New cars and modern tech

Felon

Felon

Felon

Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2014
Posts
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Location
Midlands
So recently I've hired a few cars from the local enterprise car hire, I had a Ford, a Volvo and earlier I got a Hyundai Tucson - almost brand new.

It's a while since I drove a new car (I've just been pottering around in my truck for a while) and I'm quite taken aback at how much tech is in these new cars, specifically all the driver aids.

I find it quite frightening - I'm driving along and suddenly the wheel automatically jolts me towards the middle of the road, because the car has miscalculated the position of the white line, I find this stuff pretty unnerving.

Then there's a huge menu I have to go through to turn it all off, then when I restart the car - it's all turned on by default, it's pretty frustrating.

How are you lot coping with all of this new stuff, do you find it useful? or like me, do you think it's an unnecessary pain in the arse?
 
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I almost crashed a Vauxhall Crossland last year when lane assist got its knickers in a twist on a temporary slip road. I thought I’d blown a front tyre and counter-steered against the LA only to have the damn thing counter-steer against me again.

If I was interested in buying a car with this feature, I’d be asking how to permanently disable it.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
If I was interested in buying a car with this feature, I’d be asking how to permanently disable it.
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Yeah I mean that’s the thing, by law everything must be built with this feature and it’s enabled by default, you can’t permanently disable any of it AFAIK
 
The first thing most people do is turn it all off, especially lane assist. It can be very sketchy and seems more like an added danger tbh. Emergency braking has been known to do random things too.

It can probably be turned off, or set to default off inside the ECU somewhere. But you'd need someone with a diagnostic tool to do it. You may also be able to yank a fuse out which disables the system.
 
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I've recently got a new car, Passat gte, which does the whole drive in the centre thing. It does seem much smarter than cars with this feature I've tried before and will actually turn corners pretty well. I hated it at first, but once I got used to it I'll now find it pretty difficult to go back.
 
My experience with most of this tech has been VW group vehicles and I think it mostly works pretty well. There was one spot I drive past that would routinely confuse the centering lane assist but it was otherwise great.

Not driven something with mandatory ISA yet but hopefully won't be too long before I can try it for myself.
 
Begbie said:
I've recently got a new car, Passat gte, which does the whole drive in the centre thing. It does seem much smarter than cars with this feature I've tried before and will actually turn corners pretty well. I hated it at first, but once I got used to it I'll now find it pretty difficult to go back.
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Yea until you go over a miss-painted line (or something it thinks is a line) and it tries to put you in a ditch.
 
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Lane assist on my GFs Tucson is so annoying.

My old skoda holds the lane with minimal input. I can cruise along quite happily and in a relaxed manner. Whereas her tucson seems to require constant steering input from me to stop it shifting side to side.

I turn it off as soon as I get chance.
 
Pretty much the reason I’ll not buy a new car until things change. Car manufacturers are making cars in a way that’s best for them, not the consumers. (And all the stupid EU safety crap too)
 
Kenai said:
I did 60,000 miles in my vRS with the same lane assist and not once did it try to 'put me in a ditch'
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Yep, nor has mine. It's absolutely brilliant actually. Its far better than anything I've used in the past, some of the lane assists are dreadful.

It's particularly great in traffic.
 
My Evoque once tried to throw me into the middle of the road.

I hate touchscreen for everything.

New cars suck...

Motors YouTube Videos

Gave my Mustang to carwow for the day. That's awesome. Came to the thread to post this video, even for people who don't want to watch the drag race. The engine revs bit is worth a view for a petrol head.
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk
 
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As long as the climate control and a few other key features are operated by actual physical buttons and dials, I'm pretty care free about it. Lane assist and so on has always been a button for the cars I have driven/owned fortunately as I can turn it off easily if I need to. Most of the time it's ok though.

Touch screen are such a bad idea for the ICE... "oh but you can use voice control", well it doesn't really work for me!
 
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throwaway4372 said:
We should bring back brick cars.
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:confused:

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Zero issues with lane assist. Hold the steering wheel properly and it’s fine. Never does it violently steer like people make out.
 
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I drive a 2018 Mini. It seems to be the sweet spot in terms of tech as it has stuff like heated seats and windscreen, without all the nannying.

We recently rented a Skoda Kodiaq and I was very happy to give it back, the thing would beep for anything. I also very firmly believe that tech is creating the most inept drivers we've ever seen, like blind spot monitoring, I've clocked a few people on my bike who are very clearly relying on it rather than actually checking their mirrors.
 
I must admit, as much as I love our new car (2024 Cupra Formentor) I dislike the touch screen and climate controls. It does have some shortcut buttons but our 2014 Kia Sportage climate is much safer/more intuitive to me.

It also has gesture control which has caught me out a couple of times.

And all the bings and bongs, and because it’s the hot variant, it has a very fast steering rack (One turn either way) so the lane assist and what not can be violent.
 
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