We can honestly say that there are plenty of surprises in store for Prius drivers. Not only do the cars take a bit longer to get used to, they have some pretty weird features that can catch you off guard. Even after owning two new Gen 3's and a Gen 4, key fobs are still at the top of the list for weird happenings. We tend to lose our key fobs inside the cars, and it creates all kinds of unseen problems. Fortunately the general public does not know how to operate a Prius, so our cars have been there when we returned. But we cannot recommend leaving the fob in the car unless you are bleeding heavily and parked in the ER entrance at a hospital. Our weird key fob stories began with our 2012 Three but took on a new life during our first trip out of town with my 2013 V Three. We were driving slowly, more like crawling speed, through the Biltmore Forest around the mansion in Asheville, NC. It was spring and the drive was lined with spectacular foliage. I pulled over to get out and take photos, and somehow placed my key fob on the roof above the driver's seat. Then I got back in the car and proceeded to drive a bit more on their narrow, hilly road. A couple of times I heard a noise I could not identify. And then I noticed that my keys were not in their usual place, next to the door handle. So I stopped the car, and started looking for them, knowing that they had to be somewhere in the car. Negatory. They were not. So I got out and started looking for them on the road in the short distance we had driven...less than a half a mile. Negatory again. I happened to look on the roof, and miracle of miracles, my key fob was lying there. Would the car have stopped when they fell off the roof, and how far would we have been from the keys when the car would have quit moving? As we were about to enter the high speed Interstate, all sorts of disasters floated through my mind. The good news was that it happened in the middle of a sunny day, without rain or snow, which would have made it impossible to find the key fob. And in a city with cell phone service. Who has lost their keys after leaving them on the roof and driving off?
Someone posted - not sure whether Gen 3 or 4 - that they drove to work, spouse swapped to driver's seat and drove home. Only to realise that their spouse still had the keys in his pocket. It continued to work without them. Can't remember the end of the story.
The car won't stop when it loses the signal from the fob. it will carry on until you shutdown. However you won't be able to start the car again, or maybe get in the car. It has to work like this because the battery in the fob could run down while you're driving the car and it would be unsafe for the car to just stop. My wife did this on her Miata and she didn't notice until she came back to her car and found she couldn't start it. Then she had to call me to rescue her with the spare key - we never found the key so it cost $400 to get a new one :-( kevin
Well, I would say I never had an odd story with my 4th Gen but my brother used to have an 08 Camry hybrid with the key fob and several times, we would go river tubing and have to leave the Key FOB with the car and take the dumb key with us and the car used to beep and sqawk at us and if someone knew how to open the trunk, they could have grabbed his key and gone. Since I keep by FOB in my pocket, it would be hard for me to leave it on top of the car. I can confirm, as long as the car is started (ready) and not shut off, you could drive the car till it runs out of gas without the FOB being in the car. I included how to disable the FOB in case one needs to leave the FOB in the car or the trunk.
not with a fob but with a full brita water pitcher on a road trip one time. we were getting weird looks pulling out of the motel car park and people were madly gesticulating to us but were we're waving them off saying "yeah yeah we know we know. there's a huge sideswipe on our passenger side" (cos we were in a wreck the night before. ) we got a few blocks down the road trying to figure out the sound before it suddenly hit me "s--t! slow down gently and pull to the side" i couldn't reveal all to the driver for fear that it would shock him into jamming brakes and watching our pitcher take off right in front of us ...good times Turn off signatures in Tapatalk Tapatal
I worry about losing the $$ fob every work day. I have three jobs plus outdoor activities and change clothes numerous times. Always juggling the key, wallet, work stuff etc from pocket to jacket to . . . . One day I lost the key fob at one of my jobs. freak out! I contacted HR and put the APB. After hours of posting notices, searches, et al my key was found in the woman's restroom. I am a male school teacher. Very odd. Got my fob back, but never figured what happened. I wish the need for a fob/key could be eliminated altogether. Why not use a fingerprint sensor, or retinal scan, or something so we wouldn't have to carry a key?
It's coming. Most likely next I sort-of think is something like a FOB APP on your smart phone, one less thing to worry about - except your phone battery. In a TV episode talking about connected houses, it envisioned you just walk from the house to your car, and depending on how you've programmed it, it can lock your house as your car unlocks. Your car recognizes your SmartPhone like it does a FOB. As you drive out, the roller-door closes automatically, the gate locks. Reverse it all for coming home - you don't touch a key ever more. And your A/C, lights and other functions tie into the programming.
One approach would be to make multiple mechanical key copies that you carry with you. Take the battery out of a fob, and leave it inside the car. Use a mechanical key to lock/unlock the door, and hold the batteryless fob next to the POWER button to start the car. Not as convenient a just keeping a fob in your pocket, but safer if you keep losing the fob...
I do this with my second fob - it's in a plastic bag in the rear boot with the battery removed. The mechanical key is taped to the body somewhere, I won't tell you where. If the main fob were ever lost I'm not stranded.
I checked out that capability for my home - but it hasn't really reached "affordable" here - I've deferred it for a year or 2. Who knows - smartphones may be extinct by then - a chip in your wedding ring, an implanted chip - or in false teeth!!!
It does seem that the new trend is for smart wearables, either in the fabric of clothes or heel of the shoes. I'm sure I read something about shoes that generate small voltages whenever impacting the floor so as to produce a charge for miniature devices being developed. Me, I still prefer steam!
I read somewhere on here that there's a way to disable the fob without removing the battery and re-enable it just by pushing a button. It's on page 178 of the 2016 owner's manual. This would be easier and have the same effect as removing the battery.
The advantage of removing the battery is that it can't go dead and corrode everything around it. Hopefully a batteryless emergency fob is something you'll never have to use. It will just stay hidden and ignored. But that also means that you wont even know when the battery goes bad and needs to be replaced. Ignore a battery for too long and it spills its guts all over the expensive electronics...
