The cars of today are technological powerhouses filled to the brim with more bits and doo-dads than you’d find in the cockpit of a Cessna. I find that some features are genuine game changers, others I just can’t get behind.
The newest car I own is a 2016 Smart, and the most advanced technology it has is a forward collision warning system. That’s it. It has a cute radar dome on its front that’s supposed to warn me seconds before I ram into a car ahead of me. In reality, it just beeps every time I go through a curve with any kind of speed. Thanks, Smart!
Sometimes, hopping into a new car feels like I’m strapping myself into a space shuttle. Today’s cars have a smörgåsbord of systems, each with a nearly unintelligible acronym that I will not remember. A lot of them are helpful, but to me, someone who some might describe as a Luddite, it can be too much.
There are two systems I don’t like using. The first is adaptive cruise control in most vehicles. You can get adaptive cruise in everything from rental Toyota Corollas to BMW motorcycles and with some exceptions, and so many of these systems suck. I like adaptive cruise in theory. The car can brake and accelerate all on its own. You just need to keep it pointed in the correct direction. That’s brilliant!
In practice, the last Toyota Corolla I drove practically slammed its brakes for minor changes in traffic flow and it was always just flipping on the brake lights. Using cruise control is supposed to be relaxing, but the Corolla was driving like a teenager, so the adaptive cruise got turned off. It was a similar deal with a Nissan Sentra I drove. The car seemed scared to even go the speed limit, let alone keep off its brakes. Thankfully, I’ve usually found it possible to disable adaptive cruise and just run with old-school regular cruise control.
To be clear, I always test these systems out because that’s my job. But if they prove to be more bothersome than they’re worth, I will end up not using them for the rest of the time I’m with the car. There are exceptions. I found the adaptive cruise control in a Volkswagen Atlas to be pretty decent. Likewise, BMW Motorrad’s adaptive cruise is so good it almost freaks you out. A motorcycle that responds to traffic!
Before I wrote about cars I wrote SQL queries and Java. You’d think I’d be all over techy sorts of stuff like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Once again, I test these systems out in every vehicle I encounter, but I prefer old-school Bluetooth. I put on my tunes and hit the road. If I need navigation, hearing the turns through the speakers is good enough for me. I don’t need to have Google Maps on a 12-inch touchscreen. I also run a number of modified APKs on my Android devices and Android Auto sort of conks out when you try to use them in the system.
I suppose that part is weird. My wife is trying her best to push me into the modern era in that regard. Alright, enough about that, how about you? What are the modern features you don’t (or outright won’t) use?
I have never connected a phone to my 17 Jetta. Mind you, I never use a phone while moving. As for the more modern electronic assists, I have tried to avoid them. Rented a recent Equinox a few years ago and was driven half mad by its nanny state technology. I am closing on 140K miles on my current DD and fear the next purchase. Do I just seek the most primitive possible ride, or do I figure out how to silence or disable unwanted advice/ input?
And of course I would prefer a stick shift sedan. And world peace, and a rational electorate, among many other apparently impossible things.
You’re speaking my language. I really want/need a stick shift sedan. Why can’t I have an enjoyable drive and the ability to drive my family or friends comfortably. And I want that without having to accept the lowest HP possible, a design that says “Look at me!”, or a muffler that says FU neighbors.
You’re right. Impossible. Sadly, probably still more likely than the other things you mention.
A big reason I bought a manual GR86 wasn’t that it’s a sports car, but that it is about the mechanically simplest car with about the least amount of BS you can get. Now even the manuals have the stupid Eyesight crap.
Lane Keeping Assist – Tried it for the first few weeks when I bought the car and then turned it off. I found it obtrusive and annoying. Yes I know I’m veering toward the center line; I’m trying to avoid the massive pothole that eats lesser cars for lunch.
Adaptive cruise control – The car defaults to this mode and I always press the button a second time to enable Cruise Classic(tm). The one time I used it, I was cruising in the right lane and didn’t realize traffic has slowed because my car automatically slowed for me. Screw that. I want to merge left and pass these slow fools.
Toyota lane keep assist does not cut it no matter the settings. Adaptive cruise is ok and you can adjust the settings to change following distance (for the Venza guy). As for most of the remaining assistants they are more or less dangerous or useless if you have a hitch mounted bike rack.
Some people hate start/stop with a passion, but for me, it’s Lane Assist. It’s not like I drift like a drunk, but I cannot abide by the car pulling the steering wheel out of my grip when I’m a little too close to either side. I think it was a VW I rented that I experienced it last, and given the option, I’ll disable it in any car I drive. It doesn’t feel “safe”, it seems more like a cheaper stop-gap before self driving caught up (I’m not a fan of that, either).
So the owner informed me later. I was just running the spare keys down to them, so just did without cruise for the few hours.
—am really glad the speeding warnings were already disabled or it would’ve been a long night
Recently did ~300 miles in a 2024 Venza. While I could easily get used to the HUD, I didn’t like the adaptive cruise at all. I don’t tailgate, but that thing would cut my speed seemingly 1/4 mile from the vehicle I would be closing on.
Wireless phone charger / bluetooth Carplay. Just give me a wire so I can have an uninterrupted connection and charging.
Obviously personal experiences may differ greatly, but I’ve had fantastic success with wireless Android Auto with my latest phone (a Samsung Galaxy S23 FE). Very occasional momentary blip happens maybe once every long drive, and otherwise it’s been flawless.
But I have used it wired if charging was also necessary. Both are nice. Not having to take it out of my pocket is satisfying.
I’ve driven some terrible adaptive cruise controls, but weirdly, the one in our 2018 Buick TourX is fantastic. It’s smooth, not overly reactive… basically perfect.
My latest GMC truck came with a bunch of stuff, here’s my take on them:
One feature I had on a rental once that I will disable instantly on any car I buy that has it: Automatic wipers.
They’re a hazard in winter driving when it’s cold and sunny, but there’s road spray. Using the wipers without fluid will completely smear the windshield and you lose all forward vision.
I had adaptive cruise control with lane-keep assist on a 2023 Corolla rental and I liked that, too.
I’ve never dealt with automatic wipers and I have heard both good and bad experiences, although only bad among close family.
Tesla full self-driving.
I had a 1-month free trial of FSD. I was not impressed. It was nice on highways with minimal traffic, but terrible on city streets. It alternated between driving very timidly and very aggressively. Sometimes I felt like I was being chauffeured by a 95-year-old who knows he shouldn’t drive anymore but still needs to get to the grocery store and public transportation doesn’t exist. Other times it felt like I was being chauffeured by a Manhattan cab driver who smoked a bunch of meth and thought he was being chased by the CIA.
The car randomly panic braked for imaginary threats. It cut people off changing lanes. It would floor the accelerator after every stop light like it was a drag race. The car had no concept of right of way at a 4-way stop and usually went out of order (I was on the receiving end of several middle fingers as a result of this).
I have an app on my phone that tracks my driving for an insurance discount. While driving myself, most of the criteria (acceleration, speed, braking, etc.) were in the high 90s out of 100 and were “good” or “great.” Using FSD, those numbers dropped to the 60s and all criteria but “speed” were listed as “needs improvement.” I am a very cautious driver so I’m not surprised FSD made me nervous, but I was surprised to see State Farm also wasn’t thrilled with its driving.
I like my Tesla, but I will drive it myself.
QI phone charger. Useless. It does not provide enough juice to overcome the phone being used. I tune in to my favorite local commmunity radio station while on long drives through my phone. While using the phone, broadcast via BT through the car system, on the QI charger, the phone loses power. I have tp physically plug it in.
Anything related to voice commands. Sophisticated and expensive voice recognition systems used in phone-tree systems are similarly useless. I was on one yesterday and the bot said to say “I don’t know my code”. It refused to accept me saying those exact words, but did respond when I said, “I do not know my code”. Sheesh.
The charging pad is a good one. I have one and it has been turned off since about week two, since it’s pretty useless. It doesn’t help that I have wired Android Auto, so I stay plugged in anyway.
I now have a phone that doesn’t fit on the charger, so I can’t use it even if I want to.
All of them. I don’t like new cars. They have worse proportions, are more complicated, have worse visibility, worse driving dynamics due to more mass/being taller, and require a car payment on a depreciating asset. Imma drive old stuff that stays the same value or increases over time.
You and I both. My favorite thing to do is buy cars that are starting to appreciate and drive them. Plus 80-90s cars have so much more character.
I think bare bones modern cars compare favorably to mid to high end 80s and 90s cars. Even the most basic versions have features only found on more expensive older cars plus they meet modern emissions, fuel economy and safety standards with better performance too.
Sure, that tracks. But go drive a 90s civic on coilovers for a week, then get in any 2024 car you can think of. New cars are stupid.
To each their own. If 90’s Civics on coilovers is your thing there are still a few 90’s Civics to be had.
I’m going to echo everyone else, but here are the ones I hate (but only have to deal with on rental cars because my fleet is too old):
-Lane keep assist: I’ve yet to use one that isn’t a twitchy, jerky mess, so no thanks.
-Auto start/stop: Annoying, especially when it does that nonsense at an intersection where slotting into cross traffic is tight.
-Adaptive cruise control: Of all the things I hate, I hate this one the most. The theory should be sound, but in practice every car I’ve driven with it is an unpredictable mess. I had a Toyota Camry that went full emergency break on the highway because it thought the guard rail on a gentle bend was another car. Hard pass.
-Remote telematics: I have no interest in starting my car with a cellular signal, nor do I have interest in the car manufacturer knowing my driving habits. It sounds a bit “tin foil hat”, but I once worked for a company that did contract work for several major auto manufacturers and saw the raw data that they would capture from their vehicles. Not cool.
That being said, I really do appreciate blind spot warning, adaptive cruise control, and Waze.
Pilot Assist or whatever equivalent is for other brands for Level 2 driving. It just make the drives more stressful getting inputs by the car, the car thinks its better at you making some decisions. But the roads are not perfect and sometimes the system will fight you back if you want to override an input. Want to avoid a pothole? good luck.
I have enjoyed using adaptive cruise on my Golf and on the Fiat-Chrysler vehicles my parents have had (my dad used to be one of their trainers and I got to try out nearly everything in the lineup), but lane keep assist isn’t something I have found to work well on our snow/sun blasted roads here in the Prairies.
I’m going to throw out a nuclear take-Apple Car Play. I use the built in navigation in my car, I usually listen to SiriusXM, and if I want specific tunes I’ll just use Bluetooth. I stare at screens all goddamn day and my phone goes off constantly. Why the fuck would I want to get in my car and continue to stare at my fucking phone?
Hell I’ll usually leave my phone in another room for extended periods of time when I’m off specifically so I don’t have to worry about people trying to reach me when I’m trying to relax…I genuinely do not get why people care so much about Car Play. I bought a fun car so I can enjoy driving it…not answer an endless sea of calls and texts. If I’m not on the clock then whatever it is can wait. Let me enjoy listening to my car fart.
I also exclusively listen to SiriusXM (it’s great for long drives – don’t need to keep searching for new radio stations) and rarely use Apple CarPlay. But I do like it for the maps integration – its nice to be able to bring up my destination on my phone, plug it in and have the same map show up on the screen in my car. I can’t stand the fiddly text input for the built-in nav. I’ll also occasionally use Apple Music if I want to listen to a specific song/album, but that doesn’t require full CarPlay integration. I guess I’m glad that CarPlay exists, but I’m glad that it’s not mandatory!
Mine is a glorified ipod (actual old school ipod wasn’t recognized and died, anyway). You can set calls to be disabled when on carplay. I don’t because most of the people I care about are dead, so if they call, I definitely don’t want to miss it. So far, they haven’t. For the few living people who rarely call, I just decline and the phone seems to know if it’s something stupid like the dentist with their 40 notifications on multiple platforms for every damn appointment and sends it right to VM.
Only ever have access to modern “features” in rentals or loaners and I use none of them. Tried them all, found them worthless. The again, I’m the guy, who when the mechanic told me my AC didn’t work said, “How ‘bout that?” because I only ever turned it on few times – for passengers – in 30 years of owning the car.
I don’t have it on any cars right now, but my next car will likely have it – lane keeping and adaptive cruise control. I’ve read too many horror stories of the car doing odd things. The value of it working well does not seem to outweigh the potential for it to not work well.
I also will not pay for “remote services” once the free trial runs out. I don’t need to start my car from a far away land via an app enough to pay for the privilege.
As someone who drives an 11 year old car every day, I am somewhat surprised to read comments that voice commands have seemingly not improved. My ancient Toyota system was actually pretty good with controlling my iPod (yes it is old). “Play Iron Maiden” and it’d list the Iron Maiden albums for me to then tell it which album to play. I wish I could control Apple Music streaming like that while on the go.
A lot of modern cars have transmissions that do the shifting for you. There isn’t even a clutch.
Not a fan.
I think some of them still have fans. 😉
I kid, but I’m with you. I have no problem with automatics, but I’ve never owned one.
Lane assist in my wife’s 22 Outback sucks. If you’re not perfectly centered, it fights you.
Subaru lane-keep: you must be perfectly equidistant between the lines, and I will force you there.
Nearly every other car’s lane-keep: yeah, vaguely between the lines is fine.
Abused rental: I’m going to sound the alarm anytime you’re within a half-car width of the right line, and try to put you directly on top of the line to the left.
exactly.
I drove a 2022 ID4 for a year in Germany. I would set my adaptive cc to 110kph. It would adjust itself every time the speed limit changed (happens a lot on the Autobahn). Then when you go past the sign that’s a white circle with 3 gray slashes (end of speed limit zone) the thing would set itself to 130 kph every time. So annoying. And I really don’t appreciate the (sometimes strong) little suggestions the lane keeper would communicate to me via steering wheel nudges. And car play? Why? The thing already has a talking Navi that’s integrated with the HUD and a radio and bluetooth for music.
I really like the HUD, don’t think I’d buy a new car without it. And the top view for parking completely rocks. New cars must have this as well. That being said, I can’t wait to get my hands on my dad’s 1986 Toyota truck with 100k that he’s gifting me. It’s been parked on jack stands since he quit driving altogether in 2004. Roll up windows. 5 speed manual. Radio with cassette (ok, maybe that has to go). It does have cruise control and A/C (which I guess I’ll have to convert to R134).
Do the built-in nav systems account for traffic though? Without knowing if manufacturers use the same updated maps or get traffic updates, I’m happy to default to Google Maps.
On my 2018 Kia Sorento SX, the answer to your question is yes – for $5 a month. This is via Sirius XM Data services. This provides a lot of useful data for not much $$. Accuracy of traffic conditions is similar to Google/Waze. The navigation system in that vehicle is pretty good and tweaks are added twice a year. Only thing they suck at is getting the speed limits right on some local roads here in NC.
On my Tesla, the traffic data is overlaid on the map, just like Google Maps. And the data is used when calculating routes.
I would expect as much from a Tesla. But for, I dunno, maybe Ford or something…I don’t know if I’d have high expectations for factory systems, never mind whether they require subscription costs to continue service.
The speed limits changing constantly on the highway that really caught me off guard when driving in France and Italy. American roadways change speed limits some, like when getting near congested areas, but not every 100m like it seems they do in Europe. Though I will say the 130km/hr limits on some of the Autostrada heading towards Millan were incredible.
I once went from my place (living near the Dutch border at the time, where the Rhein leaves Germany) to my in-laws near Frankfurt at high speed in our at-the-time 7 year old Golf mk4. I think I did about 140 kph for most of the trip, but in the left lane, even at that speed, you have to watch your back for people going 220kph+. They come up fast out of nowhere and pass as fast as if you’re parked. They often travel in packs (black BMW’s and Mercedes, and somehow always one person in a Ford Transit or similar). And they don’t hesitate to aggressively hound you if you don’t get out of the way quick (that’s called drängeln and it’s illegal).
Lane keep assist. I never want my car interfering with steering.
The sort of half-assed autopilot lane keeping assist and warning in my rav. We took it through Orlando soon after we got it. The damn thing nearly had a nervous breakdown trying to figure out which lane was which in the mess of eternal construction. My wife was digging through owners manual to find out how to disable while I was tempted to yank out the steering wheel. Never again. The adaptive cruise is ok but sometimes I don’t notice I’m going slower than I want because I matched speeds with the truck several car lengths ahead.
Yeah, we have a new rav4 and I have similar thoughts. The adaptive cruise is incredibly unobtrusive to the point where I also fail to notice I’ve slowed down – the opposite of what Mercedes describes; her rental Corolla must be a prior gen.
I tried enabling lane centering. It’s cooler than the basic lane keep assist, but in the midwest it frequently loses track of the lane lines. On a well-maintained interstate it’s really neat (roughly comparable to Tesla Autopilot, but without phantom braking) but I turn it off most of the time because I hate that it beeps every time it loses track of the lines.
OnStar, or whatever version of such connected services my Chrysler minivan or GTI possess. I’ve learned to ignore the existence of the jolly, candy-like button.
I was so excited to get a vehicle with adaptive cruise. And, yeah, it’s not that great.
I also don’t care for intermittent wipers, generally. If it’s not enough rain to warrant constant wipers, I usually just bump the wipers as needed.
I REFUSE to use voice commands for things that should be physical controls. No, I will not tell the car to set the temp to 72 or lower the volume. Just give me a knob. I have test driven a couple things with mostly screen-based controls and the salescritters suggest voice commands. No.
I’m with you on the voice control, though my kids can’t get enough of how it fails to get anything right, they think it’s the funniest thing ever. So I guess that’s a hidden gem.
For the Mach E test drive, the guy told me to try using the voice controls to switch drive mode, and that was pretty funny (because it does not support that command). I love it when they accidentally prove that they don’t actually know what they’re talking about.
We bought a 21 Honda Pilot and I was also looking forward to adaptive cruise. Took it on a road trip right away and I turned off the adaptive ability about halfway through the trip. Even out west on I-10 where there wasn’t that much traffic it annoyed the shit out of me. Set it to the closest following setting and as I approached a truck that was going maybe 5-10mph less than me and it would sometimes slam on the brakes well before I would expect it to. It makes you look like an idiot out there hitting the brakes for no reason, or worse, just as you go to make your lane change to pass. Then, a couple of times it didn’t even see the white truck trailer in front of me and I had to hit the brakes. I let it go really close one time just to see and I was just a few car lengths away from hitting a truck. No thanks.
I, too, just flip the wiper stock/lever up as needed most of the time.
No intermittent wipers? Interesting. I’d be happy just having more intervals to choose from. My Prius v’s slowest setting is about 8 seconds apart, whereas I think the slowest setting in my old van was 10 or more.
I really like the multiple settings though. There’s usually one that works.
I’ve wondered if having more intervals would help, but I find that I’m fiddling with the intervals about as much as just bumping as needed, and it takes more of my focus. So I just don’t use them much.
Intermittent wipers are not a modern thing. I think they’ve been around for 50 years or so. I was once in a car that had a continuously variable knob, so ANY frequency between a certain min or max was available. I’d like those required standard on every car. Don’t have to use it, but good to know it’s there. Like a spare tire, which is not always standard anymore.
Definitely voice commands. As someone who specifically avoids talking to people in general, why the hell would I want to talk to my car? Pushing a button to achieve a function allows me to remain in blissful silence.
This. My 2016 Mazda has surprisingly good voice recognition considering the car is approaching nine-years-old and I have a thick Kentucky accent, but I still never use it.