Strange malfunction

[Bruce M.]

A few days ago, while on a short trip, I came out of my hotel room one morning to see that the lights were on in my car. Given that they automatically shut off a bit after you shut the car off, that seemed very odd. I tried clicking the remote to see if that had any effect, and when that did nothing I went downstairs and got in the car -- and it was on!

Now as we all know, the Kona makes a very insistent noise when you take the key out of the car without turning it off, and I did indeed take the key out the night before -- I had to go back in my room to get it once I looked down from the top of the stairs and saw the lights on. Since I presume the car cannot spontaneously turn itself on without the key present, I can only assume the "Hey, schmuck, you forgot to turn me off" alarm simply failed this one time when I left the car the night before. Or is there some other explanation? Something I might have done that confused it?

 

[Wildeyed]

The simplest explanation is brain fart+being distracted=walking away leaving the car on. Those chimes and beeps and so forth only work when we pay attention and, man, they really can become background noise fast. Have you tried replicating it?

 

[ehatch]

A few days ago, while on a short trip, I came out of my hotel room one morning to see that the lights were on in my car. Given that they automatically shut off a bit after you shut the car off, that seemed very odd. I tried clicking the remote to see if that had any effect, and when that did nothing I went downstairs and got in the car -- and it was on!

Now as we all know, the Kona makes a very insistent noise when you take the key out of the car without turning it off, and I did indeed take the key out the night before -- I had to go back in my room to get it once I looked down from the top of the stairs and saw the lights on. Since I presume the car cannot spontaneously turn itself on without the key present, I can only assume the "Hey, schmuck, you forgot to turn me off" alarm simply failed this one time when I left the car the night before. Or is there some other explanation? Something I might have done that confused it?

Was your Kona locked? There's no way you could have accidentally used your Bluelink app to turn it on?

I'd like to know what you did to make it stay "awake" all night so I can keep the hvac on when I want to precondition for as long as I want

 

[Bruce M.]

I don't believe the alarm went off and I didn't hear it. I find that noise particularly grating and it always pisses me off, rather irrationally since the car is stopping me from doing something dumb.

Alas, I don't know if I left the car locked or unlocked, since my first instinct was to try to lock it with the key fob -- so I don't know if it was locked or not before I tried that.

 

[hieronymous]

The notion that the car can turn itself on is not realistic, if it happened to you, it would already have happened to others and been complained about...
It is easy to neglect to check that the car is off before getting out, I’ve done it a few times. I use the door button lock through force of habit, and remote scanning. Right by the door, the warnings are obvious. The Kona immediately displays a visual dash warning for “key not in vehicle”, gives a long, fairly loud beep (but only ONCE for about 5 sec), and will NOT lock by fob or button. If you are in the habit of using the fob, and already walking away not looking, you could miss all that. Ditto missing that the lights stayed on, if they are on delay. The dash display is easy to miss with bright ambient lighting...
If a spare key is accidentally left in the car, the Kona CAN be exited and locked when off. There is an alert beep, but it it is very quiet and unlikely to ever be heard.
Hotel car parks can typically well lit, and not particularly quiet. I’m picking you were distracted, and I recommend the use of the door button lock as the best safeguard..