New cars come with exciting new features, like remote starters that allow you to turn on your car through your phone. However, in Peterborough, Mickey’s Repair Service staff got more excitement than they bargained for when a 2020 Subaru Ascent started up last Wednesday – while it was still on the lift in the garage.
“It’s definitely startling to have a car start on a lift and have no idea why,” owner Mickey Maguire said. The car idled in their lot until the owner arrived, at which point Maguire and his staff were able to figure out what had happened: from four miles away, the owner had used the remote start app on her phone to turn on the car so it would be warm when she picked it up – assuming it was sitting in the parking lot, and not still in the process of getting its snow tires on. “I don’t blame her for it,” Maguire said, since it had been cold outside, and it’s understandable to want to play with the new features of a car. This was Maguire’s first run-in with a remote starter at his business, although he knows another customer who can start their Tesla via their phone. “It’s good technology I guess, but scary at the same time,” Maguire said, wondering what would have happened if they had been working on the engine rather than tightening a wheel.
The answer, if you’re wondering, appears to be nothing: Subaru’s remote start safety features won’t start the door if the hood is up, if the brake pedal is depressed, or any of the doors or trunk are open, according to an online service manual for the 2020 Outback. A representative from Milford Subaru did not return a request for comment.
Remote start technology is now a common feature among every manufacturer’s more “loaded” models, Hillsboro Jeep’s general sales manager Ted Nichols said. Although there are some safety features built into the apps, there are still some precautions that both vehicle owners and mechanics should make for their own safety, he said.
Vehicle owners with remote starter apps should know where their car is, and whether it could be on a lift or indoors before starting it. “Don’t start it if it’s inside a building,” he said.
The cars at Nichols’ dealership use the Uconnect app, which mechanics can override while servicing the vehicle, he said, although there’s no guarantee that a mechanic will do so. Disconnecting the car battery would also prevent the remote starter from working, he said. That’s a common practice for any larger job, or anything involving electrical work – but not for smaller maintenance items like oil changes and tire work. “Maybe it’s a better idea to disconnect the battery for everything,” Nichols said, in the nascent era of remote starters. “We’ve never been in a world like this with technology. We don’t know the ramifications and negatives,” he said.
Disconnecting the car battery is usually a last-resort option since it resets so many settings in a modern car’s computer, Maguire said, but last week’s incident left him wondering what would happen if a kid opened the app while playing with their parent’s phone, potentially even while sitting in the waiting room next to the garage. “You would think there would be a safety feature built in,” he said, but acknowledged that public awareness might be the best first step to get mechanics and vehicle owners on the same page. “It’s only gonna be five years down the road,” before remote starters are widespread, he said.