No, this isn’t a poor jape or a grand April fool’s setup. In a story that perfectly embodies the classic ‘first world problems’ meme, a class-action suit has been filed in the LA federal court against American carmakers Ford and General Motors, Japanese manufacturers Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Korean brands Kia and Hyundai, and the European contingent of BMW, Volkswagen, Bentley, and Mercedes-Benz. What do they all have in common? Keyless drive! And that’s what the whole case is all about.
That’s right, someone somewhere in California thinks that all these manufacturers should initiate a recall and make amends to their cars push-button start technology because an average American driver will forget that the car is on (since there are no traditional keys to be pulled out of the ignition), and will leave it running after coming to a standstill, thus polluting the surroundings with the car’s carbon monoxide emissions.
According to the lawsuit, the lack of warnings against the possibility of the car continuing to run since people will naturally forget to turn off their cars just because it uses a button instead of a key now means the companies can be held responsible for Carbon Monoxide related deaths. The suit also alleges that since these automakers don’t always include an auto-shutoff feature, they should be held accountable.
Now, there have supposedly been 13 Carbon Monoxide poisoning related deaths due to this very reason, a statistic that is disturbing on so many levels. Here’s another disturbing statistic – if this suit wins, a whopping 5 million vehicles will be affected by it along with the approach manufacturers take to this keyless entry system in the US at least and maybe all over the world.
In a country like India where safety is sacrificed in an effort to reduce costs, this whole circus might seem ludicrous beyond measure, but this is America we’re talking about, so don’t be too surprised if the individual filing the suit actually ends up winning the lawsuit. Stranger things have happened – remember that lawsuit against McDonalds and the hot coffee?
