When we bought our Prius 5 years ago it was the fanciest car we had ever owned. It has keys that you don’t even need to take out of your pocket to open, get into and drive the car. I have fully adopted this trait. But you don’t have to keep it in your pocket. You can put it anywhere in the front area of the car, and there is even a slot to put it in if you want to.
Because of the proximity feature, we wondered early on if it was possible to lock your keys in the car. But we never formulated an experiment to try and accomplish this goal.
This morning when I went to the car it was unlocked. That happens now and again, somebody forgets to lock the car. When I got to work I got ready to get out of the car, and after opening the door I hit the “lock” button inside the car. That way I don’t have to fish around in my pocket to find the key and hit the “lock” spot.
But when I closed the door there was a distinctive “unlock” two beeps. So I reached in and hit the lock spot on the key.
When I left work this evening the proximity function was not working. I could not just walk up and be greeted by an openning door. So I hit the unlock spot on the key and it opened up for me. After arriving home and once again locking the car from the inside button the car “unlocked” when I shut the door.
Carl left later that evening and could not find the 2nd key. So he took my keys and left. Much later he called to say he found the 2nd key in the lower cup holder. This solved our initial question. Can you lock the key in the car? Yes, but only if you have another key.
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