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THE DEADLY CONVENIENCE of keyless cars : Forgetful drivers leave autos running in the garage, spewing carbon monoxide.
It seems like a common convenience in a digital age : a car that can be powered on and off with the push of a button, rather than the mechanical turning of a key.
But it is a convenience that can have a deadly effect.
On a summer morning last year, Fred Schaub his Toyota Tav4 into the garage attached to his Florida home and went into his house with the wireless key fob, evidently believing the car was shut off.
Twenty nine hours later, he was found dead, overcome with a carbon monoxide that flooded his home while he slept.
''After 75 years of driving, my father thought that when he took the key with him when he left the car, the car would be off,'' said Mr. Schaub's son Doug.
Mr. Schaub is among more than two dozen people killed by carbon monoxide in the United States since 2006, after keyless-ignition vehicle was inadvertently left running in a garage. Dozens of others have been injured, some left with brain damage.
Keyless ignitions are standard in over half of the 17 million new vehicles sold annually in the United States, according to the auto information website Edmunds.
Rather than a physical key, drivers carry a fob that transmits a radio signal, and as long as the fob is present, a car can be started with the touch of a button.
But weaned from the habit of turning and removing a key to shut off the motor, drivers - particularly older ones - can be lulled by newer, quieter engines into mistakenly thinking that it has stopped running.
Seven years ago, the world's leading automotive standards group, the Society of Automotive Engineers, called for features like a series of beeps to alert the drivers that car were still running without the key fob in or near the car, and in some cases to shut the engine off automatically.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed a federal regulation based on that idea -
A software change that it said could be accomplished for pennies per vehicle. In the face of the auto industry opposition, the agency let the plan languish, though it says a rule is still under consideration.
For now, regulators say they are relying on carmakers to incorporate such warning features voluntarily. But a survey of 17 car companies by The New York Times found that while some automakers go beyond the features recommended by the standard group, others fall short.
The Operational Global Research on *Digital Age Domains* and Automotive industries continues to Part 2. !WOW! thanks authors and researchers David Jeans and Majlie De Puy Kamp.
It seems like a common convenience in a digital age : a car that can be powered on and off with the push of a button, rather than the mechanical turning of a key.But it is a convenience that can have a deadly effect.
On a summer morning last year, Fred Schaub his Toyota Tav4 into the garage attached to his Florida home and went into his house with the wireless key fob, evidently believing the car was shut off.
Twenty nine hours later, he was found dead, overcome with a carbon monoxide that flooded his home while he slept.
''After 75 years of driving, my father thought that when he took the key with him when he left the car, the car would be off,'' said Mr. Schaub's son Doug.
Mr. Schaub is among more than two dozen people killed by carbon monoxide in the United States since 2006, after keyless-ignition vehicle was inadvertently left running in a garage. Dozens of others have been injured, some left with brain damage.
Keyless ignitions are standard in over half of the 17 million new vehicles sold annually in the United States, according to the auto information website Edmunds.
Rather than a physical key, drivers carry a fob that transmits a radio signal, and as long as the fob is present, a car can be started with the touch of a button.
But weaned from the habit of turning and removing a key to shut off the motor, drivers - particularly older ones - can be lulled by newer, quieter engines into mistakenly thinking that it has stopped running.
Seven years ago, the world's leading automotive standards group, the Society of Automotive Engineers, called for features like a series of beeps to alert the drivers that car were still running without the key fob in or near the car, and in some cases to shut the engine off automatically.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed a federal regulation based on that idea -
A software change that it said could be accomplished for pennies per vehicle. In the face of the auto industry opposition, the agency let the plan languish, though it says a rule is still under consideration.
For now, regulators say they are relying on carmakers to incorporate such warning features voluntarily. But a survey of 17 car companies by The New York Times found that while some automakers go beyond the features recommended by the standard group, others fall short.
The Operational Global Research on *Digital Age Domains* and Automotive industries continues to Part 2. !WOW! thanks authors and researchers David Jeans and Majlie De Puy Kamp.
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