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Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll

nytimes.com

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Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll

#131

Post by microcolonel »

hedora wrote: post #83
NegativeLatency wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’d also have to consider bathtub usage (I shower daily, but only take a bath every couple of months)

Yeah, but the anti skid pad in my bathtub (which might prevent drownings) is slippery when damp, so I fell in the bath while taking a shower, and could have been killed. I guess that sort of death goes under the “drowning” category, since the bath mitigation can kill shower-takers.

> I guess that sort of death goes under the “drowning” category

How could it be? Do you plug your drain when you shower? Are the investigators in your area too lazy to find head trauma?

Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll

#132

Post by sjcsjc »

chemmail wrote: post #104
pmoriarty wrote: post #6

Earlier 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.

Perhaps I'm being oversensitive, but this seems a vile comment.

Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll

#133

Post by lordnacho »

Is it not normal for a keyless car to beep like crazy when you leave the car with the key inside?

My car does this. As soon as it detects the key is not inside the car it will beep and remind you the car is on. The other problem this solves is that you don't want to be driving somewhere without the key either, eg when you're dropping off your wife and she happens to have the key.

Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll

#134

Post by bonestamp2 »

microcolonel wrote: post #131
hedora wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but the anti skid pad in my bathtub (which might prevent drownings) is slippery when damp, so I fell in the bath while taking a shower, and could have been killed. I guess that sort of death goes under the “drowning” category, since the bath mitigation can kill shower-takers.

> I guess that sort of death goes under the “drowning” category How could it be? Do you plug your drain when you shower? Are the investigators in your area too lazy to find head trauma?

I think what you guys are trying to say is that time is equal to 400 total jerks at a two dick rate.

Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll

#135

Post by Cthulhu_ »

lordnacho wrote: post #133

Is it not normal for a keyless car to beep like crazy when you leave the car with the key inside? My car does this. As soon as it detects the key is not inside the car it will beep and remind you the car is on. The other problem this solves is that you don't want to be driving somewhere without the key either, eg when you're dropping off your wife and she happens to have the key.

Same, and exactly; the car should just shut down when it detects the key is not inside the car. Could someone just get in and drive off?

I'm fairly sure this might be true for older models though.

Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll

#136

Post by fyfy18 »

hi41 wrote: post #4

>a software change that it said could be accomplished for pennies per vehicle. In the face of auto industry opposition, the agency let the plan languish, though it says a rule is still under consideration. Why the car industry would oppose such a minor fix is beyond me. If it does not even hurt the bottom line, why not make that change.

I have a 2010 Prius with keyless entry and start. If the car is on and you close any door without the key in the vehicle it will make a loud audible beeping noise. It means if you jump out to get something from the trunk, it first starts beeping when the drivers door is closed and again when the trunk is closed. Pretty hard to miss.

If you try and lock the car while it is on (using the keyless entry), it will just produce a continuous audible noise and won’t lock - again pretty hard to miss. The same thing happens if you try and lock a key in the vehicle.

Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll

#137

Post by Cthulhu_ »

x0x0 wrote: post #105
MBCook wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

For modern cars, I think that's what's happening actually - engines will power off when stationary and not in gear, but the car is still on and the engine will restart when it's running low on battery power. Thus, people leaving their car in the garage thinking it's off.

Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll

#138

Post by Cthulhu_ »

hedora wrote: post #93
13of40 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh - how about a CO detector on the air intake of the engine that shuts it off if the concentration is too high.

It is a little tricky to get right. For instance, it shouldn’t trip if the car is in motion. Even harder to get right (and very likely to increase the current, extremely low accidental CO death toll), it definitely shouldn’t trip if the car is stuck in stop-and-go traffic in a tunnel full of idling cars.

I think we're talking higher numbers than is possible in a tunnel. If there was as much CO in the air there that it would trip CO detectors, it wouldn't be safe for people to use.

Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll

#139

Post by joelhaasnoot »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #135
lordnacho wrote: post #133

Is it not normal for a keyless car to beep like crazy when you leave the car with the key inside? My car does this. As soon as it detects the key is not inside the car it will beep and remind you the car is on. The other problem this solves is that you don't want to be driving somewhere without the key either, eg when you're dropping off your wife and she happens to have the key.

Same, and exactly; the car should just shut down when it detects the key is not inside the car. Could someone just get in and drive off? I'm fairly sure this might be true for older models though.

This is quite dangerous going down the highway at 55mph when a GPS jammer malfunction causes the fob to 'disappear'.

Re: Keyless Cars and Their Carbon Monoxide Toll

#140

Post by Cthulhu_ »

jessaustin wrote: post #69
hangonhn wrote: post #48

I 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…

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…

You're speaking in some kind of holier-than-thou tone of voice, I don't think you're seeing the full picture here. Do you have a car? Do you live in an area that gets bad weather from time to time? Do you even own a house?
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