Suggestion : Start air conditioning or heat from key remote

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sirenbrian

Active member
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
Messages
38
Location
Jupiter, FL
I have a 2013 S model (no Carwings, no smartphone integration). I work in a 4 story office building and even from the fourth floor, my remote control reaches the car so I can lock/unlock etc. I'd like to be able to start the a/c from up here before heading down to the car to drive home.

Perhaps holding down the lock button for 3 seconds would start the air conditioning or heating on the same setting it was at when the car was switched off? Or it could do the default program that the SV and SL do; just try and reach 77 degrees F. If that's not possible (maybe the car's software can't "see" a long button push as different from a short one), maybe doing "Lock-Unlock-Lock" would be the signal to start the air/heat going? In both cases, it leaves the car locked, which is good.

In order to prevent accidental use of this feature running down the battery, the air/heat would shut itself off after 5 or 10 minutes, and the car return to being "off" again.

I don't have a smartphone and didn't want to spend the extra to buy the SV or SL, and since it seems like this is something that could be added in software, perhaps Nissan will consider it?

(Edit: I searched for this suggestion to see if it was already made, as it seems pretty obvious, but there were tons of posts about the smartphone/carwings remote climate control, so I thought I'd post anyway.)

Loving my S! I gave 12 people in my office test drives on my first day at work with it :)
 
It's not practical as an application because of range issues, that is why there is no discussion on the topic.
 
Actually this is a great idea. I often start remote heating/cooling when the car is in my garage - because I want to do that only when it is plugged in - and having to do that through the Keyfob is so much easier, highly reliable than using Carwings and hoping it will work. It is the Carwings inordinate delay and reliability the main issue here, that a Keyfob does not have.
 
mkjayakumar said:
Actually this is a great idea. I often start remote heating/cooling when the car is in my garage - because I want to do that only when it is plugged in - and having to do that through the Keyfob is so much easier, highly reliable than using Carwings and hoping it will work. It is the Carwings inordinate delay and reliability the main issue here, that a Keyfob does not have.

Agreed, most of my "car commands" happen at home -- climate control and charge starting. It would be nice to be able to do this without the delays and uncertainty of CarWings. On the downside, how would you implement feedback? Horn honks?

But aside from the engineering issues I suspect Nissan would like to keep the convenience factor as a discriminating feature between the package levels.
 
Agreed, most of my "car commands" happen at home -- climate control and charge starting. It would be nice to be able to do this without the delays and uncertainty of CarWings. On the downside, how would you implement feedback? Horn honks?

On the Prius, the car's lights blink. That would work here too - two quick flashes to acknowledge it received the command.

But aside from the engineering issues I suspect Nissan would like to keep the convenience factor as a discriminating feature between the package levels.

I agree that's the most likely outcome. I'm hoping they might want to be generous and add a new feature that could be done in software, which is a pretty cheap thing to roll out.
 
EVDRIVER said:
It's not practical as an application because of range issues, that is why there is no discussion on the topic.

If I run the a/c for 5 minutes before getting in the car, isn't that exactly the same power usage as running it 5 minutes AFTER I get in the car? Except if I run it before, I'll be more comfortable, and therefore a happier Leaf owner :)
 
sirenbrian said:
EVDRIVER said:
It's not practical as an application because of range issues, that is why there is no discussion on the topic.

If I run the a/c for 5 minutes before getting in the car, isn't that exactly the same power usage as running it 5 minutes AFTER I get in the car? Except if I run it before, I'll be more comfortable, and therefore a happier Leaf owner :)
I think EVDRIVER was talking about keyfob range issues. It only works from a few feet away. If you have to be that close to the car you might as well just program the Climate Control timer from inside the car (assuming that the S model has CC timers).
 
OT but I'd be happy with a simple way to make the AC keep running when I park without having to go through the phone, like when going into a store and you know you'll only be there a short time.
 
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