Runaway Cars in Shopping Centres - and how you can prevent this from happening

​In light of recent events regarding cars on display in shopping centres, I have been contacted by a number of concerned leasing agents worried that cars in general or EVs specifically may be about to start driving themselves through centres on mass, or worse yet that someone with bad intentions can simply drive off with a display car. 

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 ​Do not worry, this cannot happen. Cars have keys. If the keys are not inside the car, the car can not be turned on. It's that simple. What happened recently in Sydney was due to a specific function on the model on display that for whatever reason had been incorrectly implemented.

​In a nutshell, BYD has a special function called “Display mode’ which can be switched on through a set of deliberate and difficult steps by the person who holds the key. Once the car has been put into display mode, all the cars functions are available for the public to see, with the exceptions being the car cannot be put into gear, and the horn does not work. 

​The Milkshake team have worked with almost every car brand on sale in Australia at present and this particular Display mode is a BYD specific function. It is deliberately difficult to put the car into this mode, so people do not accidentally put their own car into it. But unfortunately, it is the same process to turn the mode on as it is to turn it off, and it can be hard to quickly identify which mode the car is in. This is where we believe the confusion has happened, and the car had been left operational. If this mode is not used, then this car would simply be stationary like any other car on display, and without the key in the car it cannot be started. 

​This is not the first time that a BYD car has been incorrectly set up with the BYD staff member believing they had implemented display mode, but accidentally leaving the car operational.
Since this recent incident in Sydney however, many people have been sharing on social media the specific steps someone would undertake to put a BYD car in and out of display mode. For this reason we believe the only safe course is to ban the use of the BYD’s “Display mode” in shopping centres.  If the car is stationary and not in Display mode, and the keys are stored outside of the car, then this car absolutely cannot be turned on and there is no likelihood of confusion between modes.

​Milkshake Promotions has been specializing in automotive displays for the last 7 years. We have a team of highly trained staff that specialize in our automotive displays, and due to the nature of our work with 2.5 tonne machines with a lot of power, we take the training of our staff very seriously and no one is put on a display without full training of the functions of specific vehicles. Furthermore we have recently implemented the use of Faraday bags to hold the keys during the day as an added layer of security between the cars and the keys. We are also speaking with some centres regarding EVs having the charging cable connected into the car charge port, which will mean the vehicles drive mode will be disengaged, even if the other end is not connected to a powerpoint.

There are a number of ways to help prevent this issue happening again in the future - let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater and cancel cars in shopping centres. ​We have a massive knowledge base of all car brands and we welcome the opportunity to talk with anyone at any shopping centre - if you have further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. ​

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