I don’t recall the specific circumstances, it was something along the lines of having my hands full and trying to take things in from the car.
Has this really never happened to you or anyone you know? It’s not exactly common, but it’s happened to most people at one time or another. I suppose this is probably a generational thing, and harder to do with modern cars.
I understand, but what I don’t understand is how the keys end up inside a locked car. Surely you need the keys to be outside to look the door through which you are exiting?
That’s why I like that my car just uses a normal key and not an electronic one. I just made a fuck ton of copies of it lol. Keep them everywhere. One’s even hidden on the exterior of the car itself.
You don’t understand the concept of keys getting locked inside a car? This is about the most “touch grass” situation in the history of Internet comments. Locking keys in a car is super common, plenty of locksmiths make a living off the fact that it happens. Not sure how you missed that.
I think the confusion is this was a solved problem 30 years ago. Door automatically unlocks if you open from the inside and can’t be locked until you close it again. You had to work hard to get you keys locked in the car.
Engineers can create guards against mistakes, but if I wanted to find a way to lock my keys in my car that could be believably done by accident, I don’t think it would be hard. My dad recently locked his keys in his new truck. It’s possible to do.
Edit: also, 30 years? 1996 vehicles didn’t commonly protect you very much against this…
Every car in the last 30 years will lock keys in the car intentionally. It’s done this way because otherwise the car will be stolen with the keys inside of it.
Apparently not Fords. I leave the keys in my 2026 Ford Ranger fairly regularly (I live in the middle of nowhere, nobody is going to steal it here) and it has never locked the doors on me. In fact, if I leave the key in the ignition (with the car off) and hit the door lock button and close the door, it beeps twice and unlocks itself. I just tested it. If I leave the key in the cup holder I can lock it in the car, but not if it’s in the ignition.
My 2018 Excape has a keyless ignition. If I leave the key fob in the car, lock the doors with the button, and close it, the car immediately unlocks itself (without a beep). The only way to lock the key in the Escape is with a 2nd fob or with the phone app.
Nah they often just have settings to automatically lock so many minutes after exiting or lock if you’ve unlocked the vehicle but haven’t opened the door within a certain time frame. I can’t see any manufacturer trying to figure out and program the logic to intentionally lock you out of your car to prevent it from getting stolen.
You locking your keys in your car a dozen times doesn’t equate to proof of manufacturers programming cars to intentionally lock keys inside of them.
These systems are typically time-based around entry/exit not the location of the keys. You’re telling me every one of these dozen cars would automatically lock the vehicle if the keys were left inside but never lock if you took the keys with you? That’s supposed to be “more secure” than just locking the car 3-5 minutes after you get out and shut the door? With many vehicles being keyless now allowing you to unlock the door by just grabbing the door handle with they key fob in close proximity, how would that even work?
Furthermore, the only security present with keys 30 years ago was a tiny RFID embedded in the key that could only be “read” by the vehicle when it was in the ignition barrel, so how were these vehicles determining that your keys were still in the car? Always-on proximity sensors for key fobs only became a thing with push-button start in the 2010s.
Your old school key fobs were nothing more than ‘dumb’ garage door openers or TV remotes that only transmit when a button is pressed and only receive if the transmission is close enough to the receiving antenna, meaning neither one knows the position of the other. My TV remote will work the same whether I’m using it in my living room or standing in my front yard pointing it through my living room window. Neither the TV nor remote ‘know’ whether I’m standing inside or outside my house while pressing a button and they certainly don’t know where either is located when I’m not pressing button, so how were cars doing this way back in 1996?
How does that happen? Does the door not unlock when you open it from the inside? Sounds like a very bad design decision on the manufacturer’s part
I don’t recall the specific circumstances, it was something along the lines of having my hands full and trying to take things in from the car.
Has this really never happened to you or anyone you know? It’s not exactly common, but it’s happened to most people at one time or another. I suppose this is probably a generational thing, and harder to do with modern cars.
Most modern cars won’t lock with the key fob inside unless you fit e them to by locking them many time with a different fob
I don’t think they were locked in the car, the keys were.
I understand, but what I don’t understand is how the keys end up inside a locked car. Surely you need the keys to be outside to look the door through which you are exiting?
Nope. Lock button on the inside of the door, near the window buttons.
I’ve nearly done it myself a couple of times 😬
That should only lock doors that are currently closed
That’s why I like that my car just uses a normal key and not an electronic one. I just made a fuck ton of copies of it lol. Keep them everywhere. One’s even hidden on the exterior of the car itself.
Ah shit that makes so much more sense.
You don’t understand the concept of keys getting locked inside a car? This is about the most “touch grass” situation in the history of Internet comments. Locking keys in a car is super common, plenty of locksmiths make a living off the fact that it happens. Not sure how you missed that.
I think the confusion is this was a solved problem 30 years ago. Door automatically unlocks if you open from the inside and can’t be locked until you close it again. You had to work hard to get you keys locked in the car.
Engineers can create guards against mistakes, but if I wanted to find a way to lock my keys in my car that could be believably done by accident, I don’t think it would be hard. My dad recently locked his keys in his new truck. It’s possible to do.
Edit: also, 30 years? 1996 vehicles didn’t commonly protect you very much against this…
Because they unsolved the problem for some reason. Probably cut a deal with major locksmiths.
Every car in the last 30 years will lock keys in the car intentionally. It’s done this way because otherwise the car will be stolen with the keys inside of it.
Apparently not Fords. I leave the keys in my 2026 Ford Ranger fairly regularly (I live in the middle of nowhere, nobody is going to steal it here) and it has never locked the doors on me. In fact, if I leave the key in the ignition (with the car off) and hit the door lock button and close the door, it beeps twice and unlocks itself. I just tested it. If I leave the key in the cup holder I can lock it in the car, but not if it’s in the ignition.
My 2018 Excape has a keyless ignition. If I leave the key fob in the car, lock the doors with the button, and close it, the car immediately unlocks itself (without a beep). The only way to lock the key in the Escape is with a 2nd fob or with the phone app.
Nah they often just have settings to automatically lock so many minutes after exiting or lock if you’ve unlocked the vehicle but haven’t opened the door within a certain time frame. I can’t see any manufacturer trying to figure out and program the logic to intentionally lock you out of your car to prevent it from getting stolen.
It’s happened to me in like a dozen cars I don’t know what to tell you
You locking your keys in your car a dozen times doesn’t equate to proof of manufacturers programming cars to intentionally lock keys inside of them.
These systems are typically time-based around entry/exit not the location of the keys. You’re telling me every one of these dozen cars would automatically lock the vehicle if the keys were left inside but never lock if you took the keys with you? That’s supposed to be “more secure” than just locking the car 3-5 minutes after you get out and shut the door? With many vehicles being keyless now allowing you to unlock the door by just grabbing the door handle with they key fob in close proximity, how would that even work?
Furthermore, the only security present with keys 30 years ago was a tiny RFID embedded in the key that could only be “read” by the vehicle when it was in the ignition barrel, so how were these vehicles determining that your keys were still in the car? Always-on proximity sensors for key fobs only became a thing with push-button start in the 2010s.
Your old school key fobs were nothing more than ‘dumb’ garage door openers or TV remotes that only transmit when a button is pressed and only receive if the transmission is close enough to the receiving antenna, meaning neither one knows the position of the other. My TV remote will work the same whether I’m using it in my living room or standing in my front yard pointing it through my living room window. Neither the TV nor remote ‘know’ whether I’m standing inside or outside my house while pressing a button and they certainly don’t know where either is located when I’m not pressing button, so how were cars doing this way back in 1996?
Modern cars suck
30 years?
You heard me
I didn’t—I read
Three decades
My car literally won’t lock if I’m outside trying to lock it and the keys are inside. It’s saved me a few times.
My less-than-30-year-old car has a normal metal key and doesn’t lock automatically.