Mercedes-Benz was the first company to introduce key less entry system in 1998. The system became widely popular since 2006 as it was expensive earlier
Keyless entry is one of the most popular features in modern cars. Almost all the cars from budget models to luxury cars come equipped with this features. The keyless entry is a useful feature for the customers, as they don’t have to take out the key from pocket. Vehicle will sense the key in pocket and by pressing push button, the engine can be started.
But there is one downside also: Owners might not be aware that sometime they forget to shut down the car as the key is with them. And modern engines are so silent that we can’t hear them much which is another reason for not noticing the running of engine. When the engine is idle for sometime, the gas emitted becomes carbon monoxide and is a harmful gas for the human body.
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This has caused 25 deaths in US till 2016 as the data of 2017 is not yet available and more than 45 people have been injured as some of them have brain problems also because of this gas. Most of the cars have alarms to inform the owner that the engine is still running if they close the door and take out the key but these systems don’t shut down the engine automatically.
Safety is the most important priority for manufacturers and internally the engineers who develop this modern system also know this. For example, most of the Toyota cars are equipped this keyless ignition system and it can give three audible signals outside and inside the cabin to warn drivers that the engine is running.
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But Toyota engineers identified that this is not effective they come up with additional warning like beep and flashing headlights, when they presented this to the company they rejected it. According to New York Times, Toyota and Lexus have figured in almost half of the carbon monoxide fatalities and injuries. When asked about this, Toyota said that they meet or exceeds all relevant federal safety standards.
Even though the number of these incidents have increased over the years. The automakers are still not taking it as important to remind drivers about this and it won’t make much difference in money for automakers to add extra safety systems. The latest system of Ford will shut down after 30 minutes if the vehicle is idle and the key is not detected.
Mercedes Benz was the first company to introduce key less entry system in 1998. The system became widely popular since 2006 as it was expensive earlier. These type of accidents are rare but automakers has to take notice of this as the number of fatalities is increasing considering that the system was introduced to make our life easier.