Redd

No no.
This is not a First World problem, this is a Second World aka "New World" problem. (Except, it isn't "new" any more so we call it second.)

You see, if the first world we have people who scurry around open OPEN THE DOOR FOR US.
Or, at least we have proper chauffeurs who open the doors, start the engine, clean and drive the cars for us.

In the First World, there's a legacy of doing things properly. Even if that has been sliding a bit in recent years.

Of course, a more refined car, like a Nissan, would simply allow the operator to exit the car, touch the doorlatch, and lock it. Regardless of whether the engine was running. Apparently the Japanese have a higher expectation on the intelligence of vehicle operators. Or, Fritz is still just pissed about losing the last two wars.

choppstixxx

In all honesty I think that it is simply a safety feature to not lock your keys in the car, it makes you use the actual key to lock it while running. That way it assumes you have at least one way to get back into the car since you locked it via the key.

Redd

Well, turning on the daylight running lights, turning on the headlights early, many things that are under driver control could be called safety features. Audi is not my parents, and should not presume to compel arbitrary safety choices on me.

I have a friend who always carried a spare key in his wallet, because he would go to open the trunk, put his keys down, and of course close the trunk on them. I asked him, wouldn't it be easier to just...remember that the keys belong in your pocket, unless they're in the ignition? But some people never get it.

One reason that I got a keyless entry is because that way, the keys STAY on me, there's no way they can be locked in the car. The folks who seem to think they can drop the keys in the console, or the mechanics who toss them on the dash...Hey, locksmiths are entitled to make a living too.(G)

Audi seems to have a recurrent "We are Audi, we shall tell you the correct way to do this" attitude. Other car makers would call that wearing blinders, demeaning to the customer, and generally poor design. Why on earth should the security system on my 2014 give me FEWER options than my security system 30 years ago did?

choppstixxx

Then I’d suggest you buy any modern car that includes factory installed remote start, save yourself the hassle of these over complicated Audi’s!

morris39

If you suffer from senior moments now and then, you will understand that leaving your engine running/locked can be dangerous e.g. in a closed garage. Who among those over 50 has not experienced a senior moment? Who among us does not know of a serious result coming from a SM? A friend's wife blew an engine when she kept pressing the gas pedal instead of the brake, in an indoor u/g garage yet. Maybe not being able to run engine with locked door is a reasonable trade-off for safety? But we are OK so why worry?

Redd

choppstixx-
Great idea, but I see no reason to throw out four or five grand in sales tax and registration on a new vehicle, just because this one has some shortcomings. And that's before the devaluation and insurance hits.

Morris-
It sounds like you'd prefer a car that queried the driver "Are you sure?" "Do you really want to do that?" and perhaps administered random mental tests as well?
If the driver repeatedly can't figure out which pedal they are pressing, locking the car with the engine running is the least of their issues. That can always be fixed by stuffing a potato up the exhaust pipe (it swells. the exhaust is blocked, typically there's not enough compression to clear it and the engine stops) or breaking a window if you don't know the other ways to enter. And if the driver can't tell the pedals apart--breaking the window shouldn't be an issue, it is time to get rid of the car, and their license.

I never locked my key in a car until they started with ignition-key-chime reminders. Which I SO consciously tuned out, that I tended to start forgetting about keys as well. First mod that happened on my last car, was a buzzer-ectomy. There was a physical buzzer to remind you the keys were in and the door was open, and that came out within the first week. Never had a problem with keys on that car.

morris39

I am fortunate to have retained my short term memory sufficiently to not need the nanny alarms yet but am I (and you) the gauge for public safety? You may remember the Audi 5000 runaway cars. Drivers stepped mistakenly on the gas instead of the brake pedal. Many instances. No fault found with the Audi by government safety authorities in Canada or USA but Audi caved and settled. Audi sales collapsed in Canada (USt too?) for a decade. Another instance, a friend (with post grad degree) put glycol anti freeze in windshield washer bottle and vice versa, what a mess. Statistics may be useful. In the end these accidents are a cost on us all.

Redd

"but am I (and you) the gauge for public safety?"
Didn't you hear, Donald appointed me as head of the DOT this afternoon? So yes, I am in charge of that.
(WEG)

But you are confusing the issues. Whether or not I, as the owner/operator, can control a function of my car while it is on my property and under my immediate operation, is not a matter of public safety. It is a personal choice and personal safety.

If you want to run down the rabbit hole of "public safety" then the cars must all be pedestrian-safe, with cushiony noses (and there has been legislation and product changes to implement that to some extent) and also, they must be capped at a top speed of perhaps five miles an hour, so they can't do a lot of damage in a crash. That's logical public safety.

Or, wait, let's ban all recreational use of motor cars, and restrict them to professionally trained drivers. Let's require annual safey equipment checks, for the many folks who run bland tires and no brake lights. There are SO many things that we do not attend to, that giving the driver a choice in how their car operates is not the issue for THIS restricted operation.

As a matter of fact, 1:10 US drivers is uninsured/unlicensed. In Florida that's 1:4, and the state says there's nothing they can do about it. Uninsured? No license? Often because their license has been revoked for drunk driving and unsafe operation? Let's worry about them first, and stop hob-tying everyone in order to make sure no one can run faster than the pack.

DiggerHark

Hi fellas. So I’ve been catching up on this thread and I’ve owned my A6 for about 2 weeks now and ran into this problem for the third time last night. The first two times it happened the car completely turned off. (I’m lost on how). No car have I ever owned wont allow me to lock the doors while it’s running until now. Maybe pushing the lock button once you step out will lock it?

JBQ7-18

That works fro me, I have a 2014 Audi Q7, I start my vehicle with the Start Button, exit the vehicle and lock the door with the key blade, I tried using the remote lock function, that does not work, you have to use the physical key, and it works fine.