For those of you that do not know what a "smart" key
is, it is a relatively recent development in the automotive industry. This feature has become nearly universal. As early as 2008 or 9, some car manufacturers
have offered a push button starting system for your car which does not require
a tradition key in the ignition.
Instead, the car comes with a smart key, which allows the car to be
started with the push button anytime the smart key is within a certain distance
of the car. Many require the smart key
to cross the threshold of the driver's doorway before the car starts. The specifics vary from manufacturer to
manufacturer. However, the key feature –
pun intended, is that the car can be started without inserting a key. Of course, the corollary to this feature is
that the car can be turned off without the key.
There in lies the rub and the basis of my near-death story.
Recently I was in the desert.
I arrived there via a rented Mazda sedan, equipped with a smart
key. The outside temperatures ranged
from 103 to 118 degrees while I was there.
As it turned out on the day in question the temperature was 118 degrees. I left my hotel to drive out into the desert
for some site seeing. The hotel valet,
as they commonly do in these parts, started my car so the air conditioning
would be cold by the time I picked up my car.
Sure enough, when I arrived the car was cool. I handed him my claim check and a tip, he
closed the door and off I went. Unknown
to me, the smart key to my shiny new Mazda sedan was still in the hotel valet's
pocket.
Oblivious to my pending demise, I drove 30 minutes out into the
beautiful but scorching desert. My plan
was to photograph anything I found interesting.
I meandered without a plan or design until I found an interesting forest
of cacti. I pulled off the road,
switched off the engine and hopped out into the sweltering heat. I quickly snapped a few photos and raced back
into my car. It was so hot outside I
thought the soles of my shoes were going to melt on the road.
Once inside I reached up pushed the ignition button to fire up my
trusty ride and its life saving air-conditioning, and nothing. The car would not start. I tried three more times in disbelief. Then, a feeling of complete devastation came
over me as I realized the smart key was not in the car. The car would not start without it. I quickly deduced what had happened. The valet started the car, got out and placed
the key in his pocket where it no doubt currently remained. My attention quickly turned from how this
happened to how I was going to survive in this heat. The
temperature inside the car was now approaching the temperature outside. I was 30 to 40 miles out of town and I had no
idea where I was. My cell phone had no
bars.
Later, I determined that the car did have a message light that
activated when the smart key was too far away from the car. The indicator was a very small red "key" in the
lower most right-hand corner of the dash board display. No audio signal is activated with this warning. If I fail to put on my seat belt, a much
larger light flashes in a more prominent place on the display and is
accompanied by a loud beeping noise. If
I fail to close the door securely an equally large light flashes and it too has
an associated loud beeping sound that chimes until you close the door. While both are indeed important
safety-related issues, not having the ability to re-start your car confoundingly
warrants only a small red light in the corner, nearly out of eyesight.
It is nearly impossible to believe that this obvious eventuality
was not more carefully thought through by the proponents of the smart key. Perhaps, they thought that if you discovered
that you had left your smart key in the house before you left your driveway, everything
would be just fine. Nothing really much
to worry about. But I survive to tell
you that leaving your smart key behind in 118 degree weather is something very
much to worry about.
The solution seems obvious.
First, make the warning light much more obvious. Add an audible warning as well. Neither need to continue for long periods of
time, but both should be sufficiently enthusiastic and obvious as to catch even
the most preoccupied driver's attention.
Second, why not allow the car to re-start again once it has been started by
the proper authorization of the smart key?
After All, the only way to steal the car after it has been started with
the smart key is to carjack it. At that
point the car is gone and the safety precautions to prevent it from being stolen
have all become moot. Allowing the car
to be re-started without the smart key, say for some period of time or some number of
re-starts, would at least avoid the life threatening situation to which this
Mazda and its engineers subjected me
