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Comment by consp | Hacker News Reader

What is the point of remote start anyway? Heating up the engine? That is wasteful. Cooling down via airco? Open the Windows and wait 30 seconds or disconnect the airco system from the engine altogether as a design choice and add a bit beefier accumulator. I seriously do not get why you need it. Maybe someone can enlighten me

Edit: completely forgot about really cold winters...

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The point is heating up the car so it's warm when you get inside. I don't have this feature and I live in the northern US. In the winter the car is freezing for the first 3 minutes as there is no heat until the engine warms up. Being able to start the car from the other side of the parking lot would increase my comfort by a large amount.

Isn't this why they invented preheaters? My old car blew out warm air after 10 seconds.

It is not too hard to install a remote ignition system or have one installed.

Cars in EU usually have an auxiliary heater as an option you can purchase. This safely preheats the car, it’s a heater running on car’s fuel, but without the need to start the engine. They have remote and scheduled starts.

> In the winter the car is freezing for the first 3 minutes as there is no heat until the engine warms up.

If this isn't the epitome of a first world problem... Imagine the man power, resources and money spend so that we can avoid being cold for 3 minutes.

Or 15, or 30 or more; and not paying attention to driving as well as you could because of the extreme discomfort of having to do so in double-digit below freezing temperatures.

Surely you were wandering around outside in these exact same temperatures only moments before?

Not in my garage, no. And even if so, for a few seconds.

I should have taken picture of my Chrysler today before I used remote start. The windows are all frozen and white, you cannot even see through them before either car gets warm or I scrap it with plastic tool.

Sometimes it's even challenging to open the doors, because they are all frozen.

I get that not everyone gets the white snow christmas, but some do :)

There are other ways to defrost a car though.

Ofcourse. But pressing 2x a button on a remote and having a warm car when I get to drive is one of the best features of the car.

Sure I can see that.

A good quality cabin-window cover costs about $80 and takes about a minute to fit, with magnetic anchors.

No more iced or snow-covered windows.

It's not only iced windows, but iced car. It might rain while its 40* and go below freezing over night, then the next morning as you are rushing to work you find your car and your $80 cabin-window cover entombed in 2 inches of ice. I hope your ice scraper wasn't in the car.

One winter my car was encased in ice and I couldn't access it for 3 days until the sunlight melted it enough where I could pick at the ice with my tool.

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