Why replace something that isn’t broken? @“VOLVO V70”
Well I was worried about someone turning my thermostat up but now I have to worry about the Chinese monitoring my toaster?? I thought I was paranoid but like my boss said “you’re not paranoid, people really are out to get you” (not to me though).
Using a button-press to start the car offers advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, it provides better security. Harder to steal the car. Key-type ignition locks can be picked without too much difficulty I’d guess by someone with lock-pick training and tools. Or if someone wants to steal the car by crossing wires going to the conventional ignition switch, that’s pretty easy to do. But if designed well, not so easy with a computerized fob system.
On the minus side, those press-a-button-to-start systems are more complex, and are more likely to fail than the tried and true key/cylinder method. And when they fail they can strand you in a dangerous situation, where you wouldn’t be stranded if you had a normal key to use. For me, I’m willing to give up a little security against car theft in favor of better start up and drive reliability.
George, I think it’s the opposite. Today’s cars won’t start with just a mechanical key, they need the electronics in the key fob before they start. I know that from experience (see below). The push-button system just replaces the mechanical key and lock with a relay and some electronics.
And ignition locks are prone to failure. I’ve had one fail, and there are lots of reports here of other failures.
Re the experience, I had an episode at a quick Lube place, they broke the key. They tried using the end with pliers to start the car, would not work. Had to have the car towed to a dealer.
You’ve made an excellent point Bill.
I’ve never had an ignition lock failure, but I know they happen. I suspect that start-button failures would probably be no more likely to fail, and maybe even less likely. Some people hang five pounds of junk of their keyrings, and a button wouldn’t be subject to the same abuse.
I just think start buttons on daily drivers are chintzy. Strictly a personal-taste thing. 
Old people like me sometimes don’t adapt well to change.
Its a big red button that says start that old people can see, if that helps. Not your father’s Buick.
How on earth do you just do a simple paste on here? ><
She isn’t a fan.
Forget my last comment.
But why was the I/0 button designed into cars? Was it to correct a problem? To improve some situation? Or was it just a gizmo to catch the eye of affluent young would be buyers who were totally immersed in computers and felt more ‘at home’ in a car that turned on and off like a desk top?
Theres no denying that it greatly improves security on the car from theives who might break into the car and try to steal it… You’d have to be a pretty darn good hacker the way they are set up now from my understanding… But I think it’s just an advancement in technology and they are going with it because why not? Most people seem to enjoy the feature and there are some pretty good pros to it as others have mentioned here
I think it must be much easier to start the car when it is -20 degrees and your wearing thick gloves, no need to hold a key and align it with a small hole while your breath fogs your vision.
I don’t believe it offers any additional protection against auto theft, those measures were already in place as transponders have been in use since the mid 1990’s. It prevents a teenager from taking a hammer and screwdriver to your ignition in a failed attempt to steal the vehicle.
I don’t like the keyless system. My 2014 BMW 328 has it and one day I went to the store and someone was with me and I guess I wasn’t thinking, got out of the car with it running the key fob in my pocket locked the car by touching the handle. I went in a store came out almost an hour later and the car was running. The car doesn’t beep, but you get a warning on the dash. Today’s cars are so quiet too, now I’m so careful when I park the car and make sure I turn it off.
I believe it was designed into daily drivers to emulate the start buttons on race cars.
“Product differentiation” is what the marketing guys call it. “Look folks, your car can be like a race car!”.
@Rod Knox
"But why was the I/0 button designed into cars? Was it to correct a problem? To improve some situation? Or was it just a gizmo to catch the eye of affluent young would be buyers who were totally immersed in computers and felt more ‘at home’ in a car that turned on and off like a desk top?"
I think you’re onto something. I have noticed a trend, on this site, in the last couple of years. Besides beginning a question with “So,” many people (younger people?) ask,
"So, when I turned my car on this morning it…,"
rather than the more traditional,
“When I started (or cranked/turned over) my car this morning it…”
Also, could it be the car designers now feel more at home turning cars on instead of starting them?
CSA
"But why was the I/0 button designed into cars? Was it to correct a problem? To improve some situation? Or was it just a gizmo to catch the eye of affluent young would be buyers who were totally immersed in computers and felt more 'at home' in a car that turned on and off like a desk top?"
It’s a new feature. Why were intermittent wipers added to cars? Are they necessary? NO. Are they convenient? YES. Why do cars have power windows? Are they necessary? NO. Are they convenient? YES. I won’t buy a vehicle unless it has either of those features. Not sure you even can buy a vehicle without those features.
Same with the I/O button. It’s a convenient. I find it very convenient. I just walk up to the car and the second I touch the handle the car unlocks. I sit inside and press the brake and then the start button. No need to fumble for keys. As secure or more secure then current key systems. Is it necessary? NO. Is it convenient? YES.
She pointed out that corporations and government agencies with sophisticated security protections have been hacked fairly often, so the typical home Wi-Fi system would stand little chance of fending-off hackers who use the Haier appliances to access your home computers.
Security through obscurity is a real thing, though. For years Apple boasted that Macs never get viruses. That wasn’t because they were any more secure. It was because at least 90% of the computing population was on Windows machines. If I’m a virus writer who wants to do a lot of damage, I’m gonna go after the big target, not the tiny one. If Macs ever do get more popular than PC’s (cue laugh track) then I guarantee there will be a lot of viruses written for them.
Same thing goes for home/car convenience devices. Could the hackers that broke into the Pentagon’s systems get through my security? Yeah, absolutely. No question. I’m secure against script kiddies and other juvenile delinquents. I’m not secure against foreign government-sponsored cracking experts.
However, I do not store plans for building nuclear weapons in my thermostat, nor do I store troop movements, battle plans, or design secrets of stealth fighters in my garage door opener. Those hackers that targeted the Pentagon are the absolute cream of the crop, and they’re not going to be interested in mucking about with my thermostat, or anything else that you can get to if you get into my home network. They aren’t even interested in stealing money from me because if they were going to stoop to stealing money via cybercrime, they’re going to go after the bank account that has billions of dollars in it. I’m a few zeroes short of being a financial target they’d be interested in, much as it pains me to realize it.
Look, none of us has a tank on our front lawns or Patriot missile launchers on the roof. I’d wager to guess that none of us has an armored car, or a security detail to follow us around whenever we drive somewhere either. And we don’t have that stuff because the kinds of attacks that that stuff is designed to protect people from are not going to be levied against us. For the type of attack that we are likely to face, simply locking the front door and not driving into the really bad part of town is sufficient to virtually guarantee that none of us will ever fall victim to a violent crime.
For the same reason that we don’t have to worry about Putin launching a missile at us when we’re on the freeway, we don’t have to worry about the Pentagon crackers coming after us. Because of that, the scare-tactic argument that “well they broke into the Pentagon, and so you’d better get rid of anything that connects to the internet” is ludicrous.
Any time you hear that, think of it in terms of conventional warfare: “Well, the Germans steamrolled over France, so you’d better get some mortar emplacements installed in your driveway or you’re in danger.”
Another advantage of the keyless start systems is that there is no heavy key ring hanging off the ignition cylinder. That heavy key ring can remain in the pocket or purse.
“I do not store plans for building nuclear weapons in my thermostat, nor do I store troop movements, battle plans, or design secrets of stealth fighters in my garage door opener.”
I don’t claim to be any kind of expert on the topic of cyber security, but I think that you are equating apples & oranges, so to speak. When corporations or government entities are hacked, those cyber attacks are specifically aimed at them, because of who they are and what specific information is wanted by those hackers.
When individuals are hacked, it is not because somebody in a basement in Bratislava says, “I think I will try to hack into the computers of Mr. Shadowfax and Mr. VDC today”. Instead, that type of hacker will cast a very wide net via Trojans and other malware that people inadvertently pick up by clicking on certain internet links. He will probably not snare a lot of big prizes as a result of that nefarious effort, but a lot of small amounts can add up to a big prize for those criminals, and then–of course–there will be the occasional bounty of account numbers and social security numbers of some very affluent individuals.
If you were that mythical hacker in a Bratislava basement, simply figuring out the code used by Haier (or other appliance mfrs) to “monitor” appliances in customers’ homes could potentially be the route for accessing tens of thousands of home networks simultaneously. Some of the captured data would be fairly useless, but much of it–especially when lots of accounts are successfully hacked–would add up to a rich score for that cyber criminal.
I am not conceited enough to believe that anyone would be specifically interested in my account information (heck, unlike a lot of people, I can’t even imagine that anyone would want to read about my shopping habits if I was to “Tweet” them, and I don’t choose to brag about anything on Facebook, simply because I doubt that anyone would be interested in the details of my very mundane life), but if a wide net was cast by a cyber criminal, I could still be hacked. And, an internet-enabled appliance could be a relatively easy way for a cyber-criminal to do that hacking.