I agree, both the Lexus and BMW have a warning on the dash that no key is present, but the motor does not shut off. That could be a very dangerous situation, even given a thief taking a vehicle. I think the logic, is that it is already running.

I really can't understand the mystery behind fobs and push to start. I haven't followed lately, but Porsche needed a key in 2015, and did not in 2017, pretty late to the game, as I remember renting a Nissan Altima in 2008 where it was all standard.

Anyway, what I was gonna say is how come there are documented cases of people driving into their garage, and leaving the car running, then having CO poisoning, and the push to start is blamed? It's as if they expected the car to shut off, as they left the garage with their fob? My coworker left a rental car running 12 hours and it was a similar situation. He told me it's not his fault, the vehicle should have shut itself off as he went into the office with the fob and he locked the vehicle.

I guess technology is great but the users of it still need to understand it, or it has undesired effects.

 

Agreed, I think the vehicle was already running. These cars are smart enough to know where the fob is, in relation to the vehicle. Meaning, you can enter the pass side with the fob, and only the pass door can be opened with the handle....the idea is a stranger cannot jump in on the driver's side, just because you are jumping in on the pass side...

To tell you the truth, when I have a rental car, I will test how the fob works when I first get it. Meaning I noticed that on some Japanese cars, that button on the handle serves more than one purpose, both lock and unlock. So how do you know you really locked the vehicle (the tone of the chirp)? I like the BMW and lexus way where the BMW has no buttons, and my Lexus, the button is only for locking, so a user cannot get confused as to what he/she is doing at a particular moment (on the Nissan rental, if car is already locked, and button pushed, now it's unlocked, maybe driver thought his action would lock it)...

 

Hmm, wonder if the guy had an extra key fob in the car? Or left it running? Sadly, we probably won't ever know. However, I guess the takeaway is to make sure your car is turned OFF if you are leaving it unattended. Common sense, tbh. Nothing to do here.

 

Again, this is the part I don't understand--do some people feel it's not necessary to push the button to shut off? I mean they lost their lives, so it's no joke. I can only surmise they expect the motor to time out, when they have left the car with the fob. Otherwise, I don't get it

Or you can be like Porsche, or Lexus in 2006, and simply say you have to keep on twistin'

https://www.click2houston.com/news/r...start-vehicles


edit I'm really stretching....with a key, you have to leave it with the vehicle in order to keep the car running. With a fob, the car will keep running without the fob, and this doesn't make sense to some, so they leave the car running then sue the mfgs in a class action?

 

 

The engineers had to have taken this into consideration. For example, when I bought my Lexus, when I bought my BMW, I drove home with two fobs. The vehicles should not act any difffently.

I once drove through EZPass with two tags. My expectation was that I would be charged twice, due to my own carelessness. Nope, both tags were read, and the 2nd one had a $0 toll.

 

People will always do stupid things we don’t understand...

 

I was going to say going all the way back to the OPs concern...this is what I would expect.

If I were standing by the driver's door with my fob, and someone ran past me, they could grab the door and get in. But since I didn't get in with the fob, they would not be able to operate the ignition because a proximity condition has not been met. We could easily test this, but I'm nearly 99% sure....I know for a fact on both cars, that if you are on the right side, nothing will open on the left....

Also, on both cars, when leaving the house, I have forgotten something, and gone back into the house with the fobs, and have come back to running vehicles...

 

Thing is, if you drive with two fobs, that shouldn't be a problem. However, you shouldn't be allowed to lock the second fob inside the car. With Lexus models the car will yell at you if you try to lock it while any fob is still inside the car.

 

Just so I knew how well the keyfob detection worked, I had my wife sit in the car with the driver's window down. I stood just outside the window with the keyfob in my pocket. She tried to start it and got the "key not detected" message. It works as advertised. She sometimes leaves her purse in the car and the doorlocks do not work. You get a loud screech if you try to lock the doors with a key inside the car.

If I want to leave the car running for a short time while I go into a store I shut it off, then start it with the keyfob. It will run for 10 minutes with all the doors locked. If any door is opened, it shuts down and requires the keyfob to restart. Nice feature on 110 degree days. I'm satisfied with the keyfob system, but wish it had a bit more range for remote starts.

 

 

Not with my '07 IS. You could lock the 2nd fob in the car--but only by pressing the lock button on the fob, not on the door handle.

 

Ah, my bad. I had only tried with the smart access button.

So, considering that - there are only so many ways this could have gone down - but in all of them the car was either already running or had another key inside it and was unlocked.

 

There is no way to start the car unless the key is actually inside the cabin. Even if it's in trunk somehow the car would not start.