How do you not know your cars engine is running?
Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll
101–110 of 303 posts
Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll
#102I had a pretty scary run in with CO from my car once and it had nothing to do with the keyless fob. My car with gasoline direct injection had two bad injectors fail while I was driving home. It went into limp mode. When I got home I inserted the OBD2 scanner to diagnose the issue in the garage. Because it was in limp mode, the engine was running rich and I guess producing a lot of CO in my garage. In the roughly 5 mi…
>> never run a car inside the garage with the door closed
Are you implying this is not common knowledge?
Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll
#103This is certainly an interesting case study in the pitfalls of behavioral design, but one important detail that the story glosses over is how rare these incidents are: More than two dozen people [have been] killed by carbon monoxide nationwide since 2006 after a keyless-ignition vehicle was inadvertently left running in a garage. On average, that's two deaths a year in a country of more than 260 million passenger veh…
Yes - especially considering over 15,000 times that died in crashes.
Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll
#104This is certainly an interesting case study in the pitfalls of behavioral design, but one important detail that the story glosses over is how rare these incidents are: More than two dozen people [have been] killed by carbon monoxide nationwide since 2006 after a keyless-ignition vehicle was inadvertently left running in a garage. On average, that's two deaths a year in a country of more than 260 million passenger veh…
The sentence following the one you quote says: "Dozens of others have been injured, some left with brain damage." So deaths are not the whole story. While one is certainly far more likely to die in a automobile collision, of heart disease, or cancer, I don't think it helps anyone to ignore the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning. Incidentally, other sources of carbon monoxide can also exist in the home, so it's a good…
Unfortunately this will have to entries into the Darwin awards. If you are careless enough not to double check, there are consequences. I drive an electric car, so this will never happen, I however always make sure everything is locked, all lights are off, and plugin every night.
Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
CO detectors would make sense (as long as they don’t false-positive on the road, which is also dangerous!) I suspect keyless entry systems have prevented multiple deaths of children in parking lots, but there’s no way to track that.
It would be easy enough to only use the CO detector when the car is in park or the emergency brake is on. That way it could never activate while driving.
Or just turn the car off after eg 20-30 minutes of idling?
Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll
#106Keyless ignition over complicates the solution to a simple problem. I’ve never liked them on those grounds alone, and I hadn’t even considered the risks for injury. Then again I’ve always felt that more bells and whistles on a car are just more opportunities for breakage and repairs.
Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
CO detectors would make sense (as long as they don’t false-positive on the road, which is also dangerous!) I suspect keyless entry systems have prevented multiple deaths of children in parking lots, but there’s no way to track that.
It would be easy enough to only use the CO detector when the car is in park or the emergency brake is on. That way it could never activate while driving.
It should activate while driving - it just shouldn’t immediately cut the power. It should set off a blaring alarm.
Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Attached garages are really a terrible misfeature, which will be emblematic for future generations (as they already are for those overseas) of our poor taste and judgement. No matter how ugly the house, it would be a lot more pleasant without the garage. In addition to the dangers cited here, garages make houses less effective at their primary purposes: controlling the movement of air, moisture, and heat. The garage…
I completely disagree with you. It's an enormous convenience in poor weather, with very minor risks that are easily mitigated (I can't believe there is anyone that doesn't have a CO detector and smoke detector at least on every floor, it should be illegal not to have them) and they can be very easily insulated. I have had both and I'd never have a place without a garage or carport.
This forum has a lot of Californians, who either never have or at least no longer regularly feel 30F. Let alone -20F.
Also, as of 2011-ish, CO detectors are required by law in CA if you have an attached garage, a fireplace, or gas heat.
Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll
#109A City Car Share used to park behind my house and I had to call the company a half dozen times because someone left the keyless hybrid running after they dropped it off. I had them unlock it so I could turn it just so there wasn't a running car next to my back yard. This was exasperated by people who weren't familiar with the car but it was a real enough problem that I knew to listen for it.
Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
The sentence following the one you quote says: "Dozens of others have been injured, some left with brain damage." So deaths are not the whole story. While one is certainly far more likely to die in a automobile collision, of heart disease, or cancer, I don't think it helps anyone to ignore the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning. Incidentally, other sources of carbon monoxide can also exist in the home, so it's a good…
Unfortunately this will have to entries into the Darwin awards. If you are careless enough not to double check, there are consequences. I drive an electric car, so this will never happen, I however always make sure everything is locked, all lights are off, and plugin every night.
Nice to be so perfect (or is it overchecking via OCD?) to never have forgotten your keys/specs/coat, ever left a light on or been distracted by an interruption.