Once could be an accident. Twice starts a pattern.
That's true for audio-only recording work as well. The musical performance that sounds wonderful when heard live will turn out to have all sorts of background noise (noisy HVAC, people moving about, things being dropped, audience whispers, and so on, not to mention cell phones).
Cars would probably be a lot safer if they were made more simply, and they didn't change the design ever 2 or 3 years. Stick with time tested designs and get all the bugs out and you'd end up with a car that was reliable and safe.
That is a strong assertion. Can you back that up? Over the years, cars have become safer both for the people inside and other road users (well, the latter probably doesn't really hold for SUV monsters), and also got much better fuel economy. A lot of that you can't achieve by debugging an existing design. Think of aerodynamics and crumple zones, which are integrated into the entire car design. Over here (Netherlands), the minimum age and frequency for mandatory technical inspections of old cars have been relaxed over the years, apparently because of the increase in durability.
The problem is the additional requirements/hardware, and the weight impacts. The 1989 Honda CRX HF had an EPA highway rating of 50 mpg. Today's CRZ is essentially that same form factor with "bugs worked out," but once you've added crumple zones, front and side impact airbags, ABS, traction control, the energy removed from the gasoline by substituting 10% ethanol, and whatever other requirements that have evolved, even a hybrid can only get 39. It would be interesting to see what a gas-only version of this car could do.
As an aside: We worked with CAA (Canadian version of AAA) and once every month or so we'd get a fax to unlock a vehicle (usually a Ford for some reason) who's keyless entry fob's battery had died. We would arrive and they are holding their key in their hand, pressing the button to unlock it and they are getting frustrated the vehicle isn't unlocking. I would calmly ask to see their key, walk up to the door and stick it in the door's keyway and turn it. The look on their face was always priceless. I even had one lady confess she didn't know that was even possible.
But if the car has an alarm system and it's active, this doesn't help much. If I unlock my car with a physical key, there's a three-step process I need to do in order to disable the alarm and engine kill. If your owners didn't realize their keys would work, what's the likelihood they'd then remember everything else required before driving away?
After Goliath's defeat, giants ceased to command respect. - Freeman Dyson