Cansv

I am wondering how far the Q5 will go without the key in the car? A couple times i have dropped my wife off at a store and went to park forgetting she had the key. The dash light turns on but i have always made it to my spot. Tonight, I dropped her off to drive my car home and I got more than a few blocks away and the car kept running. Will it ever shut off or will it keep running until it gets shut off?

rent

It'll keep running until engine is turned off. Then it won't start again without the key nearby of course.

stickman1970

Your Q5 must be a push button start. My Q5 requires the key to be inserted into a hole in the dash panel and you have to push the key in for the engine to start.

The only way I can run the engine without the key is by using the valet key in the glove compartment.

stickman1970

HotRodW

This has been one of the issues with smart keys. One of the more famous stories is that of a man who dropped his wife off at the airport. It wasn't until he got to work that he realized he didn't have the fob. Turns out his wife had it in her purse for the earlier journey, and now it was with her in another state.

More recently, an editor from one of the car magazines placed the smart key from one of their test vehicles on the roof while refueling. With the key still in range, the car started as it's designed to do and he drove off. Needless to say it didn't remain on the roof for long. Amazingly he was able to find the smart key somewhere on the side of the road after realizing what he had done. Pretty fortunate all things considered.

Reggie

Why are they called smart keys???? More like dumb keys

ELEVENS

I own a dumb key, the key has to be pushed into the slot. I'm not smart enuff for a smart key.

YSS

[QUOTE=HotRodW;24323592]This has been one of the issues with smart keys. One of the more famous stories is that of a man who dropped his wife off at the airport. It wasn't until he got to work that he realized he didn't have the fob. Turns out his wife had it in her purse for the earlier journey, and now it was with her in another state.

/QUOTE]

That's why you will see the yellow warning light. If you don't pay attention, I guess it won't matter what the car is trying to tell you.

dsackman

Smart keys, but dumb operators...

jdong

That doesn't sound as designed though. The car is supposed to be able to tell whether the key is inside or outside the car. In fact, I tried this on my A4 and it refuses to start with the key outside the car.

In fact, the A4 will not latch the trunk if it detects that the key is inside. This saved me once when I forgot my keys were in my backpack and I tossed my backpack in the trunk. Took a few attempts of closing the trunk before I realized what was going on.

Smart keys just seem to dumb down their operators

ppaluigi

Acronyms, or letters for words, are useful in many languages but can be redundant. ADS, ASR, EDL, ABS (for stabilization control), EV, ICE, AWD, etc. On nearly every page of the Q5 user manual acronyms are embedded in information and instructions about using the vehicle. Audi’s practice is to mention the whole concept as a starter and follows it continuously with the acronyms, presuming the reader will remember the cumulative arrays of acronyms of the recent past. And we thought the military was bad with its NCO’s, FIGMOs, FUBARs etc, etc. In the culture of Audi, the replacement cost of the computer that is integrated into my 2021 Q5 carries an intimidating value of $7000 according to my dealer. That is 10% of the car’s entire value! Nevertheless, in a world of AI (is that artificial intelligence or ignorance?), countless scenarios have been designed by Audi (according to my lackadaisical American approach to tech manuals) to “simplify” the driving experience. Yet, they didn't take into account this one...



This morning, I placed the key FOB in the garage on top of the workbench next to the Q5. It was near enough to allow ignition and, after a minute of warm-up, I drove away with the key FOB still on the workbench. At the destination, I shut down the car, locked it with the phone app and returned to the car a few minutes later (get where I’m going with this?) Naturally, the doors unlocked with the app but no ignition. I had to jog a mile back to the house to retrieve the FOB. OK, lesson learned. I would appreciate any thoughts on avoiding this in the future notwithstanding hiding the other key FOB on the car. As for AI, this time the car was intelligent and I was the ignorant one. Thank you for tolerating me.