No alcohol consumption is required. Bikes *do* make those numbers.
Posted on 05/13/2018 8:55:26 AM PDT by oh8eleven
On a summer morning last year, Fred Schaub drove his Toyota RAV4 into the garage attached to his Florida home and went into the house with the wireless key fob, evidently believing the car was shut off. Twenty-nine hours later, he was found dead, overcome with carbon monoxide that flooded his home while he slept.
“After 75 years of driving, my father thought that when he took the key with him when he left the car, the car would be off,” said Mr. Schaub’s son Doug.
Mr. Schaub is among more than two dozen people killed by carbon monoxide nationwide since 2006 after a keyless-ignition vehicle was inadvertently left running in a garage. Dozens of others have been injured, some left with brain damage.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
” you can easily tell the car is shut off”
No, you cannot and the dash does not. That’s my point.
BMW has a dash that stays on when the door opens and the car is turned off or stopped. My Dodge Ram truck does the same thing. The difference between ignition off, accessory on, and engine on, is negligible. Granted, its a Hemi, so I know the engine is on and the RPM gauge is showing engine activity, but other that that the dash isn’t obviously as to the state of the engine.
They probably make them for people who have issues with complex objects like a key.
Most people have cars with keys. The habit has been formed: take the key with you when you leave the car. Your house keys are on the same ring. Taking the key out of the ignition shuts off the car.
Millions of people have that habit. I know that. The designers of keyless cars knew that, but are fundamentally unable to allow themselves to be conscious of that thought because it’s not part of their job. Anyone who dared to speak up (that would have been me) saying “Hey, people are going to leave the car running,... etc” would have been consigned to the dustbin of history.
That’s how things are designed, with no attention paid to the inevitable consequences, whether caused directly, or only incidental. Objections are suppressed.
But that doesn’t mean the manufacturer should be sued for this. Any more than it would make sense to sue the manufacturer of baby car seats when the parent leaves the kid in the car and goes off.
Surely, the people who designed the diabolical buzzers and ignition lock for non-use of seatbelts are still alive, and perhaps can help design a system to shut the damned car off if it idles too long, and/or to emit a loud beep when the driver goes away with the damned keyless key.
Well… you might do things with 100% perfection all the time but for the rest of us, we are only batting 0.999 repeater which apparently isn’t good enough. This has nothing to do with being an idiot or a moron, this simply has to do with probability that once in a rare while, this sort of event can occur. There may be extenuating circumstances for sure… most of which are already mentioned here and include the fact some of these cars now operate quite silently and if the radio was playing, the car’s engine simply might not be heard.
Suggestion for all… While everyone puts smoke and CO alarms close to bedrooms, it’s just as important to put alarms in the garage. It wasn’t because of keyless cars that I did it but it’s a good idea nevertheless and would have prevented this CO fatality. I wanted all the alarms in the garage in the garage first since there is a lot of work that goes on there and the last thing I want is for something to combust and turn into a roaring blaze while isolated from the house. And select alarms that talk to the other alarms in the house. That means that an alarm in the garage would have triggered the other ones in the house as well.
“Ill cruise by because 30 mpg /4 doors/ a quiet ride is all I need. “
I have the same as his and get 27 on the highway. I gladly give up 3 mpg for the increased ability to pass traffic and to merge into interstate traffic.
Lay off the booze. It is Mothers Day.
I do, but then I have an older home with a detached garage, some distance from the house. It wouldn’t be a good thing if I left it running, nonetheless, but so far it hasn’t hapoened.
I see now my comment had an earlier source and should have been directed to Bob....
Drove my wife to the mall and dropped her off. The fob was in her purse.
Good thing their wasn’t a timeout feature.
No alcohol consumption is required. Bikes *do* make those numbers.
I was keeping my oldest son's truck for him. A while back someone tried to break into it and messed up the lock cylinder in the door. Nice of Chevy to only give you one in the Driver's door. So he was using the security key fob to unlock his truck.
Well one day I tried to unlock the truck. No joy. I checked the battery in the remote. Still good. Couldn't pop the hood to charge the battery, so I had to charge the battery via the starter solenoid connection.
Just a hint of what’s ahead as more mindless “convenience” is badly programmed into things.
What year is the Ram and BMW? Because the 2014-2017 Rams I’ve driven clearly have a visible difference on their dash between when the truck is running and the truck is off.
No, but old geezers are likely to be hard of hearing!
Just how old is a old geezer? Who are you calling hard of hearing? Eh? Speak up, sonny!
No. No. No.
Now, prior to starting, we depress and release the throttle pedal to set the AUTOMATIC choke!!!
We’re evolving. .....
” The difference between ignition off, accessory on, and engine on, is negligible.”
When the engine is off I have a big center display telling me to start the car OR I am in IGN/ACC mode.
Also, after shutting the car off the radio plays but now I have to habit of noting that it shuts off when I open the door to get out.
That about sums up most of the latest whizzbang crap they push.
The law here mandates CO sensors
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