Beware of smart keys.

DanHolohan

<a href="http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/11/02/31543.htm">http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/11/02/31543.htm</a>

Jean-David Beyer

I have one of those cars.

I have one of those cars. A Toyota Prius.



If I leave the car with the system ON with the key in my pocket, it beeps three times as I walk away from the car to notify me that the car is still ON. I do this only when I get home and leave the car to unlock my garage door. I find the three beeps a little annoying, but once I forgot in a parking lot, and really appreciated the reminder.



With a Prius, the problem is not as bad as with a conventional car because the gasoline engine does not run all the time. If you pull up to a stop light, for example, the engine typically shuts off. When it turns green, the car will pull away from the light and you can go a ways before the engine starts up again because the car runs off the high voltage battery. So the engine in my garage, if I left it on, would probably run only 30 seconds every few minutes (I do not know how often, since I never tried it; I can listen to the radio for 5 minutes and the engine does not run) to keep the battery charge up. Maybe even less than that. Still a bad idea, of course.