Audi officials are investigating the locking mechanisms of an Audi Q3 after an Australian woman became trapped inside the vehicle, which is equipped with keyless-entry, last weekend.
“I got in, shut the door, went to press the start button and a message came up saying ‘key not identified’,” Amanda Stevens, from Noosa, Queensland, told The Sidney Morning Herald. “All the doors locked themselves. I thought, ‘That’s not good’ … I tried to wind the windows down and open the doors. When that didn’t work I started to panic. I was trapped.”
“Within a couple of minutes I was struggling to breathe inside the car, because it was parked in the sun.”
Stevens was eventually able to escape after drawing the attention of a passerby, who managed to open the car door from the outside.
Audi towed the car for further investigation following the incident. Company spokeswoman Anna Burgdorf said there are no known problems with the Q3’s locking mechanism at this time.
Incidents such as this one are not unique, says motoring and services operations manager Tim Moggridge of roadside assistance provider NRMA, adding that almost 2,300 people in North South Wales contacted them after they or their children were trapped inside cars during the last fiscal year.
Sydney Morning Herald Drive editor Toby Hagon became trapped inside a Porsche Panamera with his child in a similar incident in 2010. Technicians determined that electronic interference, presumably from nearly TV and radio towers in the area, had blocked signals from the vehicle’s wireless smart key, causing the doors and windows to lock. Porsche installed radio suppressor units in all Panameras following the incident.
Others have suggested the problem could be the result of of a deadlock malfunction in the vehicle security system, which is designed to prevent thieves from gaining access to the car. Motorists are reportedly asking car manufacturers to redesign security systems to include an emergency unlock feature.
