[toss1]

No, it is not reasonable for the car to stop suddenly without the key. Even if it stops by going into an emergency limp mode, this could seriously endanger the occupants by leaving them in a dangerous traffic situation, a dangerous location, or with other issues.

This is why every car company has examined it and chosen to not do it.

This feature actually saved huge inconvenience for us once. While visiting the other coast for wife's mom in the hospital, we used one of her parent's cars to drive to the airport with her brother to drive it back. We get out at the airport, get luggage, hugs, bye, head into terminal -- with the key still in her purse. Car running, doesn't notify him until too late to chase. If it stopped after 2min, he'd be stuck somewhere outside an airport 100mi away from anyone he knew. Instead, he just drove it home, got & used the other key for a few days, and we mailed back the first key when we arrived.

Things that seem reasonable at first....

[heavenlyblue]

Well, it means that a simple presence of a key in the vicinity of a car isn’t enough to answer the question of “will this key be present there” by the ene of the journey.

It means the key has to he inserted somewhere. That makes it both safe and predictable.

[swift532]

As someone who turns their car on by inserting their key into a slot in it, all this seems quite convoluted just for the convenience of pushing a button. I don't understand why the car would even let you accelerate at all if the key isn't inside the actual car (even if it's just in your pocket, if you insist on pressing a button).

[toss1]

The key has to be in it to start it, but once started, the key can go away and it will continue to run.

(& yes, I still start my car with a key that is inserted, and mine also has a clutch & manual H-pattern 5-speed)

[swift532]

Sorry, perhaps I should've put my commment higher up. I was referring to the general problem of the article, which I understood to be enabled (among other things) by the possibility of unlocking, turning on, and driving a car without the car having a means of verifying the key is inside/very close to the car.