What Happens If A Keyless Fob 'Escapes' A Car While It's Being Driven?
There’s a fascinating book from the 19th Century called “The Imp of the Perverse”, written by Edgar Allan Poe. It revolves around self destructive impulses, personified by the titular Imp, a devious creature who wishes to tempt us into doing things “merely because we feel we should not.”
How does this relate to cars? Well, I reckon the whole Imp of the Perverse thing crops up a hell of a lot with cars. For instance, surely everyone who’s driven a car with an electronic handbrake has considered flicking the switch when they’re moving?
Then there’s the dubious arena of keyless ignition systems. What if you perhaps lobbed the fob out of the car while you’re moving? Happily, you don’t need to satisfy the Imp/your own weird curiosity, as this YouTuber has done exactly that under safe circumstances to see what happens.
The car still runs, of course (it’d cause all sorts of safety issues if the engine would merely cut out after losing signal), but worryingly no messages are displayed to warn the driver of the missing key. The Ford Fusion used in the test does at least put out a warning if the key is removed before the car is moving, eradicating the more likely issue of driving off without the key in the first place.
It’s worth pointing out that not all keyless systems will behave this way. Some are known to produce a warning message if the signal to the key is lost while driving, while others can be fairly rubbish about giving any sort of alert.
Have you ever had any keyless ignition related issues? Let us know below!
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Only a pi”key” would do this
Ironically, our smart key in the CRV fell out of the car because it was left on the dash
The whole car started beeping, which scared the sht out of us and then the dash informed us of no key.
Thankfully we were still in our neighborhood so we found it easily.
It’s better than your little cousin throwing the key into the toilet and flushing meaning we couldn’t even get into that car for about 3 weeks…
One more problem…
Now you MUST tell me what happens if you apply an electronic parkbrake whilst moving
For a 5gen Subaru Liberty (Legacy) 2.5i I can say it does nothing. I can’t remember exactly what happened the last time I tried, but I think it might flash or beep or something but thats about it. Not sure about other cars though.
Nothing extraordinary, if you just pull the button nothing will happen (to avoid accidents if someone pulled it by mistake), but if you keep pulling it it will start braking and stop the car like with a normal parking brake lever.
P.S. The keyless fob in the ford is stupid, any European car (or German at least) will tell you the fob is messing after about ten meters from where you lost the fob.
Somebody with a corvette did it… its in youtube… i doesnt do anything rash other than applying the force all the way until the car stops….
Cleetus Mcfarland did it with his Vette. All it does is gradually brings the car to a stop and apparently eats the hell out of your brakes.
If you apply the electronic parking brake while driving, it will give you a warning twice and third time it will engage, that’s tried in a 2015 Hyundai Azera. Found that pretty cool, warn first then engage if you really need it to.
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I can confirm
My Corolla Altis could not detect it’s smart key when I placed it on the cup holder in the centre console.
Great job Altis, great job.
Usually a sign of a dying fob battery. My Lexus fob was the same until I replaced the battery and now it’s good :)
Wih buset, terus di taro dimana dong kalo gitu?
Well. unfortunely I’ve tested this before…
We had a renault megane (2010) with keyless key. In the morning, before going to school, I went to the car with the key in my pocket, and forgot to put the key in the center console. My dad was the driver but sometimes he forgot I had the key (and I forgot too). Then I would go to school and a bit later I would receive a very angry call… This happened three or four times xD. The car would still be on, but he couldn’t turn off the car or lock it, nothing… At least he never stalled the car in the street, or it would have been a very complicated situation
Had this with a 5 series. Had it warming up during snow. Got back into the car without key and drove off. No warning from the car … embarrassing when arriving at work. I could not shut the car neither drive home …,
Whilst I’m not an anti-technology purist or anything, I struggle to understand why car manufacturers thought there was anything wrong with this:
apparently picking up something which weighs 100g and turning it is too much effort for some people
Becus “Technology”
Pressing a button is cooler, simple as that. And people trend to like cooler things.
This is why lol
Manufacturers aren’t the only one to blame, I blame auto journalists as well, they consistently point out a car that lacks keyless entry as a flaw everytime.
My 10 year old BM immediately lets you know when the key is missing, comes up on the dash, nothing happens, you just can’t start it again.