My new car is too bossy

[PolkaDotMankini]

I got a new car a couple of weeks ago. It's pretty (if already muddy) but the bossiness is never-ending.

If I change lane on the motorway and there's a car next to the lane I'm going into, it flashes up hazard lights on the dashboard and wing mirror, beeps loudly and nudges the steering wheel away.

When I stop the car, it flashes up a reminder to check the back seats for people and belongings.

And the final straw: it sent me a text reminding me to lock it. I was sitting in it at the time, minding my own business in the car park

AIBU to find this annoying? I particularly dislike it screeching and wrenching the wheel round when I'm changing lanes. It's dangerous!

Fascinating thread. I just got a 'new' car that's 12 years old and am just discovering some of these features; some are great, but others not so - so I dread to think how much worse an actual new car might be.

The pointless one that jumps out to me is the engine stop/start. Most of the time, it doesn't seem to work (I'm informed that your battery has to be over 95% full or something?); but when it does, it's almost always when I'm stopping for two seconds before going again. Worst of all is when it kindly switches itself off, but then tells me I need to manually restart it again, whilst I'm in traffic - but the car is in Drive, of course, so I panic because it won't let me restart the engine until I remember that I have to put it back into Neutral first. This is all really dangerously distracting - I'm amazed it's legal.

Plus I hear that batteries that (supposedly) allow for start/stop cost about 5 times as much as normal ones. All this for something that has just been developed to hinder/endanger you. Why can't it just flash up a message when you've been stationary for 10 seconds, suggesting that you switch the engine off, if you're not going to be moving off soon?

It would be one thing if cars assumed drivers were all stupid, IF they could guarantee to be infallible; but as this thread (and common sense) shows, they are very far from this indeed.

The back seat check is linked to Australia and America, research on children being left in cars. Some models send an emergency alert to police if the car thinks a child has been left inside!

Of course, it's tragic when this happens, but I don't think an across-the-board stupid warning is the answer. Apart from anything else, when an automatic warning comes on every time you stop, people just learn to ignore it. This likely follows the Golden Rule Of Notifications, which states that the only people who ever take any notice are those who never needed it in the first place; and those who actually need it never notice it anyway.

This is clearly all being developed ready for when they can do away with the annoying meat-bag in the driving seat. It's also concerning that cars come with the capacity to 'report' you - whether to the dealer, police, who knows who else? How long until your insurer ramps up your premium when your car 'informs' them that you routinely switch off in-built 'safety' equipment?

Incidentally, I have wondered how my car satnav works. As in how does it connect to the internet? I know that my phone satnav connects via the SIM; but as far as I'm aware, there is no SIM in my car - at least not one that I know about or pay a subscription for.

How does it connect without a phone plugged in?

That is setting that you can deactivate (assisted lane changing) or something like that is called… you can check it on the manual of the car

Don’t have a Mazda at the moment but probably will as my next car, because they have refused to put a digital screen in the middle and it’s all tactile with buttons.

I prefer tactile buttons so I can feel what I am doing. I don’t get how large infotainment screens are legal as they bare more distracting than phones.

in sorry I don’t want to have to go through three root menus just to turn the heating up or down, it’s dangerous

It doesn’t need Wi-Fi. The map is stored in local memory and it triangulated based on which satellites it pick up signal from.

that’s why most car sat navs won’t update by themselves.

your phone can also do this if to download say an offline copy of Google maps but it will be slow. Whereas it’s quicker and easier for a phone to triangulate where it is based on phone towers and then serve the relevant location via internet.

it’s the same reason had held GPS doesn’t need Wi-Fi or internet connectivity

Wow. And there’s me getting annoyed with my car binging at me for not putting a seat belt on the massive bag of cat food I placed on the passenger seat 🤣

Oh this is brilliant; my Volvo is bossy but in a quiet way which I appreciate and tolerate… however, he’s several years old now and perhaps he’s chilled out with maturity 😃 although he does occasionally warn me of a pedestrian on the pavement or a big tree… then I call him Hyacinth Bucket 😁

@PolkaDotMankini you can turn a lot of these off.

I also have a new Kia car. Go into the settings menu using the buttons on your steering wheel and you can turn lots of things off. It no longer beeps when I start the engine as I turned that into quiet mode. I can switch of the lane assist as there is a button on the steering wheel so you can do it whilst driving, or immediately when you get into the car. Same for auto stop/start when idling.

In fact there are videos on YouTube walking you through some of the features so you can see how to turn them off. Just look for your specific model.

Ah, thanks for explaining that, Scepticalwotsits

If the passenger side seat belt freaks out about your handbag then you need to secure the bag or put it in the footwell. You don't want it taking off if you have to emergency brake.
I seatbelt my bag in these days.

When people are saying that you can turn (most of) these off, does that mean that you can deactivate them permanently, or that you need to remember to press a bunch of buttons every time you start the engine?

I just realised this morning, regarding the 'leaving somebody in the car' thing: when you begin your journey, my (12yo) car flashes up a little graphic of the 5 back seats (2 of which are usually down anyway) and shows which of them have seat belts done up. However, it doesn't do the same checks when you turn the engine off at the end of your journey - which does seem a bit half-job.

How many people are actually forgetting that they have passengers in the back? Passengers that are in that small age window where they're too old to cry when left alone but young enough that they can't/won't call out to you if you leave without them? Or otherwise very disabled/unwell with dementia or something?

It's quite disturbing to think that 'intelligent' cars might be wasting precious police time to call them out to observe your grubby gym stuff that you've slung on to the back seat. Would they even come out anyway, or would it be like the burglar alarms that proudly inform you that the police are summoned every time it gets a bit windy in case of emergency, when of course they never do. In fact, it's hard enough getting them to come out when an actual person with actual proof of an actual burglary calls them. If I were the police, I'd be charging all (inadvertent) hoax calls to the car manufacturers.

I seatbelt my bag in these days.

Isn't that a bit difficult with a lot of bag styles, though - considering that handbags aren't especially the same shape or size as a person?

Mine consistently tries to steer me back into pot holes that I'm trying to avoid.
I steered to the left as I could see a car on the other side overtaking a bike and it tried to steer me back towards the on coming vehicle.
I've read the handbook and I have to turn this nonsense off at the start of every journey 😤

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Mine consistently tries to steer me back into pot holes that I'm trying to avoid.
I steered to the left as I could see a car on the other side overtaking a bike and it tried to steer me back towards the on coming vehicle.

Ridiculous, isn't it? Presumably, this will thwart the emergency services too, when drivers try to pull right into the sides to make room between lanes.

You can switch the lane assist off. However, most new cars now have it come on as standard so you have to switch it off everytime you get in. Older cars you would switch it in when you needed it. Should be a button on the dash or around the steering wheel to switch it off.

Same here, drives me mad. Mercedes?

Has anyone got a car that warns you if the big puddle you're about to drive through is concealing a fucking great pothole?

I would have found that useful on Friday, driving along partially flooded country lanes.

Otherwise, I'll stick with my 22 year old Audi.

Yep, I'm reading all this and suddenly feeling immensely grateful that I've been able to afford a modern car!

When people are saying that you can turn (most of) these off, does that mean that you can deactivate them permanently

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll I’ve had a few cars with the stop start feature and also really dislike it. Unfortunately the cars that have had this for me I’ve been unable to switch them off permanently, though you do get into the habit eventually.
They have all had a prominent ‘stop start’ or ‘eco’ button on the dash that can be pressed.

Thanks, ShiteInNiningArmour

Yes, mine seems to need to be turned off for every trip; I agree you can get into the habit, but what kind of idiot designs an entirely unnecessary feature into a car that you then have to get into the habit to turn off every time?

It wouldn't be quite so bad if it always either worked or wouldn't, but when it finds that it can stop the engine but then needs me to restart it manually, all of a sudden, that's actually quite a dangerous, useless feature that they've unnecessarily introduced.

It makes me think of a toddler who is well able to get themselves into a fix without any help at all, but then shouts "Muuuuuuuuummmmeeeeee!!!!!" when they can't get themselves out of it! But this feature was planned, designed and signed off all along the line by actual adults?!

Ive never really done enough miles for any of mine to meet the battery conditions so I sympathise totally. Every now and then I'd put the battery on charge and it would kick in next trip if I forgot to turn it off. I've never liked it as a feature. I'm of the old school where starter motors were a thing you occasionally needed to replace and it always bothered me that the car could be continually starting in heavy traffic. Obviously modern starter motors deal with that easily, but it was still something that grated on me a bit.

My new one is full electric, so stop start is a feature I really don't miss.

YANBU I’ve got so many things deactivated on my car because I got sick of its anxiety attacks. The one I can’t get rid of is the warning about seatbelts not being out on if you’re put anything non-human on the back seats. Even the weight of a coat sets it off!

The one I can’t get rid of is the warning about seatbelts not being out on if you’re put anything non-human on the back seats.

I think the main thing is the assumption that it is super-intelligent and that you, the driver, must be stupid.

Many of these tools are excellent, when you have the autonomy to choose to use/activate them or not to; but it's the constant overruling, on the basis that you yourself, as a human, cannot possibly know anything that the car hasn't been programmed to (try to) establish.

The balance of power always has to be heavily weighted towards the driver; and this is one of the things that concerns me about the prospect of fully driverless cars - when the time comes that humans simply are not allowed/able to override them. I don't care that, on average, tests may have shown them to kill fewer people than human drivers do, if that means that I or my loved ones become one of those statistics, when I could have prevented it, had I been allowed to step in.

@PolkaDotMankini

I complained to DH that our new car was absolutely useless in the snow. He disagreed, took it out, came back and agreed.

We live up a valley in the middle of nowhere.

Single track roads everywhere.

The car never drove the same after he had been in it.

I took it to the garage last week and it turned out the lane assist was on. So every time I swerved a pot hole it pulled me back into it.

Lane assist is not required for country tracks.

Garage people had a good laugh and turned it off. Thank goodness