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Comment by hdndjsbbs | Hacker News Reader

I have no utility for remote unlocking. Remote locking (and the status in the app) saves my bacon because I often forget to lock the doors and in my neighborhood people will go through your car looking for change. It's not a big deal but I've had them get blood and stuff on the seats :/

Remote start is huge where I live. When it's -10C and there's a foot of snow you have to dig out in the morning, you can start your car from the app and then start shovelling. The alternative is a hokey pokey of shovelling yourself a path to the car, getting in, starting it, getting out, resuming shovelling. Not the end of the world but it's very nice. Even if there's no snow it's nice to get the cabin above freezing while you're eating breakfast without putting your boots on.

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I'm in Canada and was going to say this as well. Also, the nice thing about a phone vs. key fob for remote start is that with the phone you're less likely to accidentally remote start the car in your garage compared to a key fob. My parents always disabled remote start on their key fobs because they parked in a garage, but having the remote start option on your phone when parked outside at work, etc. is really convenient.

I have an Acura RDX with remote start on the keyfob and it is very difficult to accidentally do. You have to first lock the car from the fob, get back a response saying it’s indeed locked then hold the remote start button for several seconds before it will start. Any other inputs in between those two actions cancels out the remote start sequence. It also shuts off after a few minutes if you don’t get in and actually “start” the car just in case you did manage to accidentally trigger it.

You don't need the internet for any of that. Your phone has a bunch of short-range radios it can use to contact the car directly.

Dude. I had a Chevy Equinox that I brought to a guy to install remote start on my car. It was a few hundred bucks and I got a new key that if I was within range I could use to start the car. No internet involved. I got rid of that car and now have a Mercedes S class and I have to use a phone app to remote start the car. The only improvement from using the app is I can start the car from much farther distances than before (anywhere technically). However the app sucks, has a monthly subscription fee, and likely is not secure. Everything about the experience is worse than what I had in a car that cost a third of the price. It's very annoying.

Remote unlocking is nice when you park your vehicle somewhere and lock the keys in for someone to pick up later you can remotely unlock.

shit remote start doesn't even have to require snow.

i'm in legit cold canada and being able to open my garage remotely and start my car means it's a lot easier to herd small kids into a warm, comfy carseat.

I remote start my car in Texas in the summer. It's great to get back to a car that has cooled down a bit after it's been sitting out in 100 degree heat for hours.

i mean; i like the remote start angle, but that can be done with a key-press on a key. no damn app needed.

as for "I often forget to lock the doors"... why do you often forget to lock the doors?

> as for "I often forget to lock the doors"... why do you often forget to lock the doors?

Having just switched from an "old-school" car to one of these "keyless" types, I think the problem is actually self-reinforcing -- the keyless entry and start stuff means you interact with the key less and less so you're more likely to forget to interact with it to lock the car. I can't think of a time I forgot to lock my old school car and yet it's happened more than once with the newer car since I got it a few months ago.

I have an even harder time now since one of my cars automatically locks when I walk away while the other doesn't. I've been so spoiled by that functionality.

Luckily the other car will at least notify me if I leave it unlocked and can lock it through my phone. Would be nice if it just also auto-locked.

My not-even-all-that-new car just locks automatically shortly after you close the door, so there's nothing to "forget".

You don't have ADHD I guess?

> that can be done with a key-press on a key

Only if you're like right next to the car. I prefer to remote start my car when I'm more than a few minute walk away from it so it actually has a chance to warm up or cool down. Starting it ten seconds before I get to the car is practically worthless.

BMW - the car unlocks the doors when I approach and auto locks the doors when I move away from the car, so generally I never interact with 'locking' at all. Except when this doesn't work, for instance, if the boot is open because I'm getting shopping out, then I close the boot and walk away, quite often it will not lock at that point, perhaps because I moved away from the door but it didn't lock because the boot was open. The app is useful so that I can firstly check the car is locked, and secondly lock it. I personally have no need to unlock remotely - maybe my wife might say 'hey I need to get something from your car' and I'm not around? But I've never needed that yet. My wife's Hyundai has told me via the app 'hey you've left the car unlocked' and I've been able to lock it remotely. So definitely in favour of that feature.

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