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Comment by barbazoo | Hacker News Reader

Why people remotely start their car is beyond my comprehension most of the time. Unless you're in an extreme climate and absolutely have to bring the car's interior temperature to something survivable, what's the point? We don't have to warm up the engine anymore past a few seconds either.

All I can think of is the waste of fuel and unnecessary GHG.

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As someone who's lived both near the equator and in snowy climates, having a car interior thats not 110F or 10F is very nice, especially if you have leather seats/steering wheel.

It's not just interior temperature - it's about being able to defrost the windshield so you can just drive off in winter.

In colder climates you usually need to heat up the car to defrost the windows in order to drive safely. That can take 10+ minutes by the time the engine heats up. It's actually the law in some states in the US now.

Saves time. Defrost the windows while you get ready to leave the house.

Is Texas an extreme environment? Not particularly, but still, it’s nice to get the air conditioner going a minute or two before getting into a car in August.

Likewise, Midwest (ie: ND, SD, Minnesota, etc) can get down to -20 easily few weeks out of the year in January/February. Not "unsurvivable" but definitely not good to shift into drive without letting things flex from heat a bit first.

> definitely not good to shift into drive without letting things flex from heat a bit first

For how long? I heard, anything more than 10s is unnecessary.

Side note, without remote start, it is illegal to run a vehicle without an occupant in many states (** with keys in the ignition).

Open the windows maybe? Sure it's nice but I wonder if we should consider living without the luxury of having an ICE bring your car to the perfect temperature. I guess people have less GHG emission guilt as me.

The marginal amount of gas used by idling the car for a minute before driving it around rounds to zero.

You can make everything "round to zero" when in fact, it adds up.

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