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Comment by felipemnoa | Hacker News Reader

True story: Two friends are walking towards a car equipped with a proximity-sensitive sensor. The car turns on (without the need to plugin the key or even to take them out) and they drive away. The driver drops her friend at her house and drives off. A few blocks latter the car shuts off.

What do you think happened? Turns out the driver had given the keys to her friend for safe keeping while they were shopping at the mall (not sure why so don't ask). Unfortunately the friend forgot to return the keys before she got off.

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My friend told me a similar story, except that he was dropping off his friend at the airport. After he dropped him off, he drove off, not realizing he didn't have the key till a few miles later...

My previous car had automatic keyless entry. If the key is not in the car then an audible beep sounds. Be quite difficult to miss that. I wonder if the above anecdotes are based on after market installations?

My Nissan Altima beeps too. It also shows a picture of a key and "No Key" on the dashboard if the engine's on but a key isn't in range.

These stories are actually impossible with keyless entry. My car has keyless entry (2009 Hyundai Genesis) and if the key leaves the vehicle, you get a beep and warning message immediately that says "Key not in vehicle", and the car continues running, forever, until you stop the engine. The only way you could end up somewhere with a non-functional vehicle is if you threw the key out the window (or gave it to a friend), ignored the constant beeping and warning messages, and then proceeded to drive away, park the car, stop the engine, then get out of the car. You still wouldn't be able to lock the car doors without the key.

Cars that immediately stopped the engine while driving would be considered a safety hazard and no car company in the world would release a car like that. Imagine if your engine shut off at 70mph on the freeway.

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