Electronic safety assistance actually makes driving more dangerous | Auto Expert John Cadogan
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Use your mobile phone for 12 seconds. $350 and 3 demerit points. Uses the cars screen for 12 seconds. Progress.
Touch screens in cars were a terrible idea.
Remember car radios with little fiddly up and down buttons for volume, then someone with an eye on safety said "Why don't we go back to the old knob that you turn" or they put buttons on the steering column.
Sums up our world where you can f..k about with a touchscreen as much as you want but if you hold a phone to your ear while looking at the road you get fined & points. Makes no sense..to be clear i don’t think you should be doing either.
Yep. Phone on speaker sitting on your lap = dangerous. Operating a touchscreen with moronic menus = safe, according to the people we elected.
And the lower 50% of the intelligence spectrum think touch screen =advanced and impressive.
It is there to save on production.
The lack of some kind of tactile interface is extremely bad. I don't need a digital display I have to read, just an indication and some kind of analogue fiddly button I can crank up, down, on, off.
My current nightmare is an NX350 F-sport, like its a good car but its got a big screen and a damn touchpad of all things which I just can't use while driving.
Imagine a world where Speed cameras were so prevalent that a majority of your concentration must be directed down towards your speedometer rather than on the road.
Yeah - imagine that...
Come to Victoria
Brits with their 20mph speed limit cameras: "We know."
Thats what cruise control is for bro. Then you don't have to look if you pre set it.
It's already in your car, all they need to do is update the program to send a message of your speed and GPS position and you'll get a text saying that your bank account has been deducted.
Had a rental car and was surprised when the steering started shaking because I went out of my lane, safely, to avoid a pothole. I pulled over and shut that shit off.
I just bought a 30yr old ute manual for the boy to learn on, and its got NONE of that shit. Its a joy to drive.
LOVE my 05 4runner. In the process of buying a trans for it, already have an engine in the garage.
Same reason my daily is manual '05 V6 triton single cab, with 300k on the clock. Simple, easy to fix, strong like a brown dog. Im held in awe as I drive it.
1989 2.4l petrol Navara 4wd ute. 👍
89 Laser EFI 4 speed automatic. I still like driving it despite being crude by today's standards. New starter motor, alternator and battery recently fitted. 204K.
Right mate! ❤ from a Yank!
The most important aspect to safety is having the driver fully engaged in the driving and situational awareness. Don't dick around with your phone even when you are waitingat a red light. Don't fight with the missus. Don't hand over responsibility to electronics. Focus on the job.
Agreed, but this is yet another case of results totally not meeting expectations. Safety measures, the clue is in the first word, are meant to make driving safer, yet instead it seems to encourage many people to take more risks, because "the safety measures will keep them safe." We've seen it happen with one of the first safety systems: ABS. ABS was always meant to help a driver stop his/her car when things get really out of hand, yet many drivers took it as an encouragement to drive even faster, because with ABS the wheels won't lock up anymore when you hit them at the last moment and therefore the car is braking much more efficiently.
Pretty much the same goes for all safety measures that followed:
ESP? More safety so you can drive even faster.
Lane assist? Now you can spend even more time on your phone because the car will warn you when you swerve off course.
Active cruise control? Even less attention needed for driving.
The ultimate backfire feature must however be Tesla's overhyped Autopilot. Now Tesla drivers don't have to pay attention to the traffic at all, because Tesla promised them that the car will do it all for them. And then reality steps in and Autopilot messes up again and again.......
@@tjroelsmahilarious comments.
If you're in traffic at a red light, stationary, and with the car in neutral and the handbrake applied (as you're meant to do), what does it matter if you check your text messages? Who could you possibly be endangering..?
@@tjroelsmaThis is my argument against helmets and leather riding gear. When I'm in flip-flops, shorts, and a T-shirt, I ride far more conservatively than when I'm all safe and cosy like a PowerRanger.
@@fredmercury1314 you should be focusing on traffic and pedestrians moving in the area around your vehicle. For example cyclists sneaking up into blind spots. Bloody fools shouldn't but they do. I have seen a bike being crunched like this.
You as the driver are 100% responsible for knowing what us happening in and around your car.
If you want to play with your phone then park.
If you really are that important that you need to answer texts every second of the day then get a chauffeur!
I've driven both GM and Ford products with lane keeping assist, blind spot, and of course, start stop. Lane assist would shake the wheel then stiffen if it thought I was drifting. In fact I was once to avoid an 18 wheeler that was drifting into my lane. The steering stiffened to an amount I had to jerk it to keep from being sideswiped. At best it made a brand new vehicle feel as though the front end was badly out of alignment, and the tires were more square than round.
I have followed a friend that no longer checks his mirror when passing, because he has blind spot alerts, to the extent that the 18 wheeler he was passing slammed on his brakes when the friend moved back over about 10 feet in front of the truck.
Adjusting the radio or heat or AC is now a fucking video game! One thing that now has a knob is the gear selector, something that should not be easy to move. Its all becoming ass backwards. I assume the point is to make humans unable to drive so automation can take over?
If one is unable to "drive" without the assistance, then you should turn in your license and uber from now on. Leave the rest of us functioning individuals alone.
Amen
I so agree that A/C control is out of control. Change of settings is a nightmare….
Yuuuuuuup!! I wonder how many "driver-assistance" proponents have done the same as your friend, but not even noticed.
I've seen lane-assist coupled with an idiot who believes in technology almost end a life or more. My brother told me years ago when driver assist was coming in, that he doesn't even check blind spots anyway, because driver awareness should be good enough not to need to check said blind spots.....I felt like giving him a whack, but we were on the phone.
World has definitely gone "ass backwards".
Our father taught him that...about 10 or 15 years before teaching my brother that, he taught me to "CHECK YOUR BLIND SPOT NO MATTER WHAT EVERYTIME!! Pay special attention for motorcycle riders, they don't catch your eye so well in the mirrors, especially if they're racing, and they can sneak up into those blind spots. They're fudgin' losers and they deserve it, but you don't want to kill anyone with such a silly mistake while driving, you'll have a hard time living with it." And some other "law" crap followed.
I don't even drive a car next to a truck's passenger side for more than a few seconds... never stay there.
It is all being designed by 'clever' people, who have rarely left their basements. All made to look pretty, and be clever for its own sake, rather than functional. Many of these creatures seem to be working for Tesla, but the rest of the car industry, instead of calling it out, are copying it instead.
'Pied piper' and 'Emperor's new clothes' seem to pop into my head.
There are so many "fun" things on newer cars. Here are some that came to mind:
Like little electric buttons instead of old school door handle. It can't go wrong, ever? Like loosing power in (electric) blaze and let everyone in a car be trapped and get crispy?
Start button - how come there has to be some computer that actually tells when one can shut off or start the engine?
Drive by wire thingies that can potentially be overridden by some computer/controller. As in having no direct control over gas pedal, brakes (almost, have seen ABS turn braking attempt near useless), automatic gearbox, possibly steering.
Electronic hand brake. Those cables need maintenance but still, cheaper than those servo-gizmos me thinks. Servos never break... oh, they do.
Climate control that knows better how much air it blows and how to play with temp. On my car that looks like following - 5 bars (full on), 4 bars (about 50% on) etc. Those designers clearly did not think there should be anything more between 50 and 100 as one would expectedly get from old time blower knob.
Lane assist on my 22 plate vrs is downright dangerous! I have to turn it off EVERY time I start the car as it defaults to being on. If I forget it can try and pull me into parked cars or even cyclists if it thinks I’m veering out of the lane it’s tracking. It’s crazy!
Same in a VW Golf.. dangerous on countryside roads. Tries to steer you straight while going around a sharp bend 😳
Report the dangerous fault to the authorities and try to organise a recall.
I drive a Merc. Every time I get in the car I turn the lane control off. Aussie rounds are not good enough for it. Specially rural. Pot holes. Narrow in some places. You need to cross the white line and I got tired of fighting with the car wanting to drag me back when I knew what I was doing. Same with auto brake. Tired of backing out of a driveway and the car slamming the brakes on because it detected a car on the opposite lane not in my way. Oh did I say I actually work for a car maker.
Personally I find it the most useful features of my car just behind the adaptive cruise control. Just wish the lane centering was a bit stronger as there are edge cases it seemingly does nothing. Otherwise I've never been bothered by the features at all. All of them have been incredibly useful.
This is an issue with your car model though. On my Mercedes A35 the lane assist works perfectly. I've literally never had an issue with it. I have a friend with a Peugeot and he was complaining about his as well, so you're not alone there. But if done right, it can only help.
My late father was a commercial traveller covering enormous miles over some 30 years. When I was learning to drive as a teen here in Victoria, if I even glanced sideways at him, he’d say “You know I’m here, just worry about what’s in front of you!” I taught my two now adult children the same way. I’m also a motorcyclist, so with every single vehicle coming towards me I always look to make eye contact & I never cease to be amazed by the number of drivers looking everywhere but the road ahead.
With tinted windows it is often impossible to see the drivers head
@@davidvanderklauw Nah they usually get close enough before they see you on the bike so you can see through the Tint.
th-cam.com/video/7i-6_u_R6jw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=1hCqMfLd1mxp0CkK
Never forgot this from First Blood and I saw it on vhs in the early 80s - “don’t look at me, look at the road. That’s how accidents happen” 😂
Thank you JC, I have never understood the excessive driver tech.
Its a curse.
When I get in my 89 Mustang after driving a new car, I'm amazed that all the switches are so designed that you can tell by feel what they are and which way to push them. My daily driver is a 2012 Explorer and it's as new as I want to go. It has no touch screens and buttons that don't require taking your eyes off the road for 12 seconds.
The automotive industry spent decades standardising those controls so that we can move from car to car and know where the controls are, simply from body memory. All that safety has been thrown away over a few years.
My daily driver is a 96 Jeep Grand Cherokee-no computer *anything* except the fuel injection system.
All the extra "safety" equipment hasn't resulted in a decrease in the road toll
No, it hasn't.
There actually has been a gradual reduction over the last 24 years. And when normalised for population growth it is a big reduction.
2000: 1,817
2001: 1,737
2002: 1,715
2003: 1,621
2004: 1,583
2005: 1,627
2006: 1,598
2007: 1,603
2008: 1,437
2009: 1,491
2010: 1,353
2011: 1,277
2012: 1,300
2013: 1,187
2014: 1,150
2015: 1,209
2016: 1,293
2017: 1,225
2018: 1,135
2019: 1,194
2020: 1,095
2021: 1,123
2022: 1,194
2023: 1,266
@@AutoExpertJC
@@5croobiusthat may well be due to the improvements in physical safety, reducing kinetic energy impact on occupants of the cars over these years. Electronic driving aids are a distraction I've found. Remember, some of these aids *may* stop you driving into something but they do not protect you when someone drives into you.
@@5croobius Thanks for that mate.
Can you please show us if there were location specific reductions? There have been some drastic improvements to the interstate highways during that time.
What about alcohol/drink driving? I think consumption has been falling amongst those younger than I, and the ones older than I (who used to do it and drive all the time) have either succumbed or taken heed.
I remember a LOT of cars on the road in the 1980's were still on the road in 2000's, with rapid "die off" thanks to rust/age. I think there may have been unusual adoption of much safer cars (built in the late 90's onward) by the second hand market during the 2000's, thanks to the property boom allowing many new car buyers AND typical second hand car buyers to upgrade/buy new sooner than otherwise would have happened under more "normal" economic conditions. Maybe an uptick in migrants kept some shittier cars on the road a bit longer, but there have been a LOT of changes to road safety in terms of construction of vehicles, roads, and regulations, which I think may account for a large part in any reduction of the road toll apparently reported by the statistics you show here. Airbags? Can't remember when E-breathalysers came in.
Are people actually driving the same amount of hours/kilometres? Perhaps we spend less time in cars now?
Can you tell me where to access this kind of information? Please?
And that's the top of my head. Point number 4 or 5, or whatever, that occurred to me was about how I should probably get back to trying to get a life.
@@5croobiusI was expecting a Hugh drop for lockdown
The stupid thing is that the speed warning is triggered by the speedometer that may be over reading by 5 or 6 percent so in fact you may actually be driving at less than the limit when you get chimed.
Very good point.
hehehehhe
the real problem in my humble opinion is when these dipshit systems pick up an off ramp 60k sign when you are still on the highway, and it chimes till you pass another 100/110 sign, which may be ages away. If you have the speed assist on, well you will be slowing to near half the posted speed. Genius.
It does not have to be the case. In practice most of the systems use GPS for speed measurement.
And imagine a world where if you turn them off your insurer will check and assess if they think those things would have prevented the accident. Don’t imagine, they are doing it right now.
By assess you mean say it's 100% your fault if you turn driver assist off and also your fault for keeping them on and not overriding it to avoid a crash.
100% would bet that Tesla does this with their insurance. Saw a video yesterday where Tesla actually increases your insurance premium if you drive between 10pm and 4am.
That is why I have an older vehicle, without electronic tattletales watching everything I do!
You’re so right, I was always wasting time, looking at the road, switching off a number of safety devices in my last vehicle!
But I’ve just purchased a brand-new Toyota Land Cruiser 78 Troopy and I can’t believe how much more enjoyable and easier to use to drive without all the warning devices going off all the time.
Today, driving through a farm stopping to open gates and close them again and no warning going off with me leaving the drivers door open and the engine running!
Plus a really nice manual gearbox!
Why do almost every new vehicle come with a slush drive unit? (automatic)
I bought a new jeep last year and get irritated every time I stop at the end of my driveway for the mail and it yells at me and chimes.
Notice how after decades of decline the road toll has begun to trend up in recent years in perfect synchronicity with the mandatory introduction of these 'safety' aids.
People think they are safe so drive irresponsibly. When ABS 1st came out, I was working in Ski resorts. Many people went off the road and complained that the brakes didn't work DUH!
The car companies have the Australian government on a leash.
It's more because of the rise of larger vehicle sales which are inherently less safe to pedestrians, harder to see pedestrians with, and more affected by sharp turns and high winds. Plus also the rise of families owning a car per person rather than pooling like they used to.
Some years ago there was a psychological report on driving which concluded that drivers drive to their perception of risk. i.e. if the driver even subconciously thinks it is safe under the circumstances including any safety systems, he will drive to that limit.
@@Skylancer727 I did a count outside my house to see what percentage of traffic was jacked up vehicles including crossovers, 4WDs and those 4wd crew cab utes and out of 300 total vehicles including a couple of buses, a cyclist and a truck or two, 165 were those 4wd or 4wd like vehicles I mentioned - 55%.
Lots were those accessory packed crew cab utes and now I notice how prevalent they have become.
I love the phantom breaking,
And I love when you car reads the off ramp speed limit and dives on the brakes.
I personally delight in the lane assist, when the vehicle suddenly swerves at 110km on the freeway to keep me between the lines! Doesnt startle tf out me at all!
Only had that happen in inclimate weather where the sensors were obstructed. Otherwise the only flaws I've had are my car trying to take the off ramp if they didn't make a dotted line over it and for some reason they have it set to brake when going into turns, but you can turn that one off.
Otherwise the features have made my drives way better. I don't think I could ever live without them anymore. In a snow storm the sensors completely cut out and it's almost bazaar actually having to fully take over with no assist.
My favourite is rural road works signs where they have a 60 sign just before some damage, and because it's obvious there's no end sign.
So the car knows the speed limit is 60, and no you can't set cruise control to 100, because the speed limit is 60
@@AdamMansbridge thats because the traffic control havent followed the mutcd and placed the required "end of roadwork" sign and also the required speed sign.
@@Skylancer727 If you're paying the right amount of attention whilst driving to notice and correct errors by "driving assistance", how can you not live without it?
You nailed one of my main concerns with practically all new cars.
When the car hits the anchors on a 110klm road because you pass a 40klm off ramp sign, you know it's seriously dangerous. Ford has the same but you only have to switch it off once, not every time you start the car.
My goodness. That is Boeing 737max standard of computer programming.
My current car is 3 years old, and came with the full suite of "safety" systems, and most of them were switched off by the time I'd driven from the dealership to the house, especially after LKA tried to pitch me into oncoming traffic through some of the twisties near me.
Thankfully, the option for LKA was an option that stays off, unlike newer versions.
If you activated driver assist in the regions, you’d hit every pothole in the universe.
I sold my new 4x4 duel cab Ute and bought a 33 year old Land Cruiser because the safety features drove me crazy. Lane assist esc traction control all shit. And almost impossible to turn off
Just to be clear, traction control and ESC are proven life-saving advancements in modern car design. They do actually work. But the lane-assist, you're damn right. Too bad if you're in a crosswind and the vehicle fights against your corrections, or too bad if some object requires gently navigating around it and the vehicle overrules.
@@ScottMurrayBestFamilyCars
I agree brilliant on road.. should have clarified when off road.. or on my way to dingo piss creek
This happened when I drove a kona for the first time.. The steering was bouncing around the lane and I was trying to find how to turn the shit off.
Here is one for you. One of New South Wales most virtuous road safety organisations, the NRMA, provides the patrol drivers and tow truck drivers with a Panasonic Toughbook CAD.
The screen is ridiculously bright, and when you put it on night mode it is still too bright for me and there is a rim of full brightness white light all the way around the edge.
I hang a towel over the top of it when I am driving at night.
I wish there were a way to disable the emergency braking system in my CRV. Twice it has nearly gotten me into an accident by applying the brakes much harder than necessary when I had another driver right behind me and I needed to brake slightly and change lanes to avoid rear ending the driver ahead and avoid being rear ended myself.
I love the ones that buy a performance car, bells and whistles and all that, forced to drive the same speed as the rest of us. Good luck with the payments. Basic and dependable will always win out. Love the content.
My pathfinder drives me crazy having to turn the bluetooth audio on every time I drive it, even though that's how I left it after the last drive. Imagine this????
My first ever brand new 2024 model year car has all that ADAS technology built in. The radar adaptive cruise control is really good, especially in start - stop heavy traffic (much to my suprise!) I use it just about everywhere to avoid getting speeding tickets. However, the lane keeping assist is positively evil and does the opposite of what you would want in just about every situation.
It feels quite dangerous to me, and I leave it off all the time.
Love your content.
Cheers John.
Maybe you should pay attention to the speed limit.
Hahaha "and of course I am still young", this bloke never disappoints. The most underrated journalist in Australia.
I know the Model 3 that I hired tried to steer me into a ditch on a country road with it's "lane assist"
What did the hire company say when you the fault to them?
I own a 2007 Ford Falcon. It has a approximate range meter but it can also display other data. If I switch it to petrol consumption per/Km I find it so distracting that I can't use it as I can't concentrate on my driving because my brain starts running the maths of how much petrol I'm using. Needless to say I leave on the default range display.
The problem with having voice operated controls in a vehicle is that they also have a radio installed in the vehicle. Any key words can be triggered by people speaking on the radio. During the 1980s in UK we had key ring fobs that would respond to a whistle or other noise and beep - this was supposed to enable you to find your mislaid keys - but the problem was when the fob was near a radio in the house or in the car certain frequencies would set it beeping madly.... it ended up just like that Kia noise.....so most of the fobs ended up in the dustbin.
The problem with chimes beeps and buzzes is not knowing what they refer to. Aircraft do it right, there a voice tells the pilot to pull up for example.
- yeah on the full featured commercial jobs... (Provided that RNAV, terrain avoidance and /or TCAS are onboard - installed, patched and working properly.)
- the Aircraft most punters fly - have a series of text labelled "Annunciator" lights - warning lights, you see and know what they mean on your routine instrument scan. (Breakers are there to switch everything/anything off in an instant.)
Glass cockpits, though fantastic and futuristic, have been identified as Pilot Distraction Devices (PDD) as well.
Most important get your eyes outside the cockpit - see the traffic, avoid the "complications."
If you don't see a mountain and don't know it is there, what the hell are you doing in the front seat (hot swap - you are not worthy). lol.
Manual 2006 Hilux diesel. No buttons on the steering wheel, not a screen to be seen - paradise!
A few buttons on the steering wheel is actually handy it keeps your hands on the steering. wheel.
My F-Type has an OK button on the steering wheel to enable my thumb to cancel any warnings displayed on the dash (no annoying chimes, LKA, etc. though) and lots of physical, tactile switches to control things. That's as modern as I want to go. I've read a post wherein a driver complains that he has to turn the wipers on or off in a Tesla through the touch screen! He said he had to stop by the road to do it.
@@brendanc5519 And your eyes in line with the road.
@@stevemawer848 Now that's a good button!
A couple of years ago I was out on the wrong side of the road overtaking a B-double at 110 km/h (or maybe a bit more) when half way past the truck, an orange light flashed on the dashboard briefly distracting me. When the manoeuvre was safely completed, I checked out the light and it was telling me that the windscreen washer bottle was low on fluid FFS. Shouldn't such non-critical alarms as this be confined to operating for only a minute or so after the car is started?
Or just turn on instead of flashing.
This might not actually be wrong of the car.
Maybe the windshield wiper fluid was used during your journey and therefore reached the threshold for warning just prior to when you did overtake. The car probably didn’t know you were doing that.
It was a valid warning. The screen wash level was getting low and the overtaking acceleration must have moved it enough to activate the level sensor. My point is that the warning was non-critical and should have been suppressed so that it didn't come on in such a situation. It's not like you can do anything about it without stopping.
@@TS-gg9dk
Hired car and pulled the fuse 20 mins in for driver assist… surprised no errors on the screen just a quick grumble by vehicle system was offline!
The Subaru Foresters we have at work have numerous beepers, buzzers, and warning crap. Especially bad is the lane keeping assist…you have to fight against it a fair bit and it almost actively wants to throw you into the other lane sometimes. Thankfully the cancel button for it is a physical button on the steering wheel controls near the cruise control. We all turn it off the moment we get into them.
Our GWM Cannon lane keeping turns on automatically at every start up and can only be turned off at the central screen by going through a couple of menus. My 2021 Mustang has excellent and fairly unobtrusive lane keep assist, but it’s “off by default” unless you turn it on via a button on the end of the indicator.
John spot on. I have this crap in my KIA Seltos. I don't recall you telling people you have to turn off every trip. I like a software upgrade so we can permanently turn on or off the beeps. I be happy for it to flash on screen it's the beeps thatdrives you nuts. I turn mine off before I pull out of the driveway.
And now in Australia cars will have to have a black box that records when they are turned off... so insurance can have more reason to deny you.
I remember the time in my buddies model S with full self driving. We were driving down a 2 lane street 1 lane each way, split into 2 lanes each direction. Instead of picking a lane, it decided to do an emergency stop, with cars behind us.
Report the dangerous fault to the authorities and try to get the car recalled and repaired.
That's why you're supposed to keep your foot over the pedal to hit it. It overrides the braking which is far more likely with self driving functions than not stopping for things.
@Skylancer727
I am a truck driver in the US I have had the system slam on the brakes at interstate speeds, if someone is even a little bit to close they can rear end me before I can get back up to speed.
What do you expect? That company cannot make engines last the warranty period. Or, install twenty five year old anti theft technology. . Rather a joke here in Merika
I bought a GR Yaris i was on a back road & got a run up to overtake another car. As i came up to that car the brakes slammed on took me totally by surprise..nearly crashed clearly dangerous…I’m in the uk. Can’t see me buying another new car now those speed limiter systems have been introduced ( another button to turn off & something that will undoubtedly be permanently on via software update at some point)..
I teach defensive driving. Thank you for your comments and reminding us not to drive distracted. It is so easy to change settings while stationary. Another danger of this technology is that people depend on it instead of depending on their eyes to determine if there are hazards. When we depend on technology for our safety we risk the danger of a failed sensor or warning device.
I said it since the first time I saw them. Touchscreens controls in a car are a ridiculously bad idea. It is INCREDIBLE that A) ANY design folks thought they were a good idea and B) They are remotely legal. No: A disclaimer saying "don't operate these when in motion" is not good enough.
I got to use one in a new electric car rental during a recent holiday (an MG3 I think) . My other half was trying to handle driving on the wrong side of the road in a different country all while getting distracting beeps and bloops from the car that, if you took your eyes off the road to see what the hell the issue was, were accompanied by an obscure message/icon that made it no more clear and simply annoyed/distracted even more.
We eventually deciphered some of the speed warnings, proximity warnings, lane positions warnings, etc, and none of which were needed and all of which were distracting and, due to being blended together in a chorus of nonsense, all were meaningless until much later than they had any minor relevance in the first place.
And the fact you had to use a touch-screen for just about anything meant every single in-car function required you to pay close attention to operate since you couldn't be sure what you were pressing or even if you managed to hit it, when you had pressed it, know whether you had pressed it or not.
Tactile levers, buttons, dials, sliders, etc are not due to some 'old-fashioned' design, they are, when wanting to ideally operate whilst paying close attention to something else, pretty much optimal and essential. You can find them, operate them and know you've operated them all without looking.
I am a gadget-phile. I love new tech, but I hate the way modern tech is designed according to what is trendy and cheap/easy to produce over what is functional, useful and, in this case, even beyond being safe.
All this MIGHT be forgivable, of course, IF the speed limit sign detection, proximity detection, lane detection, etc worked reliably and consistently, which is doesn't anyway...
It's beyond ridiculous and exemplifies the result of the hysteria society is more and more driven by (pun intended) these days.
This seems like a case where a hack of some sort would make the car safer. Wire cutters and a toggle switch and a few hand tools would make a way to kill the alarm. A bit of tape over the camera would stop the infernal thing from seeing a speed sign. Some unauthorized software changes could make it a lot better.
Using Subaru as an example here, we had all of this on our 2023 Subaru Outback, all of this inside a tablet touch screen, including A/C controls, heated/cooled seat controls and stop/start functions, the most laggy and dangerous UI ever. How hard is it for them to put a physical button to turn off the entire system like they did on previous iterations like my last gen Impreza (has a physical button to turn off all these assists on the eyesight/camera module)
This, exactly. I test drove a WRX early last year since I'd like an AWD car to park in the city instead of my big farm truck. The salesman was almost bursting at the seams to show me the seat heater functions in the touch screen. I looked at him and said, "so when it's minus 40 you want me to take my gloves off and hopefully manipulate a screen that may or may not work in the cold, to turn on the heated seats." His smile just melted, haha. Buttons and knobs that work while wearing gloves have been the go to since the advent of the automobile. I don't want the switchgear hidden behind a touchscreen and firmware.
@@PorscheRacer14 And thats the new WRX, thats got the updated "tablet" system, we had the 2.5 NA Outback, which had the old system, you actually tested it with the shortcut function aha. We're both happy we sold the Outback, pretty quickly too, we're
I have a 23 Outback and there’s an update to the screen that brings the heated seats, and stop/start to 1 touch button each. Also, has a lot simpler aircon controls. I know they’re not a physical button that you mention but they are a lot better than what it came out with. Get your dealer to update that at your next service, you’ll find it significantly better.
@@georgetiljak7866This update sounds neat and all but if I had to do that, I live an hour away from the city in the middle of no where. I'm not complaining about my situation but that kind of thing in any modern vehicle turns me off from modern vehicles. If I'm able to put a file on a thumb drive and do it myself, cool. At least physical controls don't need updating. Well these days who knows. Might need to find an old Subaru or just any old thing and keep that going instead. It's the same thing why I turned down getting a new BMW 5 series X drive. Inside is all screens...and the outside on the M models doesn't look good to me. The ultimate driving experience... As I fumble my way through 5 screens. What the heck are we doing? Imagine you went on vacation, and as you boarded the plane the captain greets you and over their shoulder you see the copilot interacting with touch screens. I'd walk right off that plane.
Work in the trucking industry and can’t agree more. If you are a decent driver, these systems have the potential of actually put you at risk.
A few months ago I recieved my second point demerit since 1982 on a visit to Sydney.
Whilst travelling slower than any other vehicle in the Sydney tunnel world in my 2022 Toyota Camry, I was travelling 10kph over the limit and subsequently received my fine.
When I returned to civilisation in Queensland I configured my electronic wizard to let me know if and when I do it again.
It gives me one gentle beep as a reminder to refrain from donating my pension to the Qld. Dept. of Main Roads and then leaves me alone.
It's that bloody lane centre thing that goes into panic mode if I get within a foot of a white line that gets up my nose.
Currently my wife is driving a 2022 Honda Accord Hybrid Sport as a Rental while her Truck is in the Body Shop. When I first drove this car I actually thought I would hate it because of all the "Tech" it had. Safety Systems of which her truck had none, unless you call a back up camera and rear sonar sensors "Safety" equip. This Honda not only being a Hybrid so it is moving in and out of the garage without the engine even turning on which in itself I get a kick out of, the safety stuff I have grown to appreciate. In the Honda, the system can be set to keep you centered in the road, it will brake and keep you a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you, and what I mean by brake, is that it won't just hit the brakes so to speak but just reduce your speed to a safe distance. Ironically, the Honda has no blind spot monitoring or rear cross traffic alert. One good thing on the Honda is there is a button on the bottom left of the dash (USA Spec Model) that you can push and basically all the systems are shut off. I liked that. So you press it on, then you can go through menus' and determine what you want "On" or "Off". I feel as I get older, these systems can be of great benefit and in the Honda, the car I thought I would hate, I have actually grown fond of the past 3 weeks we have had it. In the Accord Sport Hybrid we have been averaging 40 mpg its comfortable, safe and comfortable. Only downside? The car sits kinda low and can be a hassle getting in and out of. Especially if you have a bad back or knees. I can see the appeal of these cars and its up to the buyer to find a car that has these features if your interested in them, that are easy to use and operate. Just my ten cents. Cheers everyone from the USA 👍
I had a 2022 Hyundai Tuscon for 6 months…these systems drove me nuts! I am now in a French van…not as many warnings but it does French things…like not work from time to time!
Or sometimes it just wont start because youre english. 😂
No, just random warnings about things that are working fine...@@paulnotdownunder3172
There is a very good reason I have covered my ADAS cameras, shut it up permanently after several dangerous incidents. Constant beeping and swerving and braking was terrible, did wonders for my ADHD. None of that shit is a roadworthy requirement so until it is, it is staying off for me. I just wish I could turn off the parking sensors until I wanted them too.
The biggest threat from annoying assist systems is that people's brains will eventually tune them out, which may prompt even more annoying warnings in the future and make things even worse. I know that years of exposure to obnoxious ads on the internet in the pre-adblock/ublock era taught my brain to tune them out until they got so obnoxious I couldn't look at my screen anymore and had to drag windows over them or size and position the browser window to put them off-screen before reading anything.
I enjoyed this video John. I have an 87 Volvo 240 (which I love). If I go to the servo to replace my 8.5kg gas bottle and sit it in the front seat my car will give click click sounds which drives me insane. I need to seatbelt my gas bottle.
If any gas is released you want to have the windows down.
Sensible idea to restrain the bottle - you don't want it pitching forward if you have to stop suddenly to avoid some moron doing something stupid.
Thank You for caring so much about us. Great Job on this video!
Best title I've seen in YEARS! And I'm glad someone else said it, cause I've been saying it since the first time I was in a car with these types of features! The ONLY "safety" feature they've come up with that's even remotely useful is the one that lights up an arrow on the edge of your mirror (right/left) when someone's in your blind-spot. Aside from that, NO VEHICLE should EVER, brake FOR YOU, or inhibit YOUR ability to move the vehicle in any way, such as when a door is open, or a trunk/boot isn't closed, or when it [vehicle's computer] "senses" an object in your path, or even when you're SPEEDING! That doesn't HELP anyone!? And I'd even go so far as to argue that it does the complete opposite, by enabling drivers to be MORE NEGLIGENT and LESS AWARE of their surroundings and vehicle. Not to mention the fact that, just because a vehicle has the ability to "sense" WHAT you're doing, doesn't mean that it has the ability to "sense" WHY you're doing it! What if you're being pursued by a criminal or your door's open because a carjacker just tried ripping you out of your car at a stoplight!? These features are downright DANGEROUS! And they never should've been implimented under any circumstances in the first place. I recently told my 11yr old that. when he's of age, he'll be learning to drive in my old, MANUAL TRANSMISSION, pre - OBD2, 1995 Honda Accord!
When my missus drives I always had the idea that I could, as a passenger, reef the handbrake to help slow down in any untoward event. But now we have a terrific Haval H6 which could be a digital time bomb but I love it except when I look at the ‘household light switch’ which is our new handbrake. Apart from that all driving aids are disabled except for cruise control which is operated via experience with chopsticks tho I have no drama with the LiDAR keeping distance on country driving. So far I haven’t needed my children to program my ride.
Subaru’s lane keep assist is bloody annoying too. Wrenches the wheel when eyesight thinks you’re leaving the lane. Unless it gets the line marks wrong and then it tries to put you into the curb or the oncoming lane at any time. Yes you can turn it down/off, but it always resets to panic mode. Subaru Aus has said that it’s hard coded and must auto reset. So frustrating.
It’s not the only product to do this
G’day, when you say it must auto reset is that upon startup or is that after a given period of time after turning it off? Gives me the Tom tits as well! Mine is a ‘23 Outback XT. I’ve been into the black rectangle (hole) in the dash to turn off as much as I can but the friggen thing has a “mind” of its own…I’m surprised it doesn’t tell me off😂😂 Thanks for any info, Bill.
@@leonieandbillearly3503 same car. MY23 Outback XT. And it resets to on every restart.
How about a bit of tape over the camera so it can't see anything. What does it do then?
@@kensmith5694the stereo cameras are in the top of the windscreen so not an option. There’s so many other things that eyesight does that I love, but grabbing the steering wheel when it gets it wrong has resulted in my partner won’t drive it. I pray Subaru rolls back to the software version that her XV has. Turn it off and it stays off.
Seeing Oz is infested with speed/red/school/bus/whatever zones, with Radar/Laser speed traps hidden everywhere, i think these alerts should be like in aircraft... " Terrain!" "Overspeed" "Pull-up, Pull-up" "Sink-rate" ... So you can keep your eyes on the road, rather than constantly watch speedo.
My new work car is an Ionic 6. Great car to drive but I have to turn this off before I start driving every time. The worst issue with this tech is that it picks up offramp speed zones on the freeway or School Zones in non school times and then beeps at you until you pass the correct speed sign. Letting me know I'm speeding might be ok but when I'm actually doing the correct limit is just Dumb.
A mate of mine was coming up the Palmerston Range at night in heavy fog, so doing 50 K/Hr and the pedestrian detection kept jumping on the brakes, bloody dangerous. He had to call me to look up online how to turn it off and I had to guide him through the menus over the phone. Made a crap situation absolutely dangerous.
Most (all?) car speedos are set to read higher than the actual vehicles speed. So at 100Kph for example, if it "bings" at an indicated 101Kph, you're actually doing 97 or 98 at best... thus infuriating every other driver, and making the road more dangerous as a whole.
My friend checked my Speedo using his phone app using GPS. On cruise control on the freeway car said 100 kph and the app 100 kph.
Same conclusion I reached via my stop watch against a few km posts and doing the division.
2016 built car delivered in 2017. A big seller on the less expensive side, but made in Japan.
@@johnd8892 which car? That's cryptic as man, I've done same test on a 2005 fairlane, a 2016 Commodore, and a 2012 Getz, and actually a 2015 C class Merc.
All of them indicate faster speeds than the GPS on apps.
Oh and my old 98' Jackaroo when I did a trip around Australia, it was low by about 4kph at 100
@@Carrotsalesman Late 2016 built Mazda 3 Astina with heads up display and radar cruise control on a flat freeway. At 100 kph usually passing most cars at about five or so faster speed.
Yes i was driving my dads x5 comp 24 and because I didnt put my hands on the wheel fast enough it started breaking to a stop on a highway and there was nothing I could do to overide it.
I cant even imagine if there was ice and snow on the road how shitty that could have turned out.
Did you have both hands off the wheel as you went along the highway?
Me in the brand new workvan: let's give this oncoming lorry some space.
Lane Assist: No.
My son has a new ranger and yes he is a proud Aussie bogan that has this stuff and he has said the lane keep function takes some getting use to and is very tiresome on long trips as you always seem to be fighting it
It like having a soft tyre on one side and the car constantly pulls you to the Centre line and he also thinks it holds you too close to the centre line
I am dreading the day I have to buy a newer car that has all this crapo. On it
All the safety assistance you need can be found between your ears.
Not with these "helping" cars... 😂
Some folks not too good at searching tho
Does that mean it's actually a good thing that cars like the Mahindra Scorpio (zero ANCAP stars) don't have a lot of these systems (resulting in zero ANCAP stars)?
Give me roll down windows, am/fm radio, and cruise. I personally dont need nothing else to enjoy a good drive. Love the shirt you choose for this one.
The irony is, the people that need to turn off the warnings are the people that can't stay in their own lane and change lanes into occupied lanes, and are the same people that should have these systems turned on permanently.
so you know them all personally and all the gizmos in each car and if they are switcthed on or off
John, I've heard that EVs chew through tyres a lot quicker than ICE cars. I would love to hear your thoughts/opinions on tyre micro rubber pollution.
BTW another great video ❤ your work.
Those batteries weigh a lot.
Don't worry too much about the "micro rubber pollution." There are plenty of other things that are destroying the environment and exterminating species.
Yeah - it's the mass and the torque at zero speed. The mass also damages the road more than an equivalent car.
@@AutoExpertJC Once there are flying cars that won't be as big a concern.
Plentin of other things to worry about though!
I'm not an expert but I imagine that the all important "range" is important in the choice of tyres. A trade off between economy, and thus range for EVs, and handling, meaning rolling resistance. The most economical wheels are steel and steel, AKA trains, but try cornering at a decent speed. It may be that EVs are fitted with economical tyres and that those will wear out more quickly. John may know more.
@@cabot100flying battery cars, I'm getting giddy thinking about it 😀
I had fun with a Sydney based KIA dealership . My elderly uncles Kia Cerato had an engine warning light come on . I had to take it over and leave it for two days for diagnostic check . They came back , had changed a fuel regulator (free due to warranty) then they told me the fuel tank had corrosion . Told me for a princely sum of $ 8000 they could replace the entire fuel system . I pushed to get to see how hard they wanted to 'play'.
I figured they wanted to play the long game , so I drove it home . He has been driving it for a few months no with no problem .
Shit car IMO , and absolute criminal thieving behaviour by Kia (again , my opinion ) . Anyhow , there you go . Thanks John . Great piece from you again .
I actually use the speed limit warnings on my (stand alone) Garmin satnav. It just gently chimes if you drift over the speed limit which in speed camera infested UK is quite useful. It's my choice. I don't want an urgent aggressive warning built into the car for something that may need attention but may not be critical.
My father's diesel holden has a DPF alarm, the alarm goes off, but you can't tell it to do a cycle or anything, just put up with the ding every 30 seconds for the next 5 minutes until it decides to do that cycle all by itself.
Just got 2017 Ford Ranger. The previous owner warned me immediately about the lane assist feature and how to disable it. This is one very dangerous feature especially in countries like Thailand. Sometimes the lines on the ground drive you straight to out of the road. One pretty nice feature though is the adaptive cruise control. This is helpful to keep you within speed limits without having to check your dashboard all the time and still manage heavy traffic. I don't understand why it is in increment of 5km/h so it is difficult to match the optimum speed given by the GPS. And indeed, information overload combined with a lack of feedback in the interface are a total catastrophe!
I'm so sick of all the bs about ev's that I refuse to buy ANY used car, from brands that quit selling new internal combustion cars here in norway. I'm down to Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Isuzu and Suzuki now.... Even Lexus has gone "EV's only", and still the media are surprised that new car sales are plummeting...
The fact you have to turn these things off every time you get in the car makes ANCAP smile, thats how you get 5 stars in 2024 , not by the car trying to keep you alive in a crash, thats tertiary. The fact you have to have radar and sensors bing and bong at you incessantly is the peak of safety technology .
I'm a cyclist these days (can't afford to keep a car), so drivers' behaviour is - literally - a matter of life and death for me. For the past almost 15 years I've ridden 70 miles a week, every week. That's a hell of a lot of miles to avoid getting squished.
I'm an old-school petrolhead and still love driving (I used to be an amateur rally driver back in the Group-B era and finished the East African Safari twice), but these days I'm essentially a pedal pusher. I only mention this to indicate that I do understand a bit about driving and distractions (both in and out of the car).
I live in the north of England now, in West Yorkshire, which is where Jeremy Clarkson comes from. Like him, local car drivers HATE cyclists with a passion beyond words. This is understandable, because many riders are entitled, uppish, arrogant f***wit morons who flout the rules of the road (and pavement) and ride recklessly. Frankly, they're a bloody nuisance.
But I'm lovely and fragrant and kind to small animals. As I'm both a car and a bike person, I appreciate what annoys drivers and so try to ride as though I were following along behind myself in a car.
I signal; I use my mirrors; I give way even when I don't have to; I stop at red lights and 'Stop' signs; I smile a lot; I make eye-contact; and I wave 'thanks' every time a car driver notices me, even if he/she is behaving like a complete arsehole.
At busy or tricky junctions I'll often stop, get off, and cross the road as a pedestrian rather than cause chaos by weaving through traffic.
Constantly yielding doesn't cost anything, and I'm still not dead. Squeaky-clean road manners, that's me.
So, regarding the distraction thing... Survival as a cyclist means watching drivers closely, and it's become obvious that drivers are frequently not looking where they're going. I don't mean the usual microsecond-flicks of eyes to the speedo to avoid tickets. I don't mean glancing at mirrors. I mean playing with mobile phones or giving long moments of concentration to those enormous TV screens on the dashboard whilst on the move.
There's no way that a driver can be as aware of road conditions if he/she is looking down, fiddling with touchscreen controls and scrolling through menus. In rallying your co-driver barks pacenotes at you so that you can concentrate on the route; the driver doesn't even check the speedo, let alone a map.
In other words, if you take away the in-car toys, all you have to concentrate on is your driving. It's a great way to avoid crashing. Which genius decided that would be a bad thing?
It's especially ironic that turning off a modern car's so-called 'safety features' should create the very kind of hazardous distraction that such gimmicks were intended to eliminate.
Analogue buttons, knobs, sliders and switches are very safe ways to operate a car's controls. Once familiarised with the layout (half-an-hour's work), a driver can perform all necessary adjustments by muscle memory alone; eyes and attention stay fixed on the road.
It's a bit like playing a musical instrument; you don't have to look where you're putting your fingers, you keep your eyes on the score and just play.
I don't like 'smart' safety features in cars. I don't like cruise control. I don't like lane-guidance or whatever else manufacturers think will make driving safer. Why? Because what ALL such things do is encourage complacency and take the driver a bit further out of the equation.
"The car will save me."
"The car knows best."
That's not right. The finest safety device available is an alert driver. If you're not alert, you shouldn't be driving. Stay at home. Call a taxi. Take a bus. Don't smear me all over the tarmac.
Racing cars don't have driver-assist features that apply the brakes or yank the steering wheel if you get too close to a kerb or the car in front. Brains are still better than machines, despite what the Teslamic faithful have been conditioned to believe.
And if you're a driver who still thinks that cars know best - because you trust your vehicle's ADAS capabilities and never get distracted by menus and always keep your attention on the road conditions - imagine that the (unseen) pedestrian or cyclist in its path isn't some random person or even me; imagine that it's someone dear to you. And imagine that the car approaching them is being driven not by wonderful you, but by an easily-distracted idiot without your excellent skills.
Fitting ADAS to cars is a bad idea. Drivers shouldn't feel remote and detached; they shouldn't be passengers. They should be alert and paranoid at all times - convinced that everybody else on the road is out to kill them. Fitting cars with ADAS is precisely the wrong thing to do if you want to reduce accidents.
Trying to make cars as hands-free and auto-safe as jet airliners won't work. It's not the same thing at all. No amount of smart tech or A.I. or bleeping, flashing warning signals is going to make driving safer, because jet airliners don't cruise and operate on the ground in heavy traffic.
One final point about distractions: the boy-racer's favourite argument that keeping EXACTLY to a speed limit is hazardous - i.e. that drivers concentrating ferociously on their speedometers at the expense of maintaining general road awareness is very dangerous indeed - is a specious argument.
A speed limit is an absolute maximum, not a video arcade challenge. If the limit's 30mph, safe driving means driving below it all of the time, not struggling to sit exactly on it, with the risk of exceeding it by 1, 2 or 3mph. If you're botheted about upsetting the fist-waving, headlight-flashing d*ckhead behind you (who wants to drive at 32mph, not 28mph), pull over. Let him pass. Get out of his way. Does that make you feel small? Bullied? Inadequate? Aww, diddums. Grow up.
And if you're not capable of maintaining a steady speed below the maximum without constant reference to your instruments, your right foot needs to learn how to drive.
Yep. Sorry. Go away and practise.
Always thought a simple regular check of your mirrors and a quick glance over your shoulder keeps you more engaged with your driving. Pitty most people don't do this.
A lot of these systems sound good on paper, but are completely ineffective in conditions where you need them most. Can confirm AEB does not work in low visibility dusty conditions, and by all accounts it doesnt work in heavy rain either. So all it really does is give people a false sense of security in perfect conditions and leave you high and dry when you really need the help.
I totally agree with you. I drove a new rental car from Cairns to Port Dougles a few weeks ago at night and when the downpour started (all 160mm of it that night) the dash lit up like a Xmas tree with all sorts of alarms and dings and dongs. The visibility was poor and I was going very slow but I had to ignore the alarms because the car was still driving and I was working full time just seeing where the road was. I worked out later these alarms were telling me that blind spot monitoring, autonomous emergency braking, lane keep assist and active cruise control were all not working. I did not need that distraction!
Yep my argument exactly .... and the glimpses of the road over the 12 seconds were defiantly not long enough to grasp a potentiality hazard ...... just imaging self drive cars and the lack of attention on the road !!!!
In Scotland in a new rented VW Passat driving in the country , on approach to a village there was a speed hump made out of brown pavers about the width of a pedestrian crossing , the Passat decided it was a car and hit emergency brake and brought the car to a stop while I tried to figure out what the FUCK just happened . Thankfully there was nobody behind me .
You don't buy a PS-3300 FS reissue for what it can do, but for how impressive it LOOKS.
Your door is ajar, your door is ajar, your door is ajar, your door is ajar. That one was fun back in the 80's. Just kill me.
I have worked in the sphere of road safety education for many years and am so pleased that having pointed out what a crap piece of design this ADAS feature is, you went on to point out how negligent the journo was to turn it off while driving.
Lane assist on my 2022 Silverado got turned off a few weeks after I got the truck. I steered to the right edge of my lane to avoid a pothole and the truck attempted to steer itself back into the hole. I'd been unaware of that "feature" until it attempted to counteract a deliberate control input. It doesn't default to "on" every time the ignition is off, but auto stop-start does. Insurance companies love the driver assist crap; When I went from a 2014 Sierra to the Silverado my rate went down!
Our last three cars had touch screens. We were unable to change the radio station on any os them. It was C-Rap FM or nothing.
I know several people who have told me they totally ignore the beeps because their car beeps at them so often that they have given up on trying to figure out what THAT beep is for. (The car that cried wolf)
Bloody Eye-sight system on my Forester used to cut power at round a-bouts if a car had just passed in front of me, couldn’t accelerate through the intersection. In saying that it did save me from mis-accelerating into a bush once.
Some drivers might want the alerts. The issues are actually that the default settings aren't sensible, and that they don't stick once set.
I was working at a Toyota dealer whenthe sales manager was demonstrating the self parking ability of Prius.
Everything was going well till the car's sensors failed to detect a low bollard and subsequently hit the bollard
I’ve often thought the ADAS in my ‘22 BMW is very overbearing, but its saving graces are that simply holding down one button for a few seconds turns it all off and if you do go through the menus and switch them off, they stay off. I don’t have to do it again each time I drive. I routinely drive in darkness and with a simple voice command that secondary screen is also switch off entirely, affording me a vastly better view through the windscreen without the glare. So I’m very pleased with how BMW have set their systems up.
Several years ago, a good friend bought a big Lexus sedan and invited me to drive it. On a freeway in California, I was behind a car in the middle lane and had been using the adaptive cruise control (my first time). As a gap opened in the passing lane that required me to accelerate to occupy, I put on my turn signal, began merging left and a pushed the accelerator only to have the car slow down! I guess if you owned the car and we’re familiar either this behavior, it would be no big deal, but I hated it.
Allow a manual threshold to be set in the cars configuration (ie +5) then have a light flash if you exceed that (in the HUD) and a vibration of the steering wheel…… that’s way better than a beep when you go 1km over the limit.
My wife's Kia Sorento Sport Plus has all these bells and whistles (figuratively and literally).
Point One: Damned annoying when backing out of an angle parking spot and it slams on the brakes because it sees a car moving past on the OTHER SIDE of the road.
Ding ding if you come close to the white lines, never mind crossing over them. More ding dinging if you indicate to merge left while the red triangle warning is still active in the left rear mirror. Mind you, we aren't merging at that point, merely doing what's expected of drivers and alerting the other vehicles that we will shortly be merging left.
A lot of this stuff can be disabled but only temporarily. And you need a degree in computer science just to find the options in the somewhat confusing menus.
The previous car, a 2019 M-B C300 didn't have a touch screen. All controls, etc for screen based features were driven by a rotary dial and trackpad on the centre console. That, I think, was worse in terms of user-friendliness. Most definitely it encouraged you to program in everything before driving off. That was M-B's Comand system. Apparently the later M-BUX system is a lot better, particularly now that it's incorporated into touch screens.
As far as navigation and listening to music/radio goes, CarPlay has it all beat. You can program it all easily on your phone before setting out.
Steering wheel based controls should be easier and safer to use, especially if the driver has to lean over in order to tap, say, the "nav" or "map" buttons which on the Kia Sorento, are on the left side of the screen, thus making it harder to reach. I'm guessing here but it looks like they didn't adapt the left-hand-drive setup to be friendlier for RHD.
I have a Kia Seltos Sport+. Every day to leave work I must exit a car park through a rapidly closing metal grille door, onto a small space (1 1/2 car lengths) before a busy CBD road where I need to cross two lanes of traffic to merge. There is a 40km/hr school zone sign immediately outside this grille the speed limit alert system catches. The sense of haste to get through that grille before it closes, combined with the busyness of other vehicles coming and going in the car park, the tiny driveway, and the busy flow of traffic all require 100% attention - and is not compatible with waiting for a laggy touch screen to boot up, and fumbling with touch screen menus to turn off an annoying and distracting speed limit system. It is the most dangerous feature in this vehicle combined with real world conditions like I have described.
In the UK, there are many instances where side roads have lower limits, and the signs are angled towards passing traffic, to make them more visible. The car will see that, and chime at you because you are going too fast. Then some cars will compare camera views with satnav data, and after an internal argument, display what it thinks is the correct answer. My experience of Ford in the UK, is that it is wrong more often than correct. Add to this, a road parallel with a motorway, and on the motorway the car will demand 40mph, but on the other road, will happily tell you your limit is 70. There are flaws.
Expecting a driver to loaf off and trust the 'self-driving' only to have to take over in milli-seconds when the 'self driving' screws up badly.... Is madness writ large.
I was given a new Mercedes A250 as a loaner car. It randomly locked up the brakes while driving, one time when I was doing 90 on a winding country road. I took it back to the dealership, thinking there was an issue with the brakes. It was the driver assistance. It was reading the patchwork bitumen as threats. It drove perfectly with it switched off- which had to be done every time, going through the touchscreen menu into the car settings. So annoying. So incredibly dangerous. So happy to have a 25 year old car I don't have to fight when I want to change lanes or dodge around a pothole.
I had a hire car in France. No time to read the manual, so I had lane assist on. Absolutely dangerous. White lines on the road, I had to fight the thing for over 400 miles.
Lane assist scared the hell out of me when I hired a car in the UK. In the UK country roads often have white lines in the middle but the road is so narrow that you have to cross them all the time. The steering wheel kept jerking and I thought there was a fault with the suspension. It was the lane assist 😆. What melon ever thought that a system that interfere with steering the car was a good idea? The other party trick that car had was the adaptive cruise control slamming the brakes on at 70mph in the fast lane because the GPS maps (in a brand new car!) were out of date and still registered the old speed limit of 50mph on that stretch. Bloody dangerous!