Ok, I have conceded to the fact that you cannot lock the door from the outside with the engine running. But, I just found out:
You cannot UNLOCK the door from the outside with the engine running.

Scenario goes like this:

I have a 2-month old son that rides in the back in a carrier, and my wife rides in the back with him. We had to drop off my older daughter to school, and knowing that I cannot lock the car (while the engine is running), I told my wife to manually lock the door from the driver's controls as she and my son stays in the car while I walk my daughter to school. And it took an effort for my wife to reach over and push the lock controls, as the car is big, relatively speaking. When I come back, I was trying to unlock the driver's door (of course I had the key with me in my pocket) but it wouldn't unlock. I was like... "WTH?!?" So my wife had to reach over again to unlock the door.

Any thoughts on this, or is there any "free" workaround to a situation like this? I heard before from someone suggesting a remote starter. I can understand disabling the locking mechanism for safety, but to unlock it when you have the key with you??? It doesn't make sense.

 

I think you could unlock manually with the metal key attached to your remote.

 

Oh, but this is so un-Lexus-like

 

Agreed. The metal valet key would unlock the door. There could be some safety scenarios, remote possibility I grant, where you wouldn't want someone to be able to unlock the door from the outside is someone was inside and trying to stay safe and the keyless remote fell into someone else's possession.

 

So true

 

When you lock the doors manually with the door lock button on the inside of the doors, the only way to unlock the doors has to be to use those same door lock buttons on the inside of the vehicle door. You don't want to lock the doors (for security) while you are inside the vehicle and have someone outside the vehicle be able to open the doors from the outside. That would defeat the purpose of locking the doors. Further, even if it is you with the fob in your pocket trying to unlock the doors from outside the vehicle, the vehicle has no way of knowing whether you are sitting with the key fob inside the vehicle or whether you are standing outside the door with the key fob. Thus, when you lock the doors with the door lock buttons inside the vehicle, because the vehicle has no way to know whether the person trying to get in from the outside is you (with the fob) or someone else who may be an intruder, it will not allow the doors to be unlocked except from inside the vehicle with the door unlock button.

The purpose of locking the doors with the buttons on the inside of the door is to prevent an unwanted intruder from entering the vehicle, and, again, the vehicle has no way of know whether the fob is inside or just outside the vehicle and, thus, whether it is you or an unwanted intruder trying to get in from the outside.

 

Thanks for the input, but I'll have to correct you on this one. There is only one fob with us, which is the one that is in my pocket. So when the door was closed, and subsequently locked, the vehicle knows that there is no key inside (you know, you get that 3-beep sound when the engine is on and you exit the vehicle with the key and the dash would say "key not detected"). I know this because I often give my wife the house key, which is attached to my key fob, so she can open the door while I still maneuver the car into my car port. The car would beep and the "key not detected" on the dash would show.

So, if the system is as smart as we would like it to be, it should recognize that the fob that started the engine, and the one trying to regain access to it, is one and the same and not an intruder.

I'm now intrigued to test this with the engine off (turn off engine, close all doors, lock from the inside, and have someone from outside with the fob try to unlock). I'm almost certain the door would unlock.

 

Did you try unlocking the door by pushing the unlock button on the key fob?

 

I just tried it. The lock and unlock buttons on the fob are disabled when the engine is running, and that is true regardless of whether you are inside or outside of the vehicle with the fob.

I see what you are saying. I would like to think that there was some logical reason for disabling smart access to the vehicle when the engine is running and the doors are locked from the inside of the vehicle, but one is not coming to mind right now.

 

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see if my GX was set up similar to the way the ES is set up. Even though the GX doesn't have a smart key, it does have a key fob. With the GX, similar to the ES, once the engine is running, all buttons on the GX key fob are disabled. Again, I'd guess that there is a reason for disabling the buttons on the fob once the engine is running, but I'm not sure what that reason would be.

 

Imagine you had a young child that decided to lock the doors from inside. Now what do you do if they're being obstinate.

 

If you have the fob you should also have the retained metal key inside it, which you can use on the driver's door lock.

 

I don't think that most would consider it to be responsible behavior to leave a child alone in a vehicle with the engine running.

 

This makes sense, I'm sure most everyone leaves the smartkey in their pockets while driving and so it's nice to know that if something in your pocket/purse accidentally pushes on the trunk release button, it won't have any affect.

 

True. But why not just disable the trunk release function? And speaking of the trunk release, I'm sure I read from the manual somewhere that the trunk release button on the vehicle (not on the fob) is only functional when in Park. Well, I tested this while the gear was in reverse, and I pushed the trunk release. And sure enough, the camera view gradually went up towards the sky!