Keeyless Question

[Mr Onion]

Yesterday I dropped my wife off at the hospital, drove away and had a "beep" and unrecognised icon on the dash. Driving around trying to find a parking space (and you know how much fun that can be in a hospital) I realised it was the keyfob symbol. Checking my pocket there was no key 

So the car had started as my wife had her key with her and continued after she had left the car.

You can imagine my total panic as if the car decided to stop in the car park I've screwed the whole site up. Luckily a space appeared so I grabbed it, but what if there was no space? Do I try to drive home and get my key  (and risk the car stopping in the middle of a junction) or what.

Does anyone have any idea how long the car would keep running for. Is it a set time or distance?

[Lord Voltermore]

This is a known  'hazard' of keyless. The car may read  the key  carried by your passenger.  If you drop them off with the engine running you are still able to drive off. By the time you discover you dont have a key you may be stranded miles from home and they are on a plane to Australia.   

I think the car will continue to run until you next power down. This is to prevent the possibility the car will cut out while you are driving  which could happen if the key signal is suddenly lost by for instance moving the key to a more  shielded area within the car. 

We minimise this possibility  by having a designated 'drivers' key rather than ' his and hers' keys.  The routine is however  intends driving  seeks out and uses the 'drivers' key.  And remains 'responsible' for it.    Even if one of us is carrying the spare key its very much regarded as  an emergency spare.  Only exception would be a  pre planned arrangement such as one drops the  car off and the other collects it. 

Similar problem can happen if an active spare key is packed in luggage or in a bag left in the car.   The car will beep and refuse to lock.  It can be a worry and drive you batty until you discover the reason.

[Mr Onion]

I think the car will continue to run until you next power down. This is to prevent the possibility the car will cut out while you are driving  which could happen if the key signal is suddenly lost by for instance moving the key to a more  shielded area within the car. 

Thats what I thought/hoped but as it was the first time panic took over

[dfecia]

This is a known  'hazard' of keyless. The car may read  the key  carried by your passenger.  If you drop them off with the engine running you are still able to drive off. By the time you discover you dont have a key you may be stranded miles from home and they are on a plane to Australia.   

You can discover immediately that you don't have the key, the yellow symbol in the display (and acustic warning, if I remember right) will turn on just when the car stops recognizing the key inside the car. You can drive as long as you want, but always with the warning in the display.
The same thing happens if the battery inside the key goes dead or the car cannot recognize if because of electric interferences...

[Mr Onion]

You can discover immediately that you don't have the key, the yellow symbol in the display (and acustic warning, if I remember right) will turn on just when the car stops recognizing the key inside the car

As I said having never seen that symbol before it it took a while for me to work out what it meant

You can drive as long as you want, but always with the warning in the display.

PHEW, thats good to know

The same thing happens if the battery inside the key goes dead or the car cannot recognize if because of electric interferences...

That makes sense, but at the time my brain was just so overloaded I couldn't think straight.

[coldstart]

You can discover immediately that you don't have the key, the yellow symbol in the display (and acustic warning, if I remember right) will turn on just when the car stops recognizing the key inside the car. You can drive as long as you want, but always with the warning in the display.

I know this warning sound!

Could it be the warning is only triggered when the driver leaves the car?
So, if only Mrs Onion got out of the car (together with the key fob) no warning would have been displayed / sounded?

[Mr Onion]

It did 'beep' and the icon appeared but I had no idea what it was all about. I was more concerned about not being hit by the idiot behind

[aphybrid]

both carry "you" own key?

[Mr Onion]

both carry "you" own key?

Usually, but we were in a rush and I forgot mine.

[Lord Voltermore]

I wonder how often  retired couples, who may habitually travel together,  have completed trips without the driver ever realising they had forgotten their own car key  ?  

We habitually put the 'drivers' key in a centre cubby hole while driving.  The driver has to remember to remove it  again  and there may be a latent fear of the car locking itself with the key inside, but I think this is unfounded . It does  reinforce  the need for regularly checking  we are  still  physically  in possession of necessary keys. 

We need to do this anyway  before leaving the house. The front door can lock itself on the  latch so we always go through a routine of physically  checking at least one of us is in possession of the necessary house key and  designated car key.

Actually I have  a house key on the car key ring.  I know this is not advisable.  If a thief found, or stole , your car keys   they could not only steal your car  but in theory use the satnav  to drive to your home and burgle your house.     As  a precaution I have set 'home' to another  address a few hundred metres away.  (I can find my own way from there  ) And take care not to leave documents with my address in the car. 

[Kremmen]

When I collected my car the dealer could not understand why it wouldn't lock

I knew straight away, from posts here, and I took the spare key from the documents folder he had put on the passenger seat, did the 2 button trick and told him to try again

He was amazed and said he would inform his colleagues

Sales people should be aware of all these features

The guy I dealt with at Ottershaw Honda in 2013 when I got my 9G was clued up as was Dan at Norwood Honda when that existed in 2007

[Jazzik]

I wonder how often  retired couples, who may habitually travel together,  have completed trips without the driver ever realising they had forgotten their own car key  ?  

We habitually put the 'drivers' key in a centre cubby hole while driving.

We habitually travel together, but we do things differently. We do not have our 'own' car key.
One key is used, the second is literally the spare key and lies disabled at home in a drawer with other spare keys.
The person who is going to drive takes the key fob (always switched off and kept in its own, always the same place) and walks to the garage together with the person who is serving as the passenger for that trip. He or she opens the garage with the remote control and then the car with the key fob. The key fob then goes into the driver's pocket and stays there until the end of the trip. There is never a car key anywhere lying in the car! Then the car is locked (double lock!) and the key is switched off again and returns to its usual place at home.
The only time when there are two keys in the car is when we travel for a longer period of time, for example on holidays. Then the switched off(!) 'spare key' we take with us, just in case.

[Lord Voltermore]

A bit of a paradox that the  so called advantages and convenience of keyless  means you need to be extra careful with your key awareness. 

[5thcivic]

I agree, the major security shortfall is not worth the saving of having to press a button which was fine for many years without huge swathes of the population complaining about it. Keyless was done just because the tech was there cheap and it looked cool in adverts. Result - large increse in car crime because defeating was so easy.

[Kremmen]

I also don't understand the shift to keyless and was perfectly happy pressing a button or 2

I can remember pre central locking where you climbed in and had to reach round unlocking each door