Post

Aaron Rupar
@atrupar.com

Sean Duffy: "You know the stop/start button on your car? I hate that thing. Thank you Lee Zeldin! He's gotten rid of it and the first cars without the stop/start button are rolling off the line."

212 reposts1.3K likes

RckyMtnMn
@rckymtnmn.bsky.social

Ummm... I didn't know pushing a button was so hard to figure out. Thank God Lee Zeldin has saved us all from that. BTW, You don't actually HAVE to use the push button start. Remove the push button cover and low and behold there's actually a place to use a key! Just like in olden times!

Bark Marrington
@markbarrington.bsky.social

Depends on the car. My car has a rfid chip in the fob that you have to hold next to the button to start it if the fob battery dies. But I think he’s talking about cars that shut off the engine when you’re idling at a stoplight. That actually saves a lot of fuel and improves air quality.

RckyMtnMn
@rckymtnmn.bsky.social

Typically so. Key fobs often have an integrated hard copy key in the fob. Some may be a key that flips out or may be in the fob. It's in the event the fob proximity operation becomes deprogrammed.

Dizzygirl
@dizzygirl.myatproto.social

Yes, my fob has a key inside but that's for unlocking the door if the fob is dead. And if the fob is dead, you can still start the car by pushing the button *with* the fob. You said there was a key ignition under the start button?

Anymouse
@anymouse.bsky.social

I love the knobs and dials on my Smart cars. None of this "looking away from the road to squint at a touch screen the size of a billboard to find a menu to operate a control that if it dies the insurance company totals your car because it's too expensive to replace" nonsense.

Anymouse
@anymouse.bsky.social

Once you learn the positions of knobs and levers, you don't even have to look (you can keep your eyes on the road where they belong) to do things like adjust the radio or air conditioner.

Deb
@debinnj.bsky.social

Is this how they plan to distract their base from focusing on high fuel prices? 😜 The whole administration is useless and they exhaust me with their stupidity.

Moon Rabbit
@uzumedazai.bsky.social

This is what I’m thinking he meant. I think there was a Trump rant recently about him thinking every time you stop at the light your car just turns off. Could be misattributing this though.

SueBoks
@susieq324.bsky.social

I like the anti-idling feature. Hubs hates it. By the time my foot switches to the accellerator, I'm ready to go so I'll take better gas mileage thank you.

Stevie D
@stevieinselby.bsky.social

I drive a 2013 car with 160,000 miles on the clock. I let the engine go into standby mode all the time when stopped for more than a few seconds, and have never had any trouble with the battery or starter. (Might be different on automatics where you don't have as much control with the clutch tho)

Chris Bush
@cjbush88.bsky.social

Uhhh, does he mean start/stop systems where the engine turns off at red lights to save fuel? Because that’s completely different from start-stop buttons, which people actually like. I would think the Transportation Secretary would know the difference.

Andrew Carlson
@abkarlsson.bsky.social

Getting rid of the button wasn’t needed, just make the default OFF. That said, this thing has never done more than make me roll my eyes. Even then it is toward myself for forgetting for the ten millionth time to push it.

Crunk
@crunk1977.bsky.social

The first cars without a stop/start button? My car doesn't have one and it was made in 2015. Also, Zeldin got rid of regulatory credit for cars that have the auto start-stop feature. He didn't get rid of anything.

Dr Eric Farmer
@himself132.bsky.social

"And after you've pressed the start/stop button, you have to steer the damn thing. So I'm banning steering wheels in all American cars." Good for Sean "Free Holiday" Duffy. I'm taking my Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin to the crusher. Bloody start/stop buttons.

Auburn Blake
@blakeau19.bsky.social

If you were going to green light this line to include in your speech, wouldn't you first follow up with a 'ok, then how do you start the car' follow up investigation. Which would lead you to realize your point is false, along with you displaying a low comprehension level.

Harper’s Mom
@mdaly42.bsky.social

1st: Why the hell is the Secretary of Transportation at what looks like o political rally? 2nd: Is he absolutely brain dead? Is he the stupidest Cabinet member? Kind of think he might be.

Bam
@bamer1can.bsky.social

This is the true story of a reality show fuckwit chosen by a bigger fuckwit to pretend he’s qualified and competent to run any aspect of this country.

Rap Bastardz-o-ween®
@rapbastardz.bsky.social

What are the chances Duffy can bring this sort of innovation to the FCC and mandating we go back to the day of manual rotary dial knobs on our televisions and phones? "Oh! And about those phones! We're brining back the WIRES to those, because olden days or something!"

Ken
@kmyhz.bsky.social

Tackling problems the population desperately needs solved. Up next, dog poop bags that stick together when you try to open them.

kath-55-1.bsky.social
@kath-55-1.bsky.social

I love the start/stop button, I never have to dig my keys out of my purse. I do dislike the feature where my car turns itself when at a stop, mostly because I worry that it won’t turn back automatically. Is he confusing the two features?

emjayay.bsky.social
@emjayay.bsky.social

He probably thinks the big red stop/start button has something to do with the idling stop/start function (which you can turn off if your car has it). So he's conflating the two systems.

jeremy
@jeremymx.bsky.social

he is referring to the mandated electronic 'start/stop' where the car/ecu would cut the engine at any extended stop until you press the gas again to start moving where it would restart the gas engine. it was done to presumably cut emissions to prevent unneeded idling

Stevie D
@stevieinselby.bsky.social

It's just about appealing to people who wish the world was still like it was in the 1970s, primarily because they were young and didn't feel they had been left behind by incomprehensible technology like <checks notes> pressing a button to start your car, instead of using a key like god intended.

Aurelian
@dowels.bsky.social

I'm guessing he's referring to that feature where engine turns off when you're stopped at a red light and turns back on when you hit the gas

Mike Ross
@eruptionchaser.bsky.social

Why have a button? What's it for? My car, I get in with the key in my pocket, or I tap the card on the B-pillar, or I use my phone to unlock it. Then I hit drive and I go. He's actually right; why is a stop/start button necessary? What does it DO?

Ross Dothot
@newenglandrevs.bsky.social

No like the title says he's probably discussing the auto stop function, which does usually have a switch to turn it on and off but you have to do it every time you start your car or else it defaults to shutting off at stop lights. Marginally Bad for transmissions, marginally Good for gas

Gatopotamo
@roblave.bsky.social

“Are you frustrated that the key doesn’t actually need to be inserted in a “(female)” slot to start the car? We will make sure that you need to insert your manly key into the non-manly slot” Everything IS gender studies!!!

Greg Gardner
@ggard4.bsky.social

Narrator’s voice: Stop/Start technology is meant to improve fuel economy. The savings may be incremental , but these Trumpists have killed all EV incentives for consumers and they don’t give a shit that the planet is melting. Duffy and Zeldin are the embodiment of Beavis & Butthead.

Hattie
@hattie17.bsky.social

The republicans are just Grandpas complaining about how everything is different these days - everything from social demographics to buttons, apparently.

Ava Tar
@avajbtar.bsky.social

I'm old enough to remember parents making cheap car keys for all the kids in the family and inevitably one of them would break theirs off in the ignition. Ahhh those were the days!

Sniffit
@sniffit.bsky.social

There's no fixing this country. These people are literally the stupidest motherfuckers on the planet and an albatross around our necks. We're obviously not going to all decide they have to be eliminated as an existential threat. We already failed to do that in the 1860s and 1960s. So enjoy serfdom.

HockeyDad
@mouserincincy.bsky.social

Americans: “gas is expensive and roads are falling apart” Duffy: “best I can do is bitch about push button ignitions and film a YouTube series on my family’s roadtrip that you paid for”

Anymouse
@anymouse.bsky.social

This is a critically-underrated comment. While we're at it, keys for everything. Refrigerator. Cupboards. Closet. Stereo. Telephone. (Never a gun cabinet with a key though, that's make the freedom eagle cry.)

Anymouse
@anymouse.bsky.social

Or a different key for every plug socket in your house. Think of all the accidents that could happen if you pushed the key into the socket instead of the switch.

B young
@brianbox95.bsky.social

Gawd, now start/stop buttons are now culture war fodder. I personally like mine, I leave my key in my pocket and press start. He wants us to fumble for keys?!

John Browns body
@ainteefa44.bsky.social

Just spitballing here, are Dems allowed to do press conferences and rallies where they can take these moments/videos and highlight how stupid these people are? Do they KNOW they are allowed?

M B L
@happycampermama.bsky.social

Wow, I wake up every day worrying about the start button on my car. You know, the same car I can’t afford to drive the gas for to go to the grocery store to buy groceries I can’t afford. So I guess I’m going to run out and buy a new car and make $700 payments for 7 years. 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️

laura bishop
@lbblaura.bsky.social

Yeah, as teenager…had a used 1960-1970’s Chevy BelAir?? (Help me, car guys).You didn’t need a key. Could turn the ignition nob on w/out a key. How car got stolen outside hosp. parking lot. What saved me? Gas cap required key. My Dad drove all over town/found the abandoned car/fuel tank empty.TY Da!

BarryJT
@barryjt.bsky.social

'67 MGB, manual choke, a non-synchromesh spur cut first gear, dyamo instead of an alternator, and lever shocks. And two SU carbs. It's amazing that I ever got anywhere.

Judi
@jpfanning.bsky.social

I second this! I park in a parking garage, and not having to dig through my purse to get into the car is absolutely the safer option!

Eunicecycle
@eunicecycle.bsky.social

I'm a boomer and I like the start/stop button. We have an old car with keys and sometimes I hesitate for a moment until I remember what to do with them! Yeah I'm old too.

Anymouse
@anymouse.bsky.social

It only takes seconds for people to come out and blame Boomers for everything around here. Sean Duffy was born in 1971. He's a Gen X problem. I like the buttons on my Smart cars.

Rednekulo
@rednekulo.bsky.social

There are a lot of idiots in every generation. In fact, that's the one thing that seems to stay constant: the proportion of idiots. BTW, my car is electric and doesn't even have a start/stop button. It turns on when I press the break pedal and turns off when I get out of it.

bigboreairgunner.bsky.social
@bigboreairgunner.bsky.social

He is trying to play off the fact that consumers are starting to hate all the high tech garbage that has been forced into cars these days. We all want buttons and knobs, not touch screen menus. But nobody I know hates the start button and longs for the days of key start. He is an idiot.

Randall Gates
@rgatess.bsky.social

Meanwhile, in the real world China is crushing the U.S. in terms of worldwide auto sales — especially in the rapidly growing EV sector. No one wants the American junk anymore.

Hank G
@neqone.bsky.social

Can we go back to when we had to hand crank the cars to start them like the good old days? None of this namby pamby turning a key thing that made us soft and weak. It needs to be a real murican way to start a car! /s