The first time I started a car at the push of a button, it seemed too easy and comfortable, as if I had somehow run into a tax bracket to which I did not belong. “You’re telling me,” I thought, “that I can just leave my keys in my pocket and the car will let me in and drive?
The power button is one of those buttons that doesn’t really add any new functionality to the thing you’re replacing (in this case, the power system that allows you to insert and rotate a key). It only exists for convenience, a job in which it excels. Get in the car, press the brake pedal and a button, and you’re ready to drive. It’s hardly harder than unlocking your phone.
It is also, for most of us, anyway, the dirtiest power we can generate with just our fingertips. Turning on a switch from a surge protector could give you access to almost 2,000 watts. It’s not a small sum, but pressing a button to start a car gives you the power to move yourself, your family, your luggage, and, yes, a machine that weighs thousands of pounds at road speed.
Close to instant access to over 100 horsepower. Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Real buttons are relatively standard in the automotive industry, which is surprising considering how different old antique keys can be. All I’ve seen have been circular, located somewhere to the right of the steering wheel, and have lights to indicate that your car is on. There are some safety precautions: Many cars are protected from accidental starts by requiring simultaneous pressure of the brake pedal. Personally, it seems like the right combination of comfort and manual process: foot / hand coordination makes you feel like you’re doing something, but you don’t have to bother playing with a key.
Click to start has been around the blog
When I started writing this, I had the impression that the push-button start was a relatively modern feature, but its origins go back more than a century. One of the first cars with a button-based ignition was the 1912 Cadillac Model 30, which pressed a button to activate the electric start that replaced the engine crank. Of course, it was still a pretty early day for the “motor cars”, so the comfort factor was reduced a bit by the other steps (like setting the engine’s fuel / air ratio and spark time). that you had to do. Still, it seems fair to describe the Model 30 as a push-button start. It was also keyless, not because it communicated wirelessly with a fob like modern cars do (obviously), but just because … there was no keychain.
At some point, however, people realized that there should probably be a way to prevent anyone from starting your car. There was a time when cars had keys to unlock the ignition switch, but you didn’t actually turn on the car with the key. In the 1950’s, however, many cars came equipped with the turnkey ignition system that most of us know today, replacing the button and lever system. And that’s how it held up for a good while until someone decided it was time to turn the button back on and all the keyless comfort that came with it.
Mercedes-Benz usually has credit for popularizing the feature with the 1998 S-Class KeylessGo system (I asked the company if it was considered the inventor of the modern boot drive system, but got no response). Although this car came with a slightly standard key that you could turn to start the car, you can choose to include a keyless system that would not be out of place in a modern car. As long as you have a special plastic card, you can go to the car, get in it, and turn it on by pressing a button on the top of the shift lever.
For a while, pushing to get started was a luxury feature. This Class S started at $ 72,515, which is about $ 130,000 in current money. If you remember the many songs from the 2010s of 2 Chainz, Rae Sremmurd, Gucci Mane, Lil Baby and Wiz Khalifa that featured lyrics about cars that don’t have keys or that start with a button, that’s why. (Khalifa refers to his power button in two songs).
Car keychains do not usually include a metal blade, which makes them more comfortable in your pocket than traditional keys. Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
While the feature isn’t as exotic here in 2022, it’s still not exactly ubiquitous; Considering the 2022 models of the 10 best-selling cars in the United States, only half of them include the serial feature. If you buy the lower end model of the Toyota RAV4, Camry or Tacoma, a Honda CR-V or a Ford F-150, you will get a traditional swivel key to start it. (Excluding the F-150 base impulse to take off isn’t necessarily a surprise, as the truck doesn’t even come with cruise control, yes, I’m serious about that.) However, when you’ve already boarded. two or three finishes, all vehicles leave the ignition cylinder at the push of a button.
When I received my first car with a start button in 2020, I found it quite confusing for the first few months (probably because I had only been driving cars for decades at the time). Press the button for a split second before the brake, causing annoying beeps from my car and the message “To start press the brake”. However, I’ve been falling in love, and now it seems downright archaic to me to have to take the key out of my pocket and turn it on every time I drive another car. I admit, though, that for a month or two I tried to get out of the car for good (a 2016 Ford Fusion Energi) without turning it off completely, which made me scream again.
However, this poses a problem: as with many conveniences, button starts have come at a cost. Dozens of people have died from carbon monoxide poisoning or uncontrolled moving vehicles after leaving their cars running, assuming they would go off after leaving with the keychain towed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration even has a page that warns people to be more aware if their car has a keyless ignition system. These deaths show that when a machine becomes easy enough to use without thinking, people will not think about it, and vehicle manufacturers did not take into account the deadly repercussions of this. In 2021, several senators proposed laws that would require features to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning and rollaways, but so far, the laws have not been passed.
Many manufacturers have begun to create systems to prevent further deaths. But it is possible that the days of the start button are already numbered, thanks to companies that are pushing the envelope of comfort even further. Many luxury electric vehicles, especially Teslas, completely abandon a manual start-up process. Enter, select your driving mode and the car will be ready to take you.
Hilarious, the Volvo website shows a blank space where the XC40 Recharge start button would be, but no real button. Image: Volvo
While many electric vehicles from more traditional automakers such as Ford, Hyundai and Toyota have a push-button start, there are indications that button-free start could already be going down; The Volvo XC40 refill turns on and off automatically, and while the Volkswagen ID 4 has a start / stop button, its use is completely optional according to the car’s manual. It’s more or less the same technology; cars authenticate you with a fob, card, or even your smartphone, but only turn engines on or off when you use the gear selector, rather than a separate step.
Like I said before, I’m a little in love with the ceremony, so I think it will be a shame if the impulse to start is completely replaced. Fortunately, if this is the future, it may take a long time to arrive, given the slowness that the buttons have spread since its resurgence. Until then, the button will continue to act as a bit of a luxury, offering the lucky ones to have something less to look for while getting in the car for their morning commute.
Correction May 31, 19:02 ET: The original version of this article incorrectly referred to carbon monoxide as CO2. Its actual chemical formula is CO. Sorry for the mistake.