Depending upon the exact type of car wash equipment involved, I'd be more concerned with getting caught up in the moving equipment more so than the hot water (which is a danger no doubt) and/or slipping on wet surfaces. Despite most modern machinery having some sort of safety devices incorporated, there is always the problem of it failing when you need it to work the most. Nice to hear that they got out after five washes.

Regarding driving out, in most automatic washes I've been in, there is a stop/go light and you follow the signals to move or stop as appropriate. I don't recall a lock as such, however, I suspect that there may be some sort of automatic wheel chock that might pop up out of sight when the machinery is infront of the vehichle and could be damaged by the car moving when it should not have.

Perhaps I don't get out enough, I'd have probably just sat there and counted cycles while rooting around in my cars PSK. Can you imagine the owners face finding my car with bright shiny unpainted but nicely waxed metal? Hmmm...it's probably better I was not involved.... <img src="images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />