Another “smart car” lockout in Carlton…. I am thinking of writing to a few European car manufacturers and giving them a list of the problems they have with their car security logic.
This recent car lockout went like this.
- A lady walked out to her car to get something out of the glovebox.
- She hit the “unlock” button on her electronic key, and the car unlocked.
- She opened the front PASSENGER door, got her sunglasses out of the glovebox.
- Her phone range, she answered it, but in doing so put her keys down on the passenger seat.
- She talked for a while, when it started to rain a bit, so she closed the passenger door of the car and walked over to her house.
- At her house, she realized her keys were in the car…. but no problem.. she hadn’t locked the car so all good right?
Wrong. Her car had decided she had opened the car through the passenger door, opened the glovebox shut the glovebox, and then shut the passenger door. No keys had been placed in the ignition, thus she had entered the car to retrieve something and had now left vehicle accidentally unlocked. Her smart car then took care of this oversight and locked the car door.
Great huh?
The problem of course was that the car did not figure on the owner leaving the keys on the passenger seat, and these being the only set of keys for the car within 1,000kms as the spares were with her partner who was away in Sydney for the weekend.
So TopLock to the rescue.
If I was an electronic car key manufacturer with security in mind I would create a vibrating set of keys that warned the owner their car was unlocked as opposed to simply locking the car.
But for now…. it seems that the best I can do is advise people to never EVER put their keys down in the car. Even if you are just meaning to step away from the car for a moment keys being accidentally locked in the car by automated car security, or being locked in the boot after being put down and forgotten when getting something heavy out are the two most popular reasons we get called out to lockouts of modern cars so don’t get caught out.
Keys should always be placed in your pocket or purse, not in the boot or on the car seat.
