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by pessimizer 3125 days ago
Juvenile power fantasies are going to kill us all. People want to be magical, wave their arms and move their hands mysteriously, and affect the world.

Things like this save an infinitesimal amount of time (or sometimes even make actual usage more difficult), and introduce orders of magnitude more complexity ripe for exploitation. All so people can feel like they're magical.

4 comments

You're being overly harsh there. I've found not having to reach for my keys to be rather convenient when shopping with both of my kids (eg opening the boot by touching it when my hands are full carrying shopping + kids under my arms).

Sure, I would still cope with conventional keys; I wont deny that. Just as my mum coped raising me when she didn't even have a car. But I'm just making the point that this feature isn't just some "juvenile power fantasy" and actually does help make like a little bit easier.

Though frankly, even if it was just a vanity feature then I still wouldn't begrudge anyone wanting it. Isn't that the half the reason people buy nice cars in the first place?

For what it's worth, if this is a feature you have but don't like, then some cars (mine included) do allow you to disable that feature. So it might be worth consoling your manual / checking the in car settings menu.

> Juvenile power fantasies

I believe society still have a lot of inertia toward this. I also think video games tapped into this brain subsystem, that IMO was designed as a desire to learn how to master the real world, except now technology can bridge the fantasy

It's extremely convenient and I have no regrets.

I have car insurance and zero worries about theft.

It is a cost savings move. If you have power locks and a transponder system anyway, the lock cylinders are effectively redundant (minus security concerns) and can be eliminated for more profit.
These cars all still have physical lock cylinders for backup, the key is usually hidden inside the fob.
I don't think this is really how it is. From what I know, all of the cars have lock cylinders still because if your battery dies, how do you get into your car to replace or jump the battery?

There is a very slim key that is included in all the key fobs that I've seen.