To all the luddites, I’m sure your ancestors felt the same way about horseless carriages.
This.
I came to post that I had heard such a story, and very likely GuanoLad had posted this some years back and I remembered it.
Seriously. You don’t need the key to lock the door, so there is no instinctive “do I have the keys” moment.
In the cars I have driven (I drive rentals frequently) you can touch a particular part of the door handle to lock or unlock and the car beeps reassuringly, so there is no problem with the “can’t check the door is locked” concern.
As for the concern raised by Chronos regarding batteries, there is almost always a secret key stashed in the fob somewhere, with a special piece of trim on the car that pops off to reveal an old-school keyhole. Has to be. Otherwise, how would you handle a dead car battery?
I love mine. Between this and our Kevo door locks my keys happily sit at the very bottom of my purse and it’s only very rarely I need to dig for them.
I have a teeny tiny ring that’s clipped to the zipper of my purse with the key for my mailbox and everything else just works when I touch it.
Considering the number of times in my life I’ve dropped things while fumbling for keys I’m extremely happy with the change. I have an uncontrollable need to take one trip anytime two makes more sense and frequently end up carrying more than I should, so these little advances make life much easier.
As for the issues in the OP, my car beeps at me when it is still running and the key exits the car.
We were also a little paranoid about proximity of the key as in the old house my key shelf was next to the front door and it was right next to the driveway so we ran tests.
It is less than 3 feet from any of the entry points to unlock and open, and the key actually needs to be in the car before it will start. If I’m standing at the back corner of the car and not directly in front of the handle to open the back it will not open. This has created some minor issues when loading groceries if my purse is sitting in the cart and not on my arm but I’ve adjusted 
It’s a small price to pay for the confidence that my car is secure.
Reading these responses, I wonder how much of this is gender based. Several women refer to leaving their keys in their purse. Not a concern for me and most guys.
I hate carrying a big ley ring, and am down to 3. Not a big deal whether they remain in my pocket or in the ignition while driving.
I remember the first time I was in a car with interior fuel door release. I had borrowed a car and stopped to fill it up before returning it, and was extremely frustrated trying to figure out how I could.
I guess I don’t really care that much one way or the other. Should I decide upon a car that has it, I assume I’ll quickly get used to it.
Re: keyless allowing starting a car other than yours, that was always a possibility with manual keys. I’m not sure about the past couple of decades, but before that, I believe GM made something like 6 different keys for each model year. At least that is what a locksmith told me when he was making me new keys for my 62 Corvair. Yeah - once I upgraded the radio, that car had abut the right amount of tech for this caveman! 
I vote “Meh”. It’s nice sometimes, but I can get my metal key replaced at any hardware store for $2, as opposed to going to the dealer and paying $100+. Keys are made to be lost, it will happen. Also, in addition to my wife and I having a set of keys it’s nice to give a set to each of my adult children and have an extra in the house. That way when one of them calls and asks if they can use one of my vehicles for whatever reason I can just say “You have a key, come get it”. I don’t even have to be home. With the keyless start fobs that many sets would cost $400-500 easy.
I drive a 31 year old Nissan that won’t let me lock the keys in the car. The driver door must be locked from the outside. If I open the door and lock it from the inside, either manually or electronically, it automatically unlocks when the door is closed. That technology is both ancient and foolproof!
My car has a proximity key (grab the handle to unlock, locking is done with a button on the handle that beeps in reassurance when it locks). As someone with young kids, I didn’t know how valuable the feature was to me until I’ve had to go back to a car without it. Trying to fish a key out of my pocket to lock the car(while carrying a child), and then cramming it back in my pocket (while still carrying said child) is a lot more annoying now that I know there are much easier ways to do it. However, for someone with free hands getting into/out of the car, i’m sure its not really that much more convenient than a regular key
My wife’s car is this way as well. I love the system, so much so that I regret not ticking that option box when I bought my car.
Interesting or not, the motorcycle I’m teeing up to buy has a similar keyless ignition set. Of course minus the door locks, but the steering lock is automatic in the same way.
Parking my newer car on the beach, I had to come up with a solution. Old style keys, I just tied my keys into my swimsuit. With my current remote/key, I found a small waterproof pouch that I could secure to myself.
I don’t like to leave my car unlocked or “hide” a key somewhere. Ymmv
At some point in the future, you will be able to program your car seat with your ass. Everyone has a unique posterior, which could be identified, even with stuff in your pockets, by some sort of sensor (IR, perhaps), which would be present in both front seats. This would be perfect for me, as I do not loan my car out, though I might trade off driving duties. And why even bother with a start button? My car will not allow me to shift out of park without having the brake down, so the brake pedal offers an ideal alternate for a start/activate button.
I keep my keys in my purse and it’s not a problem except that I quickly became so spoiled by not having to get my keys out to lock my car that I started to resent having to do so to unlock my house! 
Ugh, soooo inconvenient!
My car has the touch-the-handle-unlock capability but not remote start.
A friend and I once rented a Suburban (I think) to drive to an event where we were going to socialize and sell things. We needed a big vehicle to fit me, her, our luggage, the stuff we were going to sell and her three dogs. The 'burban had remote start and she wanted to try it on our way home. So after packing the dogs into the truck along with all of our belongings, she pressed lock on the keyfob twice and then an oddly-marked button as directed by the owner’s manual. Sure enough, the truck started. So she turned on the AC for the dogs, tossed the keys onto the driver’s seat and decided to go hug our friends goodbye so she shut the door. Turns out pressing the lock button twice also … get this… locked the doors. :eek: So we had a running truck with dogs locked inside. At least the AC was on!
Actually since 1995 replacing keys on a car has been an expensive proposition. Almost every car sold, even with buttonless keys, has a transponder on the key that disables the car’s immobilizer.
The Luddites are strong in this thread. Our SUV opens when I touch the handle, locks when I get out and touch it again, has an emergency key in the fob and does everything but give me a back rub when I start it. I’d never go back to 20th Century (early 2oth Century at that!) technology. As others have stated, my back-up is my phone. I am much more likely to forget where I parked the car than I am to forget both my keys and my phone. Quit making up excuses for your aberrant technophobia.
Probably. Records show it happened in 2011.
Hey, I’m still wrapping my mind around the “wheel”.
(And that’s Luddites with a Capital L, if you please.)
The keyless system on my 2010 Nissan is quite convenient for 95% of the use cases (i.e., just driving). But the highlighted bit in muldoonthief’s statement is the source of one problem I ran into.
I took the car to a local mechanic. I prepaid for service. (This is a good mechanic. He doesn’t spring any surprise “extra things that need fixing”, so you can prepay at drop-off.)
Since the service was pre-paid, the key you leave with them is just locked into the car in the lot after the work is done, and you can unlock the car with your other key to pick up your car. (You have a second key, right? All sensible people have a second key.) That way you can pick the car up after hours, rather than having to go into the place to get your key. Since you pre-paid.
But with the keyless fob, you can’t lock it into the car. So you DO have to get the fob from the service desk during business hours. So that’s one use case where it’s a little less convenient.
Luckily, my phone also has a “find my car” feature. Only needed that one once.
I used to have a 2003 Crown Victoria with a passive anti-theft system which was really the worst of both worlds. I had both a physical key (with a separate 4-button remote), and this separate fob that needed to be inside the car for it to start. Which meant if the fob battery died, I was shit outta luck. Fob got wet? Shit outta luck. Fob fell out of my pocket somewhere? Shit. Outta. Luck.
Seriously, whoever designed this system didn’t seem to really put a whole lot of thought into it.
My wife has a 2008 Prius with a keyless system. I’ve never had any issues with it. I find it quite convenient. My main problem with that car is forgetting to turn it off; I don’t know how many times I’ve driven to wherever, threw the thing in park, then just got out and walked away. Only upon returning do I then realize I left the damn thing on!
Recently rented a car with the “keep it in your pocket, press a button to start” fob. It was stupid. You still had to remove the fob from your pocket to unlock the car, so you weren’t saving very much by making the car keyless. It was actually more inconvenient to have to put it back in the pocket. And I assume that the fob is both difficult and expensive to duplicate
That is stupid for a newish car - just bad design. Remote entry/start should be remote in all respects assuming functioning batteries. What make of car was it?
Stop pressing the park button and just press On/Off. You remind me of my husband who has endless troubles turning his Prius off. For whatever OCD reasons when he parks he feels the need to turn off every individual item in the car before pressing Off. Occasionally he forgets to count the buttons or something, I don’t know, but he presses a bunch of buttons and gets out and tries to lock the door whereupon the car screeches at him because he failed to turn it off.
Edited to add: hmm, wait, are you my husband!?