The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph's College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
These are the Recuperative or Regenerative Brake System (RBS) Indicator symbols. If this symbol is illuminated on your instrument panel, the RBS is malfunctioning. This type of system is found in Hybrid and electric vehicles and uses the function of slowing down to generate electricity for the main high voltage battery.
The two additional version to the left are Regenerative Braking Icon Indicator symbols. they appear as a household battery with arrows circling it or circling inside it. The word ‘Regen’ appears below in one. A horizontal charge bar may appear as well. The symbol remains in gray scale until it is active, when the battery and arrows appear green.
These icons will also appear in gray scale when regenerative power is limited because the high voltage battery is near full charge or is cold.
These also appear as household batteries, but as Max Regeneration indicators, they are meant to indicate that maximum regeneration capability has been engaged and operating. They will be accompanied by the following instrument cluster messages: Max Regeneration On when the feature is turned on, Max Regeneration Off when the feature is turned off, and Max Regeneration Unavailable when the feature is requested, disabled.
The indicator light will flash for five seconds. It appears in green on the instrument panel and in white in the message center.
These indicators come from another manufacturer, Kia, which uses arrows and the colors blue and white. The number of arrows, 1, 2 or 3, indicates how much regeneration has been set: 1 is lowest, and we’ve chosen to show 3. In white, regeneration is not taking place. In blue, regeneration is occurring. The arrows appear in what looks like a battery box.
This one comes from Mitsubishi, which the company has named Innovative Pedal Operation Mode. It is still a regenerative braking system and the indicator is seen when the system is turned on. There are no colors involved.
This is a Regeneration Boost Indicator symbol. It is seen when the driver chooses to increase the regeneration braking force. The result is that the vehicle will slow more quickly when the accelerator pedal is released. It appears as a foot on a pedal with an up and down arrow.
Similarly, Honda Motors Corp. offers the option the increase or decrease the rate of regeneration using a paddle on the steering wheel stalk. The result is the symbol to the left, a Deceleration Paddle Selector Indicator. Using the deceleration paddle selector, the driver can you sequentially shift through six stages of deceleration. The more larger V shapes are seen, the more deceleration is chosen. The M indicates that the choice has been locked in, suggesting the letter should be an L!
In the vast majority of electric and hybrid vehicles, the actual brake system is not involved. However, recuperative braking slows the vehicle and a malfunction of the system will require more use the vehicle’s brakes to come to a stop.
In vehicles where the brake system is involved, braking performance may be affected and pedal travel may be lengthened. Any loss of brake performance presents an accident risk. Have your dealer or qualified repair shop address this as soon as possible.
The symbols to the right are also used as Regenerative Brake System Indicators. Click here to learn more.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2015/12/recuperative-brake-system-indicator/
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2015/12/designing-safety-systems-keep-air-bag-history-in-mind/
We were first able to get hold of a 2015 Maserati Ghibli. Then in 2017, we had a Levante and were able to verify that this process will work across the product line.
Unlike other manufacturers, the mechanical key, which is in the Maserati key fob, is not connected to the key ring. Looking at the back of the key fob, note the separation on one side only (bottom arrow) which marks the location of the key.
Also 
note the button to push on the back side in the center (top arrow).
Push the button and pull the key out of the fob at the separation, as shown to the right.
Starting the car is a simple process. Touch the “nose” of the key fob to the Start / Stop button. Push the button with the fob itself while stepping on the brake as you normally would. The car will recognize the key fob and start even though the fob’s internal battery is dead.
Click here for a video rundown of the process, featuring the Ghibli.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2015/11/maserati-dead-fob-help/
These are Pedestrian or Animal Detection Warning Indicator symbols. There are two types or styles because the first manufacturer to use the system has developed a changeable instrument display.
If a standard or typical instrument cluster is chosen, the symbol to the left will be shown if a collision with a person detected is imminent. The symbol looks like a human male with energy beams radiating from his hands! It is meant to look like a man standing in the driving lane.
If a different display type is chosen, and a collision with a person detected is imminent, the symbol to the left will be shown inside the display. It looks like a more generic human with sound waves coming out of him or her. It is meant to indicate radar beams bouncing off the person.
These systems are generally capable of detecting animals as well, and some manufacturers add the image to the left to separate animal from pedestrian detection. As a driver, your reaction will likely be very, very similar.
Ideally, since the detection system exists the brakes will be applied automatically. Regardless, please apply the brakes yourself and avoid running them over! Of course if you’re reading this after the fact, its a bit late!
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2015/11/pedestrian-warning-indicators/
In an absolute first, as well as a “why didn’t anyone do this before” moment, BMW is making a new key fob that holds a rechargeable battery. With key fobs constantly dying in push button start cars, this is an idea that is long overdue.
Unfortunately, the mechanical key is not integrated into the fob and must be carried separately, however, to unlock the door if a driver misses the need to recharge. I guess the rechargeable battery takes the needed space??
The key fob in question is BMW’s Display Key (right), thus far available only in the 7-Series starting with the 2015 model year. The display offers additional functionality and ‘cool’. The display also deactivates when charge gets low, a useful hint to recharge.
Recharging is accomplished 
with a micro USB port on the remote (arrow, above), a micro USB cable and a USB port in the center console of the car. The remote has a home it can be slipped into nearby for safekeeping (right).
Our interest of course is primarily in the recharge feature. We will thus take this opportunity to recommend that every manufacturer making push button start cars migrate to this option. USB ports are already standard.
However, please keep a mechanical key inside the fob itself. People are people and they will forget to recharge or simply not get to it in time. There must not be a need to remember where the mechanical key is! We can pretty much promise that there will be confusion as to the need for the extra key, and will get dropped in a drawer and forgotten.
An actual display is an expensive advance that is really not needed. There are other ways a key fob can announce a need for a charge, as is already done.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2015/11/bmws-display-key-fob-can-be-recharged/
Just a few weeks ago (2015), we castigated Mercedes marketers for posting a video ad showing one of their vehicles being driven autonomously with the driver in the back seat working. What really got to us was that the ad featured a baby in the driver’s seat, and facing forward! Our argument was that someone out there would be stupid enough to replicate it. That post is here.
This week, a truly complete moron recorded his Tesla operating in Autopilot on a Dutch highway. And he did the recording from the back with the driver’s seat empty. Hopefully he can be found and arrested.
The idea behind autonomous vehicles is to make roads and driving safer in the belief that computers and sensors will handle emergencies better than humans. We are a long, long way from that utopia.
We have always needed to protect ourselves from bad drivers, but autonomous operation has produced a totally new class of morons operating vehicles. To be clear, Tesla has done nothing to encourage this type of stunt. But we will use this opportunity to once again to call on marketers to stop encouraging this behavior, as recent ads from Mercedes, Nissan and Infiniti have done.
We originally included a link to the video as proof that we didn’t make this, but its been pulled by the publisher. If you are interested to see it, try searching YouTube.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2015/11/moronic-video-shows-autopiloted-tesla-with-no-driver/
Back in July, in an article on recalls of electronic and safety systems, we asked “When your car gets to truly driving itself, will this mean that the manufacturer will then hold accident liability?”
Now Volvo has stepped up with the answer.
And they stepped up big time.
According to Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars, the U.S. risks losing its leading global position in the development of self-driving cars if it allows a patchwork of varying state laws and regulations.
However, in what almost seems like an afterthought, Samuelsson added that Volvo will accept full liability whenever one if its cars is in autonomous mode. The details remain to be worked out – such as how the insurance industry will view this development and whether the driver will be assigned some liability, but Volvo is urging these and other issues be addressed sooner rather than later.
The company is concerned that legal uncertainties could delay the launch of autonomous vehicles. In a speech at a high level seminar on self-driving cars organized by Volvo Cars and the Embassy of Sweden in Washington DC, he said “the U.S. is currently the most progressive country in the world in autonomous driving, but this position could be eroded if a national framework for regulation and testing is not developed.”
“The absence of one set of rules means car makers cannot conduct credible tests to develop cars that meet all the different guidelines of all 50 U.S. states,” he said. “If we are to ensure a smooth transition to autonomous mobility then together we must create the necessary framework that will support this.” Samuelsson also urged regulators to work closely with car makers to solve outstanding liability issues from autonomous driving as well as from hacking “by a criminal third party”.
Time will tell if Volvo will follow through.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2015/10/volvo-throws-down-the-self-drive-gauntlet/
Designing Safety Systems? Keep Air Bag History in Mind
Safety By Design
No, aliens have not landed! The image is a Pedestrian Detection Systems indicator symbol. It is associated with a new system now being deployed. What looks for all the world like energy beams emanating from a humanoid’s hands are actually meant to be lane lines the human(oid) is standing in.
But this article is not about the warning light, rather about new auto safety systems in general. We retweeted this item from Retro Report in November. It is a video that traces the history of safety systems in cars, particularly that of air bags. We hope that everyone currently working on new automotive safety systems is well versed in this history. Air bags have saved countless thousands of lives since their introduction in the 1970s, but many others died while the industry worked out a few flaws in their first iterations.
Air Bag Recalls
Currently a massive recall continues because of flawed air bag inflators. Shrapnel from inflators have killed drivers. Already recalls have been issued to address auto baking systems that were randomly deploying when a collision was not imminent. No one has been hurt or killed by these systems, at least not yet. And now we have pedestrian detection systems being deployed.
New technologies always result in problems before they are truly effective. Anyone who’s ever owned a computer can attest to that. And of course, computers and software are at the heart of today’s safety trends.
Ultimately the plan is for cars to drive themselves, and some can in limited settings, and we’ve already seen drivers do absolutely moronic things with their cars while on autopilot: setting excessive speeds and leaving the driver’s seat completely.
There are very, very smart people working on these systems, but what might not be thought of in advance of deployment is what will come back to haunt us all. We hope that they keep the troubles encountered making air bags work, and keeping them working, in the front of their minds at all times.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY