Smart Key, Ignition, Engine Immobilizer (Security)

Think of the button as the key and the remote as the immobilizer.
The remote will only effect the starting sequence, cause imagine otherwise if the battery runs low in the remote or something like that. Would be kind of bad on the highway

If a thief steals the car, first of all the remote will have to be inside the car to start it. Its not enough to stand outside it (you cant even start the car if the key is laying on the ground right outside the door).

But if you start your car and then jumps out with the car on, a person without the key will be able to jump in and drive away... exactly like if you leave your key in the car. There will be warnings in the display and such, but no real actions taken.

So leaving the start button on is like leaving your keys in the car but with the advantage that you have the immobilizer left in your pocket so a thief can´t start it up again that easily when he shuts it of.

/Max

Hmm...weird. The Nissan guy deleted all his responses. Makes it look like I was talking to myself. But one interesting feature he did mention about the Nissan is that once you put the car in gear without the smart key nearby, it shuts off the engine. And in the event the remote battery runs out, insert the mech key into a 'slot' (compared to Lexus where we hold the mech key to the Start/Stop button), which keeps the engine on even when shifting gears.

So, according to Maxa's reply, I was right.
It's always those meaningless conversations at the work place... start talking about luxury cars...the Smart Key feature, and someone asks "What if a thief hops in and drives away?" That Lexus owner I mentioned earlier said they won't get far because the engine would shut down as it gets away from the key (the "Immobilizer" feature). Of course, everyone was like "Wooooow" ...and I said "Umm...no it won't". Anyway, he owes me lunch now.

Yepp you are right, and to clarify; I did test the following things earlier today (before posting my last post) since I got curious.

Test 1
Place remote on ground just outside the drivers door
Result: The start button went green, the dash started up but the car didn't. Warned that the remote wasn't inside the car

Test 2
Started the car with the remote in the car, then I placed the remote in my house and drove away. I was out driving for about 10mins
Result: The car warned that the remote wasn't in the car, but the car didn't shut down

Test 3
While out driving without the remote, I did put the car in Park-mode.
Result: Nothing happened, was just to shift back to drive again and drive away

Test 4
Still out without the remote, I reversed.
Result: The display now told me to shift to Park mode when I had parked, I thought that would mean that if I shifted to Park I wouldn't be able to drive again, but there was no problem. Still just to switch back to drive and drive away

Test 5
When car is on but remote outside, I stood 10meter away and pushed the lock-button on the remote.
Result: Nothing happened. (hoped I would be able to shut the car off and lock it with the remote, but nope nothing happened)


Im surprised that there isn't a lock that disable the possibility to shift gear when the car is in Park mode and the remote is outside the car. This seams like it should be there and I hope some smart guy at lexus add this feature by next software update. And a feature that locks the car when the key is more than 10meter away.
My guess is that the sensors only can sense if the remote is about 20cm away and it would be very irritating if the car locked down every time you got 20cm away from the car so that request is probably a bit harder hehe

I hope this clarify what is happening