Keyless Ignition

[+ Avalon]

When we were selling my dad's house the building inspector and the buyer's real estate agent made a huge deal out of the lack of carbon monoxide detectors. "Installation" was mandatory, required "proof of installation," etc. The inspector did notate that he saw a detector in its package on a shelf in the laundry room. "Installation" involved removing said detector from the package and plugging it into an outlet. So, my brother took video of me getting the detector off the shelf, removing the package, plugging the detector into the wall outlet, and performing the test. The buyer's attorney insisted on additional proof. Our attorney said "no." The buyer agreed with us as did their mortgage company.

 

What kind of addition proof? There was nothing left to do.

[Guy Fawkes]

not even piddling, it's just a software change.

 

Given how little fixing this costs and the SAE recommendations, I don't understand all the gene pool comments here. Saving a life is saving a life.

 

Keyless entry cars should shut off after x minutes of idling. Otherwise car manufacturers are putting piddling amounts of profits ahead of lives.

[rvwnsd]

What kind of addition proof? There was nothing left to do.

That was our point. The jackass wanted a receipt from a professional installer.

[+ Avalon]

That was our point. The jackass wanted a receipt from a professional installer.

 

Ridiculous!

[+ deej]

Ridiculous!

There's a lot of ridiculous in the real estate business. And outright incompetence.

 

When I bought my house in CA I went through THREE signings of the closing documents because the lender kept saying the title company hadn't supplied the original. I have no doubt they actually did. On the third go-round, we all agreed we would NOT use a black pen because that's probably what was messing up the electronic document handling system. I showed up with a purple Sharpie in my pocket.

 

The lady at the title company was kind and apologetic as all get out. "It's not us!" I reassured her I already knew that. By then I'd talked with several insurance agents who warned that my lender was known for being difficult to work with. (Wish someone had told ME that in advance! LOL)

[Frequentflier]

Given how little fixing this costs and the SAE recommendations, I don't understand all the gene pool comments here. Saving a life is saving a life.

 

Keyless entry cars should shut off after x minutes of idling. Otherwise car manufacturers are putting piddling amounts of profits ahead of lives.

 

My car makes a noise if I open the door while the engine is running. If I close the door from the outside with the fob with me, it makes a different noise and the horn sounds. I am against the automatic shutoff because I sometimes, in warm months, leave the engine running/air conditioner/radio on with my dog inside the car. Sometimes I have to go into a store which doesn't allow dogs and I'm sure as heck not going to let my dog be uncomfortable. I have a sign I put on the dash advising people the engine/air conditioner are running so they don't break the glass. I also have my cell number on the sign. My state, rightfully, enacted a law that holds a good samaritan free from legal jeopardy if they break a cars window to rescue an animal. There are a few steps they need to take first but nothing time consuming.

[Boink]

My car beeps when I get out with the engine still running.

 

My current (rental) car beeps when I get out with the engine turned off.

[Boink]

With the key "on you" or still inside the car?

 

On me - in my pocket.

[Guest]

Yeah, my car actually honks the horn if I close the driver's door while it's running.

 

Do you mean your car honks the horn if you don't leave your car door open while driving?

[rvwnsd]

Do you mean your car honks the horn if you don't leave your car door open while driving?

And they say technology has gone too far!

[MikeyGMin]

I can't stand Lowes' "The moment you realize..." ad campaign, and the latest one really drives me up the wall. A woman is seen (talking to Alexa?) ordering the lights on, and her playlist to be played, then orders her washing machine to turn on before realizing it doesn't do that. So she buys a new washer & dryer.

 

My reaction is always "The moment you realize... you need intensive therapy... to figure out why you're so lazy you'd spend over $1000 for smart appliances instead of just turning them on manually."

 

I've also found that just about every time a company updates its website or technology, the 'improvement' is annoying, not necessary, and endlessly frustrating.

You'd be surprised how useful and fun these appliances can be. Most of the lights in my house are wifi-enabled and I use Alexa to control them. You can create "scenes" to do all kinds of things. With one command I can set the lights throughout the house for the way I like them when I am away at night. Another one I find very useful if I hear a strange noise at night. With one command I can turn on a light in almost every room in my house at the same time. Probably enough to scare off any intruder if there was one and certainly makes me feel more secure investigating.

 

I also have a wifi-enabled coffee maker. Of course you can just get up and push the button, but I find it the height of luxury to lay in bed on a Sunday morning and trigger the coffee maker so that it's ready when I get up a few minutes later. It's also set up to automatically start when I use Alexa as an alarm clock. The alarm goes off, the coffee maker starts, and my lights slowly come up to full intensity. None of these things are necessary, but you can say that about virtually any luxury item.

[rvwnsd]

...I also have a wifi-enabled coffee maker. Of course you can just get up and push the button, but I find it the height of luxury to lay in bed on a Sunday morning and trigger the coffee maker so that it's ready when I get up a few minutes later. It's also set up to automatically start when I use Alexa as an alarm clock. The alarm goes off, the coffee maker starts, and my lights slowly come up to full intensity. None of these things are necessary, but you can say that about virtually any luxury item.

When the wifi-enabled coffee maker draws and filters the tap water, automatically measures the beans, grinds them, and disposes of them when the cycle is done I will buy it.

[MikeBiDude]

I also have a wifi-enabled coffee maker. Of course you can just get up and push the button, but I find it the height of luxury to lay in bed on a Sunday morning and trigger the coffee maker so that it's ready when I get up a few minutes later.

My gas fireplace in my den/family room is Alexa enabled. I love laying in bed and commanding “Alexa, turn den on” and the fireplace and appropriate morning lamps are on when I get downstairs

[samhexum]

You'd be surprised how useful and fun these appliances can be... Of course you can just get up and push the button, but I find it the height of luxury to lay in bed on a Sunday morning and trigger the coffee maker so that it's ready when I get up a few minutes later. It's also set up to automatically start when I use Alexa as an alarm clock. The alarm goes off, the coffee maker starts, and my lights slowly come up to full intensity. None of these things are necessary, but you can say that about virtually any luxury item.

 

My gas fireplace in my den/family room is Alexa enabled. I love laying in bed and commanding “Alexa, turn den on” and the fireplace and appropriate morning lamps are on when I get downstairs

 

Yes, but is it necessary to spend $1000+ on a new washer & dryer just so you can start it with your phone? You need to load them & add detergent/fabric softener anyway, so you're already standing there. That's why the woman in the commercial needs intensive therapy.

 

When the wifi-enabled coffee maker draws and filters the tap water, automatically measures the beans, grinds them, and disposes of them when the cycle is done I will buy it.

 

You know within the next few nanoseconds, somebody will come up with a robot that WILL do all that.

[escortrod]

Another benefit of electric cars...

[rvwnsd]

Yes, but is it necessary to spend $1000+ on a new washer & dryer just so you can start it with your phone? You need to load them & add detergent/fabric softener anyway, so you're already standing there. That's why the woman in the commercial needs intensive therapy...

As wise old Great Auntie Rvwnsdska from "old country" used to say "Ja, ja you tell dem!"

...You know within the next few nanoseconds, somebody will come up with a robot that WILL do all that.

Hey, I'd consider that robot. Or, as wise old Great Auntie Rvwnsdska from "old country" used to say, "Robot - ja, goot!"

[escortrod]

When the wifi-enabled coffee maker draws and filters the tap water, automatically measures the beans, grinds them, and disposes of them when the cycle is done I will buy it.

That pretty much exists, no? I guess most rely on a water tank, but I'd be happy enough to use water placed in the tank the night before. Plenty of bean-to-cup machines do the rest, and include a built-in water filter.

[rvwnsd]

That pretty much exists, no? I guess most rely on a water tank, but I'd be happy enough to use water placed in the tank the night before. Plenty of bean-to-cup machines do the rest, and include a built-in water filter.

That's kinda my point - there are coffee makers where you can set a timer and when the time rolls around it grinds the beans and makes the coffee - no wifi required.

[escortrod]

That's kinda my point - there are coffee makers where you can set a timer and when the time rolls around it grinds the beans and makes the coffee - no wifi required.

True, but a ‘smart’ coffee maker offers more flexibility for some.

[samhexum]

A Canadian woman “stole” a complete stranger’s car following an almost unbelievable parking screw-up.

 

In late June, the unnamed woman rented a black Nissan Sentra from a company in Cornwall, Ontario.

 

Immediately afterward, she drove to Walmart and shopped before finding what she thought was her car in the parking lot.

 

The woman got into the unlocked car, pressed the keyless start button and drove off — oblivious to the fact it was a completely different vehicle to her own rental.

 

Keyless cars can be operated as long as the key fob is located inside the car, which was the case in this circumstance.

 

Not long afterward, a black Nissan Infiniti, which had been parked in the same lot, was reported stolen to local police.

 

That car’s owner had also been shopping in Walmart before realizing his vehicle had vanished.

 

In a lengthy Facebook post, the Cornwall Community Police Service warned motorists to never leave key fobs in cars when not in use.

 

They explained that for two weeks, the clueless woman “drove around and used the black car for her regular everyday activities” and only realized something was wrong after returning to the rental company to return the car.

 

“The woman spoke to the manager and commented about how unkept [sic] the inside of the vehicle was and the fact that there was a set of golf clubs in it as well,” the post read.

 

“The woman was not impressed and handed over the keys. The manager, now slightly confused, observed the keys to belong to an Infinity, a vehicle the woman did not rent.

 

“The manager … proceeded to ask her where she went after leaving the car rental two weeks ago. The woman informed him of her activities.”

 

The pair returned to the Walmart parking lot and the woman took the manager to the spot where she had parked her rental car — only to find it still sitting there as she had left it.

 

“The manager and the woman, who was now confused and a wee bit embarrassed herself, returned to the car rental company and contacted police, providing the information for the Infiniti and what took place,” the post stated.

 

“The Infinity came back as stolen on police systems as reported in June and…both the car rental company and the Infiniti owner retrieved their vehicles and there was a happy and funny ending to this story.”

 

But police urged drivers to take care.

 

“The moral of the story is this … please do not leave your key fobs in your vehicle when not being operated, you never know who might take it,” the post concluded.

 

“Folks, we just can’t make this stuff up!”

 

The hilarious post has received hundreds of likes, shares and comments from bemused Facebook users, with one posting: “That happened to me once. I got into the car and I noticed different objects on the dashboard, then I noticed I got into the wrong car. I was embarrassed,” while another added: “So both of them left their car unlocked and keys in it? Talk about a comedy of errors.”

[samhexum]

A group of tenants in a Hell’s Kitchen apartment complex say they are being locked out — by technology.

 

And now they are suing their landlord for the return of their low-tech keys to the front lobby.

 

“It’s ridiculous that everyone is spending all this money to go to court just to get a key,” said Mary Beth McKenzie, 72, an artist who has lived in the West 45th St. building for nearly five decades. “For 45 years I’ve had a key. And now, we can’t get keys.”

 

Instead of keys, the building’s owners have installed a new electronic security system called Latch, which requires a smartphone app to access the building’s lobby, where a newly built elevator and the tenants’ mailboxes are located.

 

McKenzie’s 93-year-old husband has been a virtual shut-in since the new technology was introduced last year because he doesn’t use a cellphone and has difficulty walking up the three flights of stairs to their apartment, she said. Tenants in the complex at 517-525 West 45th St. don’t need to use the lobby to access the stairwells to the buildings, which are between four and five stories each.

 

McKenzie and some of the other rent-regulated tenants who are suing for the return of their keys say Latch also includes a GPS function that allows the building’s owners to monitor their movements and even their social media.

 

The app, which is currently in use in more than 1,000 residential buildings in the city, also comes with an 84-page contract which states that any information collected through the Latch system goes to the building owner, the tenants say.

 

“Once I come into the building using Latch, the landlord is immediately notified,” said Charlotte Pfahl, who lives on the fifth floor and is one of five plaintiffs in the lawsuit in Manhattan civil court.

 

“It’s a form of harassment,” said McKenzie, whose paintings hang in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian. “What happens if your phone dies? I don’t want to be stuck on the street and I don’t want to be surveilled.”

 

Some of the rent-regulated tenants told The Post that they see Latch as part of a pattern of harassment by the owners to push them out of their apartments so they can rent them at market rate. Market rents in the building vary between $2,600 per month for a studio and $4,500 for a two-bedroom, according to recent real-estate listings.

 

The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development had previously slapped the owners of the building with two violations for capping the keyhole on the lock to the lobby door when they introduced the technology. The violations were removed last week following a second HPD inspection. The owners removed the cap from the lobby lock, but still did not issue mechanical keys to those tenants who asked for them, Pfahl told The Post.

 

The owners — a limited liability company controlled by Offir Naim and Shai Bernstein — said they installed Latch to provide tenants greater security following a burglary in August 2018, according to court papers. And the GPS function is optional, they said.

 

“Tenants have the option to disable that function at any time,” Naim said in court filings.

 

The Latch system also allows tenants to buzz someone, such as a courier, into the building without having to be at home, court papers say.

 

But Ron Sharpe, who has lived on the first floor of the building since 2003 and runs an antiques business with his partner, is not impressed.

 

“We just want a key,” he said. “It’s just easier to handle.”

 

 

 

 

[+ sync]

McKenzie and some of the other rent-regulated tenants who are suing for the return of their keys say Latch also includes a GPS function that allows the building’s owners to monitor their movements and even their social media.

 

The app, which is currently in use in more than 1,000 residential buildings in the city, also comes with an 84-page contract which states that any information collected through the Latch system goes to the building owner, the tenants say.

 

“Once I come into the building using Latch, the landlord is immediately notified,” said Charlotte Pfahl, who lives on the fifth floor and is one of five plaintiffs in the lawsuit in Manhattan civil court.

 

On the face of it, I don't understand how this level of invasion of privacy can be legal without consent. I hope the judgement is in the tenants' favor.

[thickornotatall]

My thought is that is an illegal eviction...NYC law requires keys that work to be given to tenants..A smart phone is not a key in the original sense of the meaning. I hope the courts will make sense of the problem.

[thickornotatall]

Tenants in NYC almost always win in Landlord Tenant Court. I've had 2 occasions to sue my landlord before buying my apartment..

It seems to me that not every tenant has a "smart key" or smart phone and that should be provided at no extra cost. I'll pay close attention to that ruling...Personally we never use a standard metal key or almost never enter through a front door. Our garage is a main place to enter. Not everyone can successfully use a smart phone or can afford one. The landlord needs to make entrance to everyone no matter what.

 

https://cozy.co/blog/what-landlords-and-renters-need-to-know-about-changing-the-locks/

[rvwnsd]

I don’t have a key for my house. All the locks are either blue tooth enabled or on combination locks....

A combination lock or a fob doesn't require a smartphone and could be considered a type of key.

 

I can see why a landlord would want to install a system like Latch to manage building access, but refusing to issue physical keys (or a code or some such) to longtime tenants sounds like an effort to force out rent-controlled tenants.

 

Tenants in NYC almost always win in Landlord Tenant Court....

Can't speak for NYC, but when I lived in Evanston, IL, the first city north of Chicago (we don't call it a suburb) which makes San Francisco look conservative, tenants ALWAYS won. When I asked my landlord why the hot water came out the tap close to boiling and why the heat was always cranked in winter he said it was less costly than dealing with the city's landlord/tenant commission.