My car won't let me use the hvac controls. They are behind a warning that using the screen may be dangerous. Then I have to push the OK button on screen. Sheezze.

That I agree with . Knobs and levers you can manipulate via feel... but a touch screen? You gotta look at it -- a safety hazard. Luckily all the 'screens' in my vehicles are normally 'blanked'. Very rarely use except for a settings change (like 'time'). A waste of space and added cost as far as I am concerned. A cup holder or a deep flat area would be much more useful or even a plain o' radio dial with knobs.

I drove a rental car that had all of the driver nanies. The car would ding every couple minutes and display a message. To me, that seems more distracting than helpful. Some people can't drive without them though. A guy I know, his wife accidently turned off blind side monitoring. She almost turned into someone because the car didn't tell her to look before turning

This is what I keep telling my friends and relatives. "All these 'neat' safety features only 'dumbs down' the driver." I really dislike most of these features... Instead of being alert and actively driving, one starts to really 'depend' on the features and be lax in their normal driving habits. 'The car will let me know' ... to me that is the real downside to these supposed safety 'features'. Not blaming the person, because we as humans will naturally fall into the habit of 'depending'. Anything to make it 'easier' the mind will go down that rabbit trail... Just natural. What if a sensor goes bad, blocked, turned off, whatever.... I feel it does a lot more 'harm' than good ... IMHO.

There are two that I like: reverse cameras and blind-spot monitoring. I still head-check when changing lanes, but it HAS saved me when some idiot comes flying up beside you at the last second, or you're going to a middle lane. Aside from that, I don't have anything else. When we rent cars, they will often have a ton of that crap turned on, and I personally don't like it. Especially the touch-screen crap...I don't need 4 button pushes and slide bar if I want to turn the AC blower up.

I have physical knobs/buttons for my AC and radio. And happy to have them. Things seem to be going back in that direction too, thankfully.

I agree. I do like it too. But you certainly don't use that when driving down the highway. Usually your stopped, then looking around, and at the screen as you slowly back up.... Handy. But still the other stuff can lull you into a false sense of security.... Especially over a period of time when the mind is attuned to the sound.

I also like lane centering and lane departure cruise control features for long distance highway driving. Some car manufactures have better algorithms then others. I don't feel dumber for using them.

I like the Reverse Camera, Tire Pressure Monitor and the Automatic Cruise Control (the one that slows down when the guy in front of you does).

My Dad briefly owned a "massive SUV" which turned out to be an "electrical lemon." (Things like: "park the car, get up the next morning, try to start it and the battery is completely dead.") We even sent it to a car-electric specialist in town, and they couldn't find the root cause of the problem.

The last thing to fail was the "big electrical touch panel that controlled everything." (Fortunately, he had bought a bumper-to-bumper warranty which covered the nearly-$4,000(!) repair bill.) We then immediately sold the car back to the dealer, sternly advising them not to try to re-sell it to anybody until they figured out what was wrong.

Just think of all the things a really smart car can be made to do. I'd like to pollute Tesla's FSD training set with hundreds of AI-generated clips of people pulling up behind two or more Harleys and blowing their horn.

Forget I said that.

Remember last year, when there was all that buzz about self-driving cars being just around the corner? They kept saying it was quite safe because the car would switch to manual control automatically if an emergency blew up. So imagine the "driver" (actually just a passenger), reading a book and suddenly a buzzer goes and there's a pedestrian or another vehicle in front of him and he has to make a split-second decision. It's a recipe for mass casualties.

And then a self-driving car under test ran over a woman who was wheeling her bike across the road (something it hadn't seen before in its training) and suddenly the whole thing went dead. Obviously what happened was a tragedy for the woman and her family but it was a lucky break for the rest of us. They should put up a statue to her.

I would approve of that.
Here is the thing with self driving cars: they are getting better. I do not think they are ready for general use yet, but I could be wrong. The question is not "are they perfect?" but "are they good enough to kill FEWER people than human drivers currently kill?" and they may already be that good. At the point where they are that good, using self driving cars will save lives.

It's fair to say that they're probably already at that point, when you consider that:
- 32 Americans are killed every day at the hands of an 'impaired' driver
- 1/3rd of drivers admit to use a mobile phone whilst driving

But, you know, sensationalism and all that. One person gets killed by a self-driving car and the world ends. Yes, the fact that it happened is a tragedy, but what about the 12,000 people who die at the hands of drunk/drugged drivers each year?

Around here, it is often said that if you want to kill someone and get away with it, run over them with your car.

This is in recognition of the fact that car drivers receive preferential treatment in the eyes of the law.

It's the guy who cuts in front of you and the car decides he's too close so slams on the anchors then decides to accelerate again once he's clear. Pain in the aspidistra!

Play Bonny!

Current posts makes me wonder how I survive on my motorcycle or bicycle riding around all these bells and whistles.

Country living has it perks, though. Unless you need to reminded not to cross fence lines.

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