Category: Articles & Commentaries

Discussions on topics of interest to drivers concerning things they may not understand about their vehicles as well as articles on the future of the auto industry.

Dangers Inherent to Keyless or Push-button Start Cars

Keyless Start Dangers

The New York Times recently (August 2018) published an article about a problem inherent with keyless start cars. Specifically the phenomenon of drivers pulling into their garages and, lacking the need to remove a key from the ignition switch, walking away with the vehicle still running. The home fills with odorless carbon monoxide, injuring or killing the occupants.

The problem is real and in this article we will echo the calls for action, expand on the danger, add some comments on potential solutions, and finally add our primary concerns to the mix.

The article notes that since 2006 there have been more than two dozen carbon monoxide deaths attributed to keyless start cars left running in garages. And many more have been injured with some left brain damaged. Its an excellent read and goes into great depth.

Now if your first thought is why would someone walk away from a running car, there are two answers. First, even gasoline powered cars today are remarkably quiet, particularly at idle. Second, since most of these vehicles will lock themselves if left unattended, some drivers expect that an unattended car cars will shut itself off as well. Some will, but it cannot be assumed.

A Danger Inside

There is an additional danger in hybrid cars. These may be operating on battery power when brought inside, and thus be dead quiet. However, if the ignition is left on, the internal combustion engine will eventually fire up to recharge the battery.

There is only one viable solution. Each and every keyless start vehicle on the road must shut itself down if left unattended or if no action is taken after an agreed upon time. This will mean lots of recalls, but it is the only sure fire solution.

The Times article talks about the Society of Automotive Engineers, which called for among other things adding a series of beeps to alert the driver that a car when the key fob is removed. But I will add a personal anecdote that will illustrate why this idea should be shut down. The Times piece also bemoans the lack of regulations here, which we’ll touch on in a moment.

And on to the anecdote. Shortly after buying a pre-owned car some years ago, I walked away leaving the headlights lights on. After a 10 hour day, I needed a jump start. Testing this sometime later proved that the car beeped itself silly when the door was open while the lights were still on.

There are beeps and whistles and lights in todays vehicles for everything under the sun, and for the most part, they simply aren’t heard anymore. There’s simply no guarantee that sound will get a driver’s attention.

The same engineer’s group also recommends having vehicles shut themselves down, and the discussion should simply end there. The article also noted that engineers with Toyota wanted more than audible warnings, but were rebuffed by the company. Dollars and cents are always an issue no matter how much they shouldn’t be.

Hidden Keyholes

One of our primary concerns here at DashboardSymbols.com is drivers left stranded by key fobs that have gone dead. I have sat with drivers who were stunned when I pulled a mechanical key from their fobs. We have spoken with others who knew of the key and thought it was only for the glove box.

And you simply haven’t lived until you’ve tried to talk someone through the process of prying off a piece of their car to unlock it over the phone. A dozen major auto manufacturers are now responsible for this useless bit of aggravation.

And of course, the instructions for getting inside are locked inside the car!

Its relatively easy to ascertain that a car was left running causing a carbon monoxide death. But drivers trying to work put how to get in and start their cars if their key fobs have died could very well be in very vulnerable circumstances — dark parking garages, rainy parking lots, etc. If one them is set upon, will it even be possible to conclude that they were vulnerable because their keys had died. Will first responders make the connection?

So, should any and all of this be regulated? Likely yes. But forget that. These are safety issues pure and simple, and to all auto manufacturers, it is in your own best interest to keep your drivers safe! How is this even a question?

Manufacturers, make sure your keyless start cars will shut themselves down if left unattended. All of them. And give your drivers an app with at least instructions on how to get in and start the car or better yet an app that can unlock and start the car for them. Keep your drivers safe.

You want a customer for life right? How about helping to make sure its a good long life.

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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.

M Favreau

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/2018/08/a-danger-inherent-to-keyless-or-push-button-start-cars/

More Electronics Makes for More Useless Symbols

More Useless Symbols

We want to dive a little deeper into what is one of our main concerns here at DashboardSymbols.com, and that is the continued proliferation of symbols appearing on instrument panels in vehicles from across the industry. And specifically with those associated with electronic systems.

We now host nearly 350 image and text symbols on the website, and estimate, rather conservatively, that 25% of them are directly connected to electronically controlled systems.

Narrowing this down, we are ignoring the 15 odd symbols we have that belong exclusively to electric and hybrid cars. We’re also staying away from a dozen or so indicators related to lighting systems. Most of this last group have been around for a while.

What we want to focus on are primarily systems related to driver assist functions as well as those that lean towards drive by wire. This last group covers systems like braking and steering that are now electronic or moving in that direction.

The warning light system got its start in an era when cars were essentially mechanical devices, and three systems required monitoring. By the driver! Oil or oil pressure, temperature and battery. These all had gauges, gauges that have now pretty much disappeared.

Lights Ignored

Now all of us are guilty of getting comfortable behind the wheel and ignoring the dashboard or more properly the instrument panel, and so, warning, or in the ultimate act of disrespect, idiot lights were developed to get a driver’s attention.

At that time, if a light came on, there was a plan of action — add some oil to the crankcase, add some water or antifreeze to the radiator, even add some water to the battery.

In todays world, the lights are essentially meaningless. What does a driver do if the Electronically Controlled Brake System symbol comes on? Or the symbol for Electric Park Brake? They are both fault indicators, but there is no fluid to top off of or reset switch to hit.

Although in point of fact, sometimes these problems can actually resolved by restarting the car.

There’s lots more of these that frankly have no user friendly solutions, just repair shop solutions. And we’ve come to believe that the warning light system has become essentially outdated and useless. And imagine the distraction these lights can cause in an era where driving distraction is all the rage. This, somehow, has slipped through the cracks.

We’ve advocated for years that vehicles to be given the capability to talk to their drivers and we’ll do it again now. In fact, our Talking Dashboards YouTube series is a tongue-in-cheek nod to the idea. There is simply no reason why a vehicle cannot talk a driver though one of these problems, right down to the problem code, if that’s what the driver requests. Being told whether or not the car is drivable and for how long at minimum would be extremely useful.

The computing power exists. Most new cars can be asked to find the nearest restaurant and take a vehicle straight to it or even schedule a service. From where we stand, a new vehicle can damn sure also provide useful information on a fault it has encountered in itself.

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M Favreau

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2018/08/more-electronics-makes-for-more-useless-symbols/

General Motors Gets Kudos for Landfill-free Facilities

Bravo GM

We want to take a moment to give a car maker a pat on the back. Landfill-free Facilities

We’ve spent more than a little time on General Motors case for a lack of standardization with its keyless start cars as well as inaccurate information in owner’s manuals. Now the company gets a little back.

On February 28 (2018) GM noted in a press release that it had added 27 facilities to its list of 142 facilities, both manufacturing and non manufacturing, that are 100% landfill free. To be clear, these facilities send absolutely nothing to landfills, period.

Now we don’t generally expend a lot of energy on environmental issues, but we were struck by the magnitude of this achievement. This is nearly impossible for individuals to get anywhere close to this. Everything we use is packaged and a whole lot of that packaging is simply not recyclable. The rest goes to landfill.

So how did they manage it?

Certainly, there is a huge internal effort, including employees, dedicated to the task. For instance, they have a vice president of Sustainable Workplaces. Dane Parker says that GM aspires “to be a zero-waste company.” They employ a Waste Reduction manager. That person, John Bradburn, summed it up: “To us,” he said, “waste is simply a resource out of place.” This makes so much sense.

So, GM repurposes old concrete in new walkways. They clean oil-soaked cloths used in painting instead of tossing them. They use bags that held parts delivered to plants to line waste cans instead of putting them in the waste cans. In one plant, that’s nearly 8,000 plastic bags a year NOT sent to a landfill. Etc.

Seventy nine of the sites are manufacturing operations. On average they reuse, recycle or compost approximately 96% of their waste from daily operations and convert 4% to energy.

To be sure, this takes more than a fair share of creativity. For instance, one facility donates empty battery containers for use as nesting boxes for wood ducks.

Recycling efforts include turning used water bottles for air filtration elements, sound proofing for vehicles, or insulation, like the piece John Bradburn is holding. Tires are ground up to be used to make air baffles for GM cars and trucks. Cardboard and packing materials are baled at manufacturing
sites for recycling.

Metal chips are collected at GM’s Flint Engine plant and shipped to a supplier that recycles the chips into new materials.

Now clearly a company the size of GM has resources individuals will never have, but the effort simply has to be applauded. What they spend comes back as savings on materials that otherwise would need to be sourced, purchased and delivered. In fact, the company generated $2.5 billion in revenue between 2007 and
2010 through various recycling activities.

It achieved its first landfill-free site at our Flint Engine operations in 2005. Since it started its waste reduction program, it has reduced the program’s costs by 92% and total waste by 62%.

So, bravo General Motors, and keep up the good work.

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M Favreau

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2018/03/general-motors-gets-kudos-for-landfill-free-facilities/

A Plea to NHTSA to Simplify Nomenclature

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify!

On February 14, 2018, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Deputy Administrator Heidi King testified before the House Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee on Energy and Commerce. Among the topics was NHTSA’s goal of safe testing and deployment of Automated Driving Systems, and in the question and answer session noted that a simplification of the language used in describing the systems to the public would be a part of this goal.

Ms. King sees potential danger in the use or misuse of automated systems and she is absolutely right. Before we can all let go of the steering wheel or rely on a car to stop on its own when necessary there has to be absolute clarity that vehicle’s systems are actually capable.

Here, we have advocated for simplification from the start as it relates to advanced systems being introduced today. And to be clear, these same systems are the stepping stones to automation. And the buying public is already confused.

Why Drivers Are Confused

On our website, we host well over 400 warning lights and tell tales mostly from vehicles sold in North America. They include symbols for 16 different Stability Control Systems. Actually, its mostly the names that are different. Wikipedia adds another four in their worldwide list. These lists including two that are named for the actual manufacturer, as if this somehow adds weight. We also host four different names for Active Cruise Control, five more for Collision Warning Systems, three for Blind Spot Monitoring, and so on.

To be sure, there can be and sometimes are good reasons for using distinct names for a given, system, since there may be variations in operation and system integration from one manufacturer to another. However, there are also indications that naming is done simply to stand out. One manufacturer calls its blind spot monitoring a BLind spot Information System so that the acronym can be BLIS!

SO NHTSA and Ms. King if you are listening, for the sake of the driving or riding public please do continue to work to simplify the nomenclature. And please, if you can extend the concept to the current crop of cars and trucks, the driving public will appreciate the effort. After all, stability control is stability control, lane departure systems are lane departure systems, etc. The average driver will never be aware of details beyond this, nor will they need them if they all perform to the same standards.

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M Favreau

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2018/03/a-plea-to-nhtsa-to-simplify-nomenclature/

Electric Cars, Autonomous Cars – They’re Just Cars!

An EV Is Just a Car

I have been pondering some items related to electric cars and autonomous cars, and in particular how messy even the automotive press treats these subjects.

Which is point one. While the development of autonomous cars is expanding seemingly in tandem with electric cars, they are in fact separate and distinct. More on that later.

The release of the Tesla Model 3 seems to be at the heart of the current news wave. So, while I love the direction that Tesla is taking the automobile industry and what I’ve seen of the Model 3, let’s remember that it is just a car.

It has four wheels, a steering wheel, a pedal or pedals, seating for a driver and passengers, etc. In the end, it’s just a car! The propulsion system is the only real change. The advantage with the Model 3 or any electric car is that an owner gets to leave home every day with a full tank of fuel, assuming charging can be accomplished there.

In the meantime, Chevrolet released its Bolt fully electric car and Nissan has updated the Leaf, already fully electric. And what does the press do? It compares the Bolt and Leaf to the Model 3! This is akin to comparing a Honda Civic to a BMW 3 Series. The only thing the Bolt and Leaf have in common with the Model 3 is battery power, period. Talk of range is in parallel to talk of fuel mileage. The Civic wins, but the BMW buyer couldn’t care less!

Where’s the Appeal?

That said, while the Civic outsells the 3 Series, the Model 3 will eat the Bolt’s lunch on style alone. Electric cars a not so mainstream that value purchasers are driving market volume. So until BMW or Audi or Lexus, etc releases a pure electric – not electrified – model that looks like it belongs to their family of cars, BMW i3 the Model 3 will stand alone.

Sorry BMW, while upcoming changes are a plus, the current i3 simply looks like a toy with a matching grill. Until value buyers begin opting for electric- rather than gas-powered cars in general, the Model 3 will outsell all comers.

Back to the Bolt, it is a step back for Chevrolet. The Volt looks like and is a wonderful, useful, attractive sedan. While it shares some styling cues from the Chevrolet line, the Bolt returns to what U.S manufacturers have done since the 70s when they’ve attempt to build a car ultimately aimed at saving gasoline – making them too small and too unappealing.

One would think that they had learned something from Tesla’s success and they’re own failures from the past.

Meanwhile, the Leaf is a definite step in the right direction for Nissan. It important to remember that the Asian market is far more important to them than the U.S. market and that the Leaf already sells well. Range anxiety is far less an issue overseas. That said, the restyle is far more appealing – the Leaf now actually looks like a Nissan – and sales will likely expand across the board.

Developments do point to the acceptance of electric cars. I ran across a wonderful quote in an article from Automotive News recently. It noted that Volkswagen founder Ferdinand Porsche had shown an electric car with motors in the wheel hubs at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition. One hundred seventeen years ago! The suggestion was that the oil boom that occurred at about the same time set the current auto industry in motion (pun intended).

Ulrich Eichhorn, corporate research manager at Volkswagen Group is then quoted as saying: “If the technologies had been reversed, it would be hard to conceive an engineer now successfully proposing that combustion engines replace electric cars. Imagine that person would say, ‘Rather than having maximum torque available from the start like an electric car, it had to ramp up over time.’

“Imagine he then said it involved a device where thousands of tiny explosions occur every minute using a toxic and highly flammable liquid that had to be stored in the vehicle somewhere. And then imagine him saying that this fuel came almost entirely from crisis regions. What do you think his boss might have said to him?”

Oh an interesting question indeed.

Which brings me back to autonomous cars. In the middle of what was painted as a discussion about electric cars, I heard the following (it is paraphrased because I didn’t save the content): cars are like guns in the U.S., its freedom, don’t try and take them away.

This left me scratching my head until I realized that electric propulsion had been confused or paired with autonomous technology! The electric car, regardless of make and model, is still just a car. Just as the comparison of electric cars on range alone is a massive mistake, merging the rise of autonomous technology with electric propulsion also misses the mark.

Any move to force autonomous driving is decades off, assuming it ever occurs. But perhaps by then, jumping into the car to take a weekend drive without actually having to do any work at all will seem very, very appealing.

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M Favreau

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2017/09/electric-cars-autonomous-cars-theyre-just-cars/

GM Now Uses 17 Differing Back-up Pockets

Too Many Back Up Start Locations

GM Now Uses 17 Differing Back-up Pockets! While putting together a review of 2018 push button start models, we discovered that the new GMC Terrain and Acadia had been added, and that this was introduced in the Acadia in 2017.

In addition, these two models have hidden key holes, like those used by Chevrolet. But what struck us was that the cars did not use the same back up start process, and that the spots are only similar to other General Motors made cars and SUVs.

The result is we now have 17 distinct images of back up start key fob pockets. We keep asking and hoping for standardization, but instead…

Similar, Not the Same

In truth, there are many similarities. For instance, most back up pockets are in the center console of GM vehicles. However, the Acadia’s pocket is at the top of the back of the console, only the 4th model using this area. The majority of the other models feature the slot somewhere in the front of the center console. The steering column and glove box are also used.

The Terrain uses a cup holder. But because they are side by side, it is the first to use a left side cup holder. The Chevrolet Camaro uses the back one while the Buick Encore and Envision use the front. The Verano, Regal and Lacrosse also use the front, but the cup holder itself needs to be removed! And so on.

Standardize!

The point is, there is no standardization and unfortunately the company does not seem to be headed anywhere near selecting a single back up location.

Why not? Seriously, why not??? Following the key cylinder debacle GM announced it would move all their vehicles to push button or keyless start, eventually, and we suggested then that they use the opportunity to standardize the process. They didn’t, not that they were listening to us.

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M Favreau

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2017/07/gm-vehicles-now-have-17-differing-back-up-start-procedures/

Too Many Warning Lights Can Only Lead to Driver Overload

Driver Overload

We had the opportunity recently to browse through the owner’s manual of a high-end European SUV. As is our duty, we scanned the segment listing the various warning lights and indicators that may reside on the car’s instrument panel. We were frankly floored.

For many years an Asian model SUV held the record (as recorded only by us) for the most lights available on an instrument panel at 43. This includes everything from the turn signals to axle locks.

100 Symbols??

With our latest model entry, we stopped counting at 100. One hundred!

If this were a joke no one would believe it. This number includes the fact that multiple indicators can appear in multiple colors and combinations depending on circumstance. That said, the weight of information to be distilled at any given time by a driver is simply beyond comprehension. Should he or she be driving or staring at the latest change?

The majority of the indicators are associated with the growing list of available driver assist systems – truly ironic titling under the circumstances. The need for assistance feeds on itself.

Roll Away Without Warning!

We then came across an exchange between an editor from the St. Lawrence News and a reader discussing a roll away issue in a newer model push button start car. That story itself is worth a click over.

The reader wonders why there isn’t a warning indicator or buzzer to note that his vehicle was not in park when he walked away with the car shut off. In the end, editor Brian Turner notes “But in the big picture how reliant are we becoming on warning systems for basic vehicle operations? It’s almost approaching the ‘caution-hot’ labels on disposable coffee cups. There is concern among industry analysts and observers that we may be approaching warning-chime overload with all the things in our vehicles that go ding. The fears are that this will lead to drivers ignoring certain warnings and that can’t lead to anything good.”

Count us among those who are concerned.

Seriously, the advances being made in voice technology, why couldn’t the car simply speak the words “Park is not Engaged”? We are numb to the constant buzzers and lights. Ultimately, they all sound a look alike. Some plain language is just plain needed.

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M Favreau

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2017/06/too-many-warning-lights-can-only-indicate-driver-overload/