10 Carmakers Sued Over Keyless Ignitions

A group of car owners has filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles demanding that Toyota and nine other large carmakers be ordered to revise their keyless ignition systems to avoid possible carbon monoxide fatalities.

Defendants in the complaint are BMW/Mini, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford, General Motors, Honda/Acura, Hyundai/Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan/Infiniti, Toyota/Lexus and Volkswagen Group.

The complaint is about widely available systems that enable a driver to start the vehicle's engine by pressing a "start-stop" button without inserting a physical key into an ignition switch. Engine startup is enabled by the presence of a coded fob that acts as a wireless key.

The lawsuit says some owners mistakenly believe the system will shut off the engine automatically if they simply walk away with the fob. In fact, the operator must push the start-stop button again to turn off the engine. Owners who don't do so for a vehicle parked in a closed garage risk a buildup of dangerous carbon monoxide exhaust.

The complaint blames 13 deaths on such errors. It wants the court to order carmakers to equip their keyless ignition systems with automatic shut-offs. The lawsuit claims carmakers have been negligent in ignoring the issue, and it requests unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Ironically, carmakers have embraced stop-start ignition buttons because they are more reliable, durable and tamper-resistant than mechanically keyed ignition switches.