With the automakers’ consent, my father occasionally takes over driving the loaner vehicles I use for practical purposes. His assistance proves valuable when I find myself needing to handle more than one press car.
vehicles to review
In a particular week, or whenever I have to travel internationally for launching a new car model, some of these vehicles are so exclusive and costly that I prefer not to leave them at the airport unattended. My dad takes care of safeguarding them while I am away.
One could argue that because of my career, he has gotten to see a significant amount of progress in the automotive sector, much of which remains perplexing for him. Despite this, he leans towards simpler approaches.
Honda CR-V
The standout tech feature is Bluetooth connectivity. The devices I occasionally lend to him are packed with so many technological features that my dad often ends up calling me to help him understand how to even turn them on.
One day, he assisted me while I was relocating things.
Land Rover Defender
While driving back home, he dialed me frantically: “I believe there’s an issue with the vehicle! It’s pulling violently, and there’s severe shaking going through the steering wheel!” “Is this happening as you cross lanes?” I questioned him. My dad promptly understood, insisting that whatever was causing this be deactivated immediately.
But even for a guy like me who spends his life behind the wheel of the next shiny new model, I can’t stand most of the safety systems onboard. Actually, what I
really
I can’t tolerate this car because it hinders my ability to drive it personally.
It turns out that most car buyers feel the same way.
. Then who are these systems for?
Automakers Are Leaving An Off Button For A Reason
Every time I get into a new vehicle, I promptly go into the driver assistance settings and disable several features that I find particularly bothersome. Among them, the most detestable is definitely the lane-keeping assist, which ensures your car remains in its lane with interventions like alerts. Car manufacturers configure these systems differently; they might cause a gentle pull on the steering wheel, emit beeps, or illuminate flashing red warnings on the dash. Regardless of how it’s implemented, it feels extremely invasive and downright irritating.
What was once over after a simple push of a button now takes several swipes and scrolls before finding the feature that’s getting on your nerves.
What I want from my safety systems is for them to assist me while driving, not try to drive the car themselves and, arguably worse, make the driving experience downright so irritating to the point of hating the vehicle in question. Beeps, bongs, tugs, flashing lights, or even seats that vibrate through your bum to signal that a car is in your blind spot, a car is approaching too quickly behind you or a car that suddenly braked too soon in front of you, is just overkill. I want my technology to be there, yes. But I also don’t want it to be an elephant in the room. I want it subtle and smart.
Adaptive cruise control is another one I can’t stand, unless it’s baked into a broader, smarter system like
GM’s Super Cruise technology
, or Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability. Here, I’m instructing my vehicle to operate autonomously, or mostly so, requiring little input from me. The issue arises when these systems unilaterally decide to take control.
Fortunately, there’s typically still an Off button available, likely due to car manufacturers acknowledging that these features might frustrate numerous potential customers. However, as vehicles become increasingly sophisticated, this Off button often becomes harder to access, hidden away deeper within the vehicle’s touchscreen interface. Actions that used to be straightforward—just pressing a single button—are now cumbersome tasks requiring multiple swipes and searches through menus just to find the option causing irritation. This can certainly add unnecessary complexity for drivers trying to deactivate unwanted functions.
safer, a
Automakers were careful to dress up these features with elegant terminology, ensuring you remain somewhat perplexed. Is it called lane-keep assist, or perhaps lane-departure warning? Maybe it’s referred to as road-departure mitigation?
Nobody I know enjoys keeping these systems running.
During the Audi A5/S5 unveiling event in France last autumn, company representatives took time to show attendees how to disable the vehicle’s speed limiter feature. These safety measures are now required across Europe; they enable the car to recognize traffic signs and alert drivers with persistent beeps whenever they surpass the posted speed limits. However, everyone present chose to turn this function off.
And this week,
I’m behind the wheel of the utterly wicked Aston Martin DBX707.
Before departing with the car, the Aston Martin staff at the location spent some time teaching me how to disable features like lane-keep assist and customize the driving-assistance technologies according to my preferences. This wasn’t something I had requested; however, it was the primary topic the Aston Martin representative wished to demonstrate right from the start.
Sure, folks aren’t fond of all those alert noises. Personally, among everyone close to me as well as based on input from nearby auto sellers, none are eagerly awaiting the day when their vehicles start chirping and blaring over every little thing. Drivers dislike it when their vehicle abruptly pulls to one side, scolds them loudly for someone cutting in front, or makes them feel constrained behind the wheel. However, features such as blind-spot detection, rearview cameras, or automatic emergency brakes haven’t caused much concern—at least not enough to show up significantly in statistics. Yet once these assistance technologies…
implement driving technology for individuals
, things start heading south.
For me, the perfect combination is keeping blind spot monitoring and emergency braking on, with adaptive cruise control turned off. What I hate about the latter is how it always keeps a fairly large distance between you and the car ahead. On paper, it’s the logical, safe distance for driving, but in practice, it leaves enough space for a douchebag to squeeze in, which will lead the system into a panic mode of blinking red lights and, even worse, a sudden smash of the brake pedal. In stop and go traffic, that’s not exactly “safe”.
Interestingly enough, automakers have recently installed the option to default back to regular cruise control, brands like Honda and Toyota, notably. BMW has always allowed you to do this, but you now need to dig into the infotainment system to make it happen. And since the car doesn’t remember your prior settings, you need to do this every time you start the car again. Annoying.
The industry is currently testing buyers who may not necessarily want these systems as part of their trials.
I could similarly discuss instances where these systems didn’t work properly for me—either from weather issues causing blockages with the sensors, cameras, and radar/lidar units, or simply through erratic performance. Once, while operating an Acura MDX, the vehicle abruptly applied the brakes as we drove on the freeway since it mistakenly believed another car up front was decelerating. However, there wasn’t actually any nearby traffic at all.
Before we reach our destination, here’s a suggestion for the next time you find yourself sitting in your brand-new vehicle. Make an effort to locate the Off button as quickly as possible.
What lies beneath the facade of enhanced safety features is that although consumers desire vehicles with better security, they aren’t keen on footing the bill for additional technological advancements. For instance, nowadays many car manufacturers equip their models with such safety systems as default options rather than charging an extra fee, which was common practice barely half a decade ago.
A recent study on the matter
revealed that if more than 80-percent of car buyers are willing to pay more for a vehicle with a higher safety rating, more than 50-percent of buyers are not interested in paying more for advanced safety systems. As a matter of fact, these same buyers actually expect such features to be standard equipment. This all therefore brings me to my initial question: who are these systems for? If consumers don’t actually care for them, then why force it onto them by making their removal so tedious and complicated?
Data collection is the obvious answer. In an attempt to beta-test car owners, automakers have access to a wide array of information which they have the ability to collect, all with the goal of improving the vehicle in its quest to one day become entirely driver-less. The end goal of a fully autonomous future may be appealing to some, and research shows that a lot more consumers are interested in it than we think. But the road to getting there, however, this awkward transitional period that we’re currently in, isn’t so pleasant. Until we get there, do yourself a favor the next time you sit inside your shiny new car. Find the Off button at all costs.
