Question of the Day: Technological Creep Edition
Technology is rapidly taking over all sorts of functions inside our automobiles. Now there are blind spot warning systems, adaptive cruise control, multiple airbags, and dozens of other advances living inside our cars. Which of these “features
Comments
Bob
Adaptive cruise control. If there existed a situation where it was needed, I would prefer to use my own eyesight and judgement.
bruce jorgensen
"blind" spot systems....if you set your side mirrors correctly there is no blind spot. I shake my head at today's driver ed teachers who have students set three mirrors to view the rear and leave two blind spots, which are checked by turning around away from the direction of travel at 80 mph on the freeway.
Son of a Beach
Starter buttons are a bit of stylish frippery that needs to go the way of the opera window. Also, dial driven infotainment systems like I-Drive and MMI are needlessly complex and infuriating.
Jeff
Automatic parallel parking. If you can't figure out how to parallel park, you shouldn't be driving, period.
FPF422
on my sisters SUV and on the Range Rover Sport... the beeping when you put the car in reverse... Why do cars make those stupid noises ???
Jeff
I agree with all of the above posters about things I haven't tried or experienced- but one that I have experienced, and have to experience, is the most annoying thing about the E46 330i I drive. The automatic windshield wipers! They are inaccurate at best, very irritating at worst, and there's no manual increment you can set! I love BMW- their cars are top notch- but really? I also love being in total control of... wait for it.... how often my windshield wipers run. It wouldn't be complicated now, would it?
Gianni
Automatic headlights. Is it really too much effort to reach around the wheel and twist a knob on a stalk?
AT
How about the fact that BMW has seen fit to replace the oil dipstick with a sensor?
Ducati Minor
Minor avoidance warning. The state had it installed on my car. Whenever my car approaches a girl under eighteen, it gives a loud beep.
So much for me and Jamie Lynn Spears.
(And, yes, I was being sarcastic.)
Jaymez
GPS systems in general. Especially tracking systems such as On Star, that are tied into the car's electrical system. I don't trust Big Brother and don't understand what is wrong with maps.
I refuse to buy anything with On Star or similar systems in it.
Jonathan Fung
Gianni, I wish I had auto headlights. Sometimes I forget it in the first few minutes that I'm driving around, like when I'm comming out of a well lit parking structure at night...and when I look down and can't see my gagues, it's a pretty scary realization that I've been driving around in the dark.
But my least favorite technological toy are definitly blind spot detectors. Foolish, foolish waste of money for incompetent drivers.
smokyburnout
drive-by-wire.
i want some sort of mechanical connection between the gas pedal, the steering wheel, and what they control...
CHARLES G.
The ultimate driver's aid--is this where we're heading? A thinking, mechanized device that makes all the decisions for the driver so he doesn't have any/minimal input in the process. Oh, wait; we have that already--it's called a chauffeur. For the economy version, it's called public transportation.
DieRobotDie
Starter buttons are pointless, period! I've not had too much experience with iDrive, but what I have had has not been encouraging. I think the team at Top Gear describe it best, iDrive, iDistract, iCrash.
Corco
Any feature that takes away key components from the driver. Auto headlights- yeah, whatever. Navigation Systems I hate hate hate, adaptive cruise control is awful, Those Automatic Paralell park thingees. Just anything that takes the driver out of control I don't like. Humans > machines because electronics can always fail. I don't want to be behind the wheel of a car with adaptive cruise control when it decides NOT to work and I rear end somebody.
Starter buttons are bad.
Really I just want a car that does what it's made to do. I want to turn a key and be in full control of what is going on around me. I don't even like Automatic Transmissions.
Hill descent control is bullshit.
I can actually deal with Stability Control provided it has a way to be turned off.
Corco16446
Any feature that takes away key components from the driver. Auto headlights- yeah, whatever. Navigation Systems I hate hate hate, adaptive cruise control is awful, Those Automatic Paralell park thingees. Just anything that takes the driver out of control I don't like. Humans > machines because electronics can always fail. I don't want to be behind the wheel of a car with adaptive cruise control when it decides NOT to work and I rear end somebody.
Starter buttons are bad.
Really I just want a car that does what it's made to do. I want to turn a key and be in full control of what is going on around me. I don't even like Automatic Transmissions.
Hill descent control is bad.
I can actually deal with Stability Control provided it has a way to be turned off.
A. Wofford
iDrive and DRLs (at least the American ones that use the high-beams and don't automatically cut off at night or in rain).
youngturk
Doors which automatically lock. If I am backing out of my garage at 3 mph only to stop and get out in 10 seconds, why does my door lock automatically? What was the reason for installing this feature? How did we manage to live without this feature for nearly 100 years? Do automobile designers think drivers keep on forgetting to lock their car doors? Why do I have to fight my car's computer regarding my locks? Why can't I just turn off this feature? This is just stupid. I will lock my car doors when I think they need to be locked, and I will unlock them when they need to be unlocked. It is my choice and my responsibility, and that is the way it should be. I prefer driving with my car doors unlocked (which is actually taught in some European countries). Why? If my doors lock automatically and I am in an accident, I want rescuers to be able to get me out without having to break the window and pry me out of it.
DRL: They have made motorcycles virtually invisible.
Rob O.
Some of these new "advances" can be overkill and annoying, but actually, I have more of a gripe with a basic technology that's NOT being added to (enough) cars...
Why are we still stuck with these lousy 12-volt power ports (formally, ANSI/SAE J563 - a.k.a. "cigarette lighter") in our cars?
The Toyota Matrix (a.k.a. Pontiac Vibe) has had on-board standard 115V power outlets for several years. Mercury Hybrid Mariner, Volkswagen Touareg, & Honda Odyssey van all have AC outlets now. It's high time the other automakers get on-board with this idea.
As our dependance upon gadgets & mobility continues to exponentially increase, automakers should be adapting to meet these new needs by making power outlets a standard on all cars. Considering that you can buy a reliable power inverter for less than $30, surely the added expense for automakers to build that functionality right in at the factory (beginning at the drawing-board stage) would have to be nominal.
Doesn't this glaring omission kinda chap anybody else?
boxerman
Simply the worst is the auto wipers. Whatever happened to a delay I could set. These rainsensing wipers cahngeb tempo are invariably too fast and distracting. I much prefer a car with a manual delay setting and if need be an auto option.
Cant stand DRL's that i cant turn off. Basical have not bought cars that have the above two options that are not defeatable.
Also when buying a car I purposely have the onstar disconnected even if it comes free. Read the clause in the contract that says they may listen in to your conversation.
Sat nav is great, acura has the best sysytem and the others should just use it. Lexus system is so frustrating that it nullifies the purchase, mercedes has written the book in user unfreindliness on its nav.
Rear cameras are awesome.
I hear about blind spot warning, wouldnt buy a car with it, at the very least the audi system radars you to death, it should be banned just for microwave radiation, once agai audi off my list. Then there is that lane departure crap would never ever buy a car with that, if youre too stupid to drive dont get behind the wheel.
Seems most cars these days are reasonably good, so manufacturers add electronic aids and crap to differentiate, all they do is irratate and alienate customers. Stop trying so hard and build cars with better dynamics.
Which brings me to my last gripe. Any car that handles like a bucket of .... without stability control aint worth buying. In other words if your cars dynamics are good only with the nannied turned on, then you are using electronics to mask poor engineering and I wont buy it no matter how good the paper performance.
Also dont sell me a "sports" model only with paddle shifts, if I am not on the track I want to enjoy driving the whole car.
MadisonKobalt
Generic audio chimes for absurd situations.
The car chimes when the temperature changes falls below 37 degrees and the possiblity of black ice forming occurs. This occurs daily for 6+ months in our northern location as it is parked in a semi heated underground garage at work.
Do you really think I don't know that it is 20 degrees outside and there may be snow and ice to deal with.
The car chimes when your seat belt is off for more than a minute. Makes ATM's & drive thru's even more annoying.
Llewelyn
Rob O.
Agree on the cigarette-lighter 12V socket vs. a standard "household" 115V plug socket.
The irony is that with so much 12V equipment (probably most of what you use in a car) and many electronics in the home that have step-down transformers (lap-top anyone? cell phone charger? etc.) is that we don't implement a standard charger (USB maybe) and require that it be put in homes as a 12V system as well.
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