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GM Gradually Removing Vehicle Start Button In Its EVs: Video

GM is gradually removing the vehicle start button with the rollout of its new all-electric vehicles, including Ultium-based models like the Chevy Silverado EV, Chevy Blazer EV, and Chevy Equinox EV. Dubbed “Hands-Free Start,” the system allows owners to start their vehicle without physically pressing a “start” button on the dash. However, there are a few tricks required to keep the vehicle running after exiting.

GM Ultium-based EVs include a Hands-Free Start system.

Here’s how the Hands-Free Start system works. Owners simply need to enter the vehicle with the key fob on their person. Upon closing the driver door, the Driver Information Center display will prompt the user to press the brake pedal. Pressing the brake pedal then starts the vehicle.

One crucial feature of this system is the ability to keep the vehicle running after the driver exits, which can be particularly useful in scenarios such as running the defroster while scraping ice off the windshield in winter, or cooling down the cabin on a hot summer day. To extend the running time, the driver must press the appropriate button on the display before exiting, otherwise the vehicle will automatically shut off once the driver leaves.

Also notable is the emergency shut-off feature. To activate this feature, hold the brake using a firm and steady pressure, without repeatedly pumping the brake pedal. Shift the vehicle into Neutral (N), which can be done while the vehicle is moving. Steer the vehicle to a safe location, then come to a complete stop and shift to Park (P). The vehicle will then turn off. Finally, set the parking brake.

Check out the video below for a brief demonstration of how the Hands-Free Start system works, as demonstrated in the Chevy Silverado EV by GM Authority Executive Editor Alex Luft:

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. Why? That is what I’d love to ask GM and Volvo. Why. What is the purpose of doing this? Save money? Simplify things?

    Volvo did this on the XC40 and C40 EV’s and I don’t like it. I can’t say that I hate it either, but I just don’t understand how this makes anything better and it certainly complicates some things. For example: If there’s an issue and there’s a need to turn the vehicle off while driving (like they talk about in the article), the majority of drivers won’t have the ability to think through all those steps as they are panicking or under stress. In my case (and I did this just today), I had to run into the store and my 10 and 12 year olds didn’t want to come in with me and were doing homework on their laptops. So with my Bolt, I exited the car with it running with the A/c and radio on. I locked the doors and went inside. You can’t do that with the Volvo’s and assuming the same with these GM EV’s.

    I see absolutely zero benefit to this.

    Reply
    1. Same reason as the push button style shifter on the suburban. Progress for progresses sake. Ironically enough, GM’s new electronic shift is a column shifter again 🤣🤣🤣

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    2. They are trying to prevent the Kia Boys from stealing the EVs, lol

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      1. Total nonsense. Smart people don’t fix what isn’t broken.

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      2. Well if you have the experience I did with a Tesla (see my comment below) you could wait for an unsuspecting person not realizing the setting for it to shut off has to be ON and you can just swoop in after walking away and steal it.

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        1. If it doesn’t charge both ways, like Kia Hyundai, Ford Lightning, where you can use your car as a powerwall, why own it?

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    3. You could just autostart the car to keep it running after you get out.

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      1. theflew: True. And yet that’s “if” you have the app on your phone or want to take that extra step. In some cases, they are going away from key fobs and to a credit card like thing you just put in your wallet. Can’t start from that. Not saying Chevy is using that (yet), but I’m sure it’s coming.

        I 1000% agree with Spoof above. Smart people don’t fix what isn’t broken. Well said.

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    4. Pushing needless ideas. Sounds like Ford.

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    5. I didn’t even think about that. Having to recycle power (technical term for shutting the car off and back on) in case of a problem with the infotainment system especially now that every damn function is in it now. I had to do this a handful of times in both my Toyota and Cadillac because a call screen froze after hanging up or something stupid. I guess you’ll have to walk away from the car and walk back, sit inside it and press the brake pedal like an idiot. But then again, you’d also be the idiot having to call a tow truck because your screen froze and your car is rendered un-drivable.

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  2. Nobody reads their owners manuals and in a panic situation nobody is going to remember any of that. Nonsense like this is what killed Anton Yelchin and that guy and his dog in the Corvette. Controls need to be standardized and KEPT that way. How many old people is this new nonsense going to completely screw? In Mercedes the shifter is on the wiper stalk, BMW/Mini has that nightmare shifter nub, the Corvette has buttons and can’t even be put in neutral if there’s a problem, Jeep has a rotary wheel…and don’t get me started on the Volvo. This unnecessary complication for complication sake has got to stop.

    Shifters and brakes need physical cable control as do the doors – this fly-by-wire garbage is an unnecessary accident waiting to happen.

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    1. The guy in the vette was not the brightest. I’ve had several, and even though I already know where the emergency release is, every time I get a new one (even trading in an old one) they go painstakingly thru the pull release. You can also pop the top if you needed to get out. I saw the story and was just amazed. And its not like he was barreling down the freeway with a stuck WOT. He had time. I do agree for emergency stopping, I like the key even better than a pushbutton. I think in some brands you push the button 3 times in quick succession for a shutdown and some it is a long push. That is already too complicated. A simple kill switch is a good idea, and should probably be mandated like the emergency flasher one which seems to be. Those always seem to be a big real button.

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    2. You’re missing the point. This story is about an EV. EVs don’t need mechanical shifters because you’re not shifting anything. The motor is always engaged. The only option is the current direction or if the current flows to the motor. Even braking is blended with the motor so that a physical brake cable would be inefficient. It also wouldn’t work well with anti-lock brakes.

      Also, why would you ever have to remember the emergency shutoff procedure? I can’t imagine what it would be used for that particular one-off situation.

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      1. Tesla already had a recall on the truck for a stuck pedal. It happens. Ask Toyota. Emergency I want this thing off now is necessary. If it means an explosive device at the power cable to the motor, then that should be mandated(sarcasm). But a physical button is necessary.

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  3. This will save .14/per car and now the stock goes up .04%…WoooHoooo!!!!!

    Next they figure out a way to remove the headlights or windshield wipers, that could save several dollars per car and Mary can make another $29M…….

    Reply
    1. Don’t laugh. There are cars that removed the exterior mirrors in favor of screens. And a Polestar with no rear window (because why? You have a screen instead).

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    2. Kids coming out of college have to design something, so all of them are trying to reinvent the wheel.

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  4. One more step in disengaging the driver from the driving experience. This is heading towards a future of driverless “cars” where you just step in the vehicle, say where you want to go, sit down, and the vehicle shuttles you there. In the meantime the vehicle manufacturer will have a complete captive audience in a box filled with sensors to message/market passengers during the ride.

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  5. Consult the boys at Roadkill on ignition bypass strategy.

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  6. Perfect. Glad to hear this.
    BEV’s do not need a starter button.

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    1. Quite the reverse. EV’s and anything else without a motor running require a big indicator saying it is ON. One friend has a kia niro. He has issues with it being hard to tell if it is ON. If it is ON you can’t charge it. And then it locks out for 5 minutes or some such dumb thing if you try. I’ve also had friends with hybrids walk away with them ON. ON needs to be clearly indicated and easily turned OFF.

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      1. @mkAtx
        A Chime works perfectly well.
        Tesla has sold millions of vehicles around the World without a push button.
        BEV’s do not need a so called start button. The vehicle is kind of always on.

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  7. I miss ignition keys

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    1. I miss going out in front of the vehicle to use the hand-crank to start…Ha Ha

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  8. This is by FAR one of the most idiotic brain dead features I have ever seen in a car and a classic example of what NOT to copy from Tesla. I test drove a Model Y and when I brought it back to the dealership (Tesla store, whatever) I could not figure out for the life of me if the car was shut off. There is no confirmation or way to tell that I could have known about. So I called the sales rep out to see if the car was shut off and it turned out it wasn’t. The setting buried deep in the Teslas stupid @$$ screen had to be ON for it to be turned off automatically while walking away from the car. Luckily this was a car I was only test driving. Had this been a rental would I have landed up waking up the next day at the hotel to a dead car battery? I want FULL CONFIRMATION that the car is off and in a state where no power is being consumed except to maintain the clock in the computer system. I’m not asking for much here. At what point was pushing a button so excruciatingly hard that this needed to be a necessary feature? This is a sign that we have reached a plateau in innovation and have run out of useful ideas.

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    1. Hey, those buttons cost $1.35 each ya know

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  9. This feature makes perfect sense. I rented a Bolt, and you cannot necessarily tell that it is “off” if you aren’t paying attention, since it doesn’t make any noise when “running”, so it is pretty easy to get out and walk away with it still “running”. With this, it automatically shuts off when you get out and if you don’t want that, you simply push a button on the display to keep it “running”, but for that you have to make a conscious choice. In an emergency, in ANY car, the default panic move is to stand on the brake and if you are thinking, put it neutral and steer off the road and put it in park. This is exactly the procedure noted above, not really something you’d have to learn that is any different from any other traditional car, except that these EV will shut off when you put it in park (in the panic situation described), where a ICE would require the additional step of turning a key or pushing the start button. I suppose you might try to shut the engine off on an ICE, but then you loose steering and power brakes, so maybe not the best idea, depending on the situation.

    I don’t know, to me, this seems very logical and intuitive.

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  10. Old people stuck in the past. Get with the future or you’ll be left in the past.

    Reply
  11. With the case of VW ID4, it’s exactly like this. Even though it does have the button for it, but 90% of the time the seat is the start button once you sit on it.

    Reply

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