Modern car technology

[slowworm]

I'm not a Luddite but as I don't drive much I don't find modern car features very useful and often a hindrance. Things such as auto-headlights which means when starting a frosty car early morning the lights come on main beam draining the battery before you even start the car. I don't even need air-con and annoyingly the air-con pump in my car failed and has had to be replaced which would have been very costly if not covered by the warranty.

During the fix I had the 'pleasure' to drive a courtesy car with all the latest gadgets on it. Whilst I can see their use for some people I found the systems somewhat poor and not fit for purpose. One feature is the lane assist/warning. I didn't know the car had that until I noticed the steering moving on it's own. It seems to want to keep the car in the middle of the lane but is not intelligent enough to know you might want to steer away from potholes on the left or away from a large vehicle on the right. At one point I steered over to the right as a car was creeping out of a left turning and all of a sudden the steering yanked me towards the other car! It also started to flash up warning messages even though I was comfortably in my lane, and to top it off it often stopped working as I assume in needs a certain type of road marking.

The car also had speed detectors which told you the speed on the dash. Again I can see the use but they didn't work that well. Frequently the speed on the dash only changed after you had entered the new zone (not much use as speed cameras are often just in side a change) but they could also change quite a way in advance if the camera picked up the sign early. At one point all sorts of warning messages flashed up as it thought I was speeding in a 30, when in fact I was in a 60. It also seemed to miss one set of signs although I didn't drive it enough to see how it coped long term.

All these gadgets add to the cost, the car was only a super mini and seems to cost almost £30k new, and for that you don't even get a hand brake!

Does anyone else find these features work and are worth having? I do worry about the cost if anything goes wrong.

 

[Stew]

My bigger concern is around the dumbing down of society. It's not far off being self driving cars in some cases.

My main car has an electric hand brake so hill starts are a dream. My eldest kid is starting to learn - I'm conscious that he can't use my car to do that as it'll give him a false sense of how to drive 'properly'.

 

[Broch]

On most cars you can turn down the level of auto-assist provided. Unfortunately, I assume due to legislation, they are often not permanently turned off but just stay off until the next restart. Lane assist can be far too violent in my experience and I always turn it off. Speed limit warnings I think are useful; we're all capable of losing concentration at times. I tend to set mine with a tolerance of 10%.

What does worry me is the trend to remove all switches and control knobs and put everything on a touch screen. To change the fan speed on my car I have to go through two screen levels and you cannot do it without taking your eyes off the road; in the old model I could just reach down to the knob and turn it without even looking. Other tasks are even more difficult.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Last year I finally needed to replace my car. I like Seat, having had the same 2003 Toledo since 2005. Pre 2019 model Leon still has dials and knobs on the dash for heating, cooling and demisting. So, bought a 2018 reg. No lane assist, which was an absolute deal breaker for me. Having driven a hire car with it and been unable to turn the cursed thing off. It detected tar stripe patches on the road as lane lines!
I lave had iPads for years, but do NOT want to control my car functionality with one! Bloomin’ dangerous.

Stop-start drives me nuts. Have to turn it off on every journey. It’s going to be the most used button on the car, probably wear out first too. If traffic was genuinely stop and start it would be okay, but A)most junctions with traffic are roundabouts and they rarely have traffic sitting still, more like crawling. B) drafted thing kicks in every time you stop, and it takes a moment to restart…hopeless if you need to pull away crisply to utilise a gap in an endless stream of cars.

Talked to a friend with a Tesla, beggars belief but you have to use the touch screen to open the glove box!!!

 

[Megatramp]

Most of these modern technology features seem to be a solution to a problem that shouldn't exist, allowing drivers to concentrate less on what they are doing.

Same goes with all technology, promotes laziness and an expectancy that the tech will sort everything out.

There's a kids film, WALL-E, in which the human populace are waited on by technology to the point they've become bloated sacks incapable of even standing. I'm starting to see this developing in people all over now!

 

[Chris]

Most of my safety systems just make a loud chime for seemingly no reason, distracting me as I try to work out from the screens what the hell it was alerting me about. It’s the same chime regardless of whether the tyre’s just deflated, there’s a hazard in the road or it thinks I am not driving centrally enough in the lane… or any of the other 500 reasons it tries to make my soul leave my body mid-drive.

And yes, having to interact with a tablet to do so many things which should be an analogue button/knob/switch is a huge distraction. We’ve (quite rightly) made it illegal to use a phone or electronic device whilst driving, and now car manufacturers are forcing you to interact with one for things for which we already had perfectly safe solutions.

My friend’s Tesla has nearly killed him twice as it tried to steer him off of the motorway whilst joining from a slip road.

Can’t wait to be shot of this Skoda next week. Awful thing.

 

[Glow_worm]

Most of these modern technology features seem to be a solution to a problem that shouldn't exist, allowing drivers to concentrate less on what they are doing.

Same goes with all technology, promotes laziness and an expectancy that the tech will sort everything out.

Spot on. I'm stating the obvious here, but under current UK law, for 'lane assist' to be triggered, the driver would be committing the offence 'Driving without due care and attention'.

The cynic in me asks how long before the car is automatically linked with the police/courts system?

 

[Chris]

Spot on. I'm stating the obvious here, but under current UK law, for 'lane assist' to be triggered, the driver would be committing the offence 'Driving without due care and attention'.

The cynic in me asks how long before the car is automatically linked with the police/courts system?

I agree with you, though I will add that this is only true if 'lane assist' triggers only when it is supposed to. The computer in the car cannot read the road like an experienced driver, and I've often had to overrule it in my car (a driver of 20 years without a single accident so far).

As to your latter question, there are those car insurance policies now where you have a black box put in the car which somehow measures your driving, with the idea being if you drive 'better' you get a cheaper premium. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up in all cars. I, too, suspect that having constant trackers which then become accessible to the police/courts is only a matter of time as well. With nice location data to go with it.

 

[Wildgoose]

Spot on. I'm stating the obvious here, but under current UK law, for 'lane assist' to be triggered, the driver would be committing the offence 'Driving without due care and attention'.

The cynic in me asks how long before the car is automatically linked with the police/courts system?

Not necessary. The lane assist wants you in the middle of the lane, but there are times when you may choose to drive left or right, avoiding standing water, avoiding a poor road surface, getting out for a look prior to an overtake etc.

The car can’t differentiate between that and the driving nodding off.

I’ve had the auto brake come on twice in my wife’s car, once on a wide bend with a hedge and once on the motorway for no reason at all.

I’ve had the main control screen freeze on a work car too, can’t do anything at all when that happens

 

[TeeDee]

Last year I finally needed to replace my car. I like Seat, having had the same 2003 Toledo since 2005. Pre 2019 model Leon still has dials and knobs on the dash for heating, cooling and demisting. So, bought a 2018 reg. No lane assist, which was an absolute deal breaker for me. Having driven a hire car with it and been unable to turn the cursed thing off. It detected tar stripe patches on the road as lane lines!
I lave had iPads for years, but do NOT want to control my car functionality with one! Bloomin’ dangerous.

Stop-start drives me nuts. Have to turn it off on every journey. It’s going to be the most used button on the car, probably wear out first too. If traffic was genuinely stop and start it would be okay, but A)most junctions with traffic are roundabouts and they rarely have traffic sitting still, more like crawling. B) drafted thing kicks in every time you stop, and it takes a moment to restart…hopeless if you need to pull away crisply to utilise a gap in an endless stream of cars.

Talked to a friend with a Tesla, beggars belief but you have to use the touch screen to open the glove box!!!

Agreed - I wouldn't mind if you had an option of leaving is set as default or not but no.... podge everytime I think of it.

 

[Toddy]

I'm driving a very old Hyundai i20.
It needed the handbreak fixed this week, new brake pads, etc.,
The man who runs the garage was so pleased to have something easy to work on that he fixed my car a week ahead of the queue
He told us not to get rid of it; it's easy to fix, it's easy to repair, it's very, very reliable, and it's so easy to drive.

I don't think I could be bothered learning to use a new one that came with bells and whistles, and autocorrects.
The damned thing will do as it's told !

M

 

[Tengu]

I dont understand why new cars have a huge screen on the dash.

I may be wring but arent you supposed to look at the road?

 

[Paul_B]

There is one solution. An ex MOD lease 2018 Skoda Octavia estate car. We got one and it has almost nothing.

Headlights are turned on by twisty switch past side lights only option. Sure there's daylight running LEDs but dipped beam lights need turning on manually.

It has auto stop/start but that's only working when the A/C is off and the blower too. On recent hot weather it was off all the time.

It does have a hill start thing but it's not very strong and you can actually mess it up and roll back so you kind of have to back it up with your own hill start technique.

There's brake assist I think, it seems to have gone on with me driving a few times but a little early. I was about to brake hard myself when it did it with me. Not very obtrusive and TBH I'm glad for it. AIUI it kind of puts more power in an emergency stop than most drivers can. That's not obtrusive but useful IF you ever need to do an emergency stop. It's not the one that brakes when it thinks you're too close to the car ahead.

It doesn't even have rear parking sensors or electric rear windows. They're still winding handles at the back! Once we're totally happy with the car we're getting rear sensors put in. It's so easy to do I feel I should do it but it's not my thing so disposable income will go on someone else doing it for me. Might get forward ones too if not that expensive to fit. I heard the actual sensor kit can be about £20-30 for the kit with cutting discs, template, etc. The electrics are in place on the loom anyway, you connect into the rear brake lights, to there's a connection for it.

I quite fancy getting rear electric windows in but if too much we won't. I think the screen can also take a camera connection. The rear sensor pot kits can come with a camera kit for not much more. This is the first car we've ever thought of adding things to.

Anyway, you can still get decent cars with less obtrusive safety features but you'll hace to put up with slightly older cars and very high mpg performance of the 1.6litre diesel, Octavia engine to get it.

 

[slowworm]

Speed limit warnings I think are useful; we're all capable of losing concentration at times. I tend to set mine with a tolerance of 10%.

Valid warnings are useful and I tend to set my cars speed limiter. The 'auto' recognition, which I think all new cars must come with, far less useful as it wasn't accurate and the warning only came up at the bottom of a very cluttered dash so I doubt I would see it much in a car I drove frequently.

I do wonder if modern add-on devices (sat nav or cameras) offer similar functionality. Something I could choose to have on or off and at a more suitable eye level.

 

[slowworm]

I'm stating the obvious here, but under current UK law, for 'lane assist' to be triggered, the driver would be committing the offence 'Driving without due care and attention'.

I wasn't breaking any law when it was triggered. The first time I noticed it it did not seem to be able to cope with a road where two lanes merge into one after a round about. Then, as mentioned, it did not like me positioning the car within a lane in order to avoid hazards it did not see.

I also felt it misread the road as others have mentioned, it seemed to detect dirty type marks as a lane.

 

[Glow_worm]

Completely understand the technology makes mistakes, it's more the concept that I'm moaning about. Lane assist, automatic braking etc- not failproof, and adds temptaion to lose concentration/be distracted on the theory that the computers will save the day.

 

[Pattree]

I do wonder if modern add-on devices (sat nav or cameras) offer similar functionality. Something I could choose to have on or off and at a more suitable eye level.

I have an old version of the Octavia - the Roomster. The difference is all in the carrying capacity.

I have a Garmin Say-Nav up by the rear view mirror. This is my speedometer and my speed warning should I exceed a speed limit. It does not rely on detecting a road sign but on the map data. I have found it VERY useful. Heads up must be better than looking down at the dash.
(BTW - I don’t recommend the Garmin unless you enjoy country lanes and following tractors.)

I regularly take the car to my local garage to have the engine warning light switched off (after checking what it is telling me). It’s almost always “exhaust gas temperature” and the result of a dodgy sensor. Dropping my back wheels into a deep pot hole switches it off too (but that was accidental). I’ve spent too much on new sensors and have drawn a line.

There is a complicated way of switching the day driving lights on if I want them.

There are no fancy display screens but there is a monochrome multi display under the steering wheel. It’s very good at telling me how far I can get on what is in the tank based upon my last hour’s consumption.

I do feel that to some degree: electronic gadgetry serves the same purpose as complicated panel shapes.
The first denies the electrician and demands bespoke electronics just as the second denies the generic panel beater - (or demands punitive amounts of their time.)

 

[pieinthesky]

Had a couple of hire cars recently, couldnt stand all the Bing Bongy B#llo#ks.

Going round a parked car and had to fight the steering wheel which wanted to crash into it.

 

[Broch]

Discovered something today - I can tell the computer to turn the fan up and down and turn the temperature up and down; it's voice activated!!

 

[Pattree]

You’ll probably find that the navigation system is voice controlled too. My Garmin is ten years old and primitive by today’s standards but the grandchildren have discovered that by calling out “voice command” they can instruct it from the rear seats. Oh how we laugh!