. I agree, it is supposed to be impossible, I thought.
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Old 12-22-14, 07:54 AM
  #52  
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This reminds me of the old joke of the couple crying for help when the escalator stopped half way up.
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Old 12-25-14, 10:43 AM
  #53  
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With nothing better to do on Xmas day, I just checked my CX-9. With the doors locked and no smartkey, all I had to do was pull on the inside door handle and the driver's door opened. Maybe the 3 works differently, but I'm going to stick with my theory that this entire story is a hoax.
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Old 12-25-14, 04:32 PM
  #54  
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Originally Posted by tex2670
With nothing better to do on Xmas day, I just checked my CX-9. With the doors locked and no smartkey, all I had to do was pull on the inside door handle and the driver's door opened. Maybe the 3 works differently, but I'm going to stick with my theory that this entire story is a hoax.
Not all cars have auto-unlocking front doors when you pull the interior door handles.
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Old 12-26-14, 05:34 AM
  #55  
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Originally Posted by Nextourer
Not all cars have auto-unlocking front doors when you pull the interior door handles.
Totally agree. But it's a good likelihood that all within the same make do. Plus, again, no one has explained how they locked themselves into the car in the first place, since they didn't have the fob. Which leads me to think the story's fake.
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Old 12-26-14, 06:19 AM
  #56  
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Originally Posted by tex2670
Totally agree. But it's a good likelihood that all within the same make do. Plus, again, no one has explained how they locked themselves into the car in the first place, since they didn't have the fob. Which leads me to think the story's fake.
Timed autolock. If you don't put keys into ignition after you unlock the car it will lock itself after a minute or so. That's how Mazdas work at least. I've been locked inside RX8 few times due to this but I don't remember if just pulling the door lever was enough to unlock the doors or that little latch but there is a dedicated and very visible door lock/unlock button as well
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Old 12-26-14, 08:45 AM
  #57  
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Originally Posted by Vladi
Timed autolock. If you don't put keys into ignition after you unlock the car it will lock itself after a minute or so. That's how Mazdas work at least. I've been locked inside RX8 few times due to this but I don't remember if just pulling the door lever was enough to unlock the doors or that little latch but there is a dedicated and very visible door lock/unlock button as well
There's no key to put in the ignition--it had a proximity key. If you unlock the door using the fob, it autolocks only if no doors are opened within 30 seconds to a minute; once you open a door, it won't autolock. My CX-9 is a '12, so I would think that it would function pretty close to a how a new 3 would. That's how every car I've ever had with a key fob has worked (smart key or not)
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Old 12-26-14, 09:47 AM
  #58  
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Maybe they had the window open and threw the fob out after locking.
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Old 12-26-14, 12:01 PM
  #59  
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so how did this play out?
Scene1:
Hubby: Honey let us go for a drive.
(chirp*chirp unlocks car from inside the house)
Honey: Sure darling. You are wonderful.
(Smooch! plants a kiss on his lips)
In this furor, hubby forgets to pickup the keys from the table.
Both sit inside the car and before they know it click*clack car doors lock themselves.

By the way, I have owned Mazda, Lexus and Mercedes. None of them auto lock the door once the door has been opened.
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Old 12-26-14, 12:22 PM
  #60  
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Originally Posted by chikoo
so how did this play out?
Scene1:
Hubby: Honey let us go for a drive.
(chirp*chirp unlocks car from inside the house)
Honey: Sure darling. You are wonderful.
(Smooch! plants a kiss on his lips)
In this furor, hubby forgets to pickup the keys from the table.
Both sit inside the car and before they know it click*clack car doors lock themselves.

By the way, I have owned Mazda, Lexus and Mercedes. None of them auto lock the door once the door has been opened.
Maybe the car was painted like the General Lee and they slid in the window. And then the cat accidentally stepped on the fob, and it rolled the windows back up....
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