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Drivers Hate The Tech In Their Cars

It turns out that more technology in cars isn’t necessarily something customers want, and it’s not really improving their driving experience. We know my thoughts on the matter, but I’ll do my best to stay impartial on this latest survey from JD Power that shows most customers don’t appreciate technology in cars unless they can see a clear benefit to them.

JD Power’s 2024 U.S. Tech Experience Index Study evaluated over 81,000 drivers’ experience with “advanced vehicle technologies” in 2024 model year vehicles after 90 days of ownership, It turned out to be a pretty mixed bag when it came to what people liked using. There are a number of tech features that customers like using because they feels that it answers their needs, but at the same time there is a whole lot that don’t get used very often or are continually annoying, according to the survey.

…

cmrn ,

While it would be nice to have a screen for music and nav, I absolutely hate any car where you NEED to use the screen to do things. It feels like distracted driving is designed into cars these days…

Pavidus ,

This is why I chose a Mazda. Buttons for everything. I didn’t even realize I had a touchscreen until cleaning the interior one day with the radio going.

TheRealKuni ,

My Ford clearly has a touchscreen, and it’s nice, but I’ve also got buttons for everything I need while driving. That’s the way it should be.

TriflingToad ,

subway surfers at a traffic jam

interdimensionalmeme ,

First thing I do to my next car, circumsize all the antennas at the root.

fubarx ,

Summary: Computerized touch screens and ‘smart’ features with poorly thought-out UI and UX are a solution in search of a problem.

Start with what directly benefits the user and driving experience.

Go from there.

vaultdweller013 ,

I like the tech in my car, it has knobs and buttons. But then again it is from '91.

Duamerthrax ,

I drove a 2020 pickup while taking turns on a family trip. I jumped on the chance to get a 87 Chevy C10. Nothing I want, that I can’t get with a cellphone mount. The 2020 truck feels like I’m driving a lifeguard’s chair around.

vaultdweller013 ,

Yeah I use a little FM transmitter tor audio, kinda tempted to use an old retro sterio kit I got at auction so that I can use a tape deck.

Duamerthrax ,

I may try to solder an AUX into the stock radio and hook a BT receiver into it. I do like a clean appearance and I don’t listen to the radio anyway.

vaultdweller013 ,

Never have tried that, but now youve made me curious if mine already has an aux, it was a government car and was last used by IT before I got it at auction earlier this year.

scytale ,

I actually like big screens on infotainment systems, especially the ones that integrate into the dash and not the ones where it looks like they just stuck a tablet on top of the dash. I have a Subaru and it has a nice vertical 11in screen. I also like the design of the new Hyundai and Kia screens that run across the dash.

Having said that, those screens should strictly be for that purpose, infotainment. Anything that controls essential functions should still be physical buttons, levers, and dials.

I was excited when Volvo announced they were going to release an affordable subcompact SUV EV, then saw they put almost everything on the infotainment screen in the middle of the dash, even the speedometer!

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

So what did they put there instead of the spedometer?

kagis

I guess this is the EX30. It looks like it doesn’t have a driver’s side display. Weird.

considers

I guess it saves some money, but yeah, that doesn’t seem like a reasonable tradeoff. There are displays that I want to have readily-accessible all the time.

And, I mean, what does an LCD screen cost? $100 or something? It can’t save all that much.

nobleshift ,
@nobleshift@lemmy.world avatar

2002 Toyota Echo 4dr w/air & heat, quarter million miles, no clock and I have no intentions of ever purchasing another car ever.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

That is going to break at some point.

I mean, I get the sentiment, but that is just not going to be a realistic long-term solution for “people are not happy with changes in newer vehicles”.

rickyrigatoni ,

Yeah and the sun is going to burn out at some point, too.

nobleshift ,
@nobleshift@lemmy.world avatar

That’s ok, I’m leaving the states in my boat at the end of the year and will only be back on a round trip flight. Fuck you, fuck you, you’re cool, fuck you, I’m outta here…

RememberTheApollo_ ,

I don’t hate tech in my car.

I hate unnecessary, poorly designed tech in my car.

Current tech design unnecessarily complicates and obscures what should be simple and easily accessible functions. That’s more than just irritating, it’s dangerous.

CertifiedBlackGuy ,

BRING BACK THE FUCKING BUTTONS HOLY SHIT

Thebeardedsinglemalt ,

I recently had to drive my parents’ new Volva XC40 and that thing is one of the most overengineered vehicles I’ve ever ridden in.

  • The lane assist is kinda great while driving because if you drift a little it helps keep you in your lane. But I found myself literal fighting against the wheel whenever I was genuinely changing lanes, on a lane-ending merge, but more importantly trying to not get sideswiped when a semi drifts into my lane.
  • Instead of traditional shifter, or even shift buttons like my '14 MKZ, this thing has a 3-position shifter knob to go between R-N-D, a separate long-press button to simply put it into park (and by long press, I genuinely have to verify on the dash it’s is park because I almost jump a parking block more than once since I didn’t press long/hard enough) and a separate little knob in the center console whose sole purpose is to turn the car on and off.
  • The electric child-lock is a nice little button mixed in with the window controls on the driver door arm rest…which both myself and my parents have accidentally engaged on a number of occasions by resting our arms on the arm rest.

Aside from that, even in my car I outright HATE the auto environmental controls where you have to set an internal temperature and when the temp reaches that it changes the air to maintain. So if it’s a blazing GA summer, and i set the thermo at 69 (nice) once the internal temp reaches 69 it starts blasting not-cold air.

While the lane assist and adaptive cruise control can help a little on those long trips, I genuinely dislike them because I believe it actively encourages the driver to not pay attention to driving.

figaro ,

… What kind of car is this? 😂 (Look at the first sentence)

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

The lane assist is kinda great while driving because if you drift a little it helps keep you in your lane. But I found myself literal fighting against the wheel whenever I was genuinely changing lanes, on a lane-ending merge, but more importantly trying to not get sideswiped when a semi drifts into my lane.

Hmm. Do they have a thumb button or something you can hold down to quickly and easily override it?

bl_r ,

I love my car for the fact it doesn’t do anything crazy. Buttons and switches for everything, bluetooth for music, and a minimalist infotainment system that may as well only be there for the phone pairing process.

I might be in the minority, but I hate Apple CarPlay/Android Auto. I don’t want anything fancy, just music. I don’t want all the bells and whistles of my phone, just music.

Ilovemyirishtemper ,

Ditto. I feel like I’m the only one who still listens to the radio in my car. The only thing I want my car to have that it doesn’t is cruise control. Otherwise, she’s perfect.

catloaf ,

My car has a tape deck and a CD player!

I still use the radio most often. Usually public radio on the way to work, and college radio if they’re playing anything interesting, or the local rock or pop station if they’re not. I’m not going to discover anything new through Spotify, so if I’m going to listen to stuff I’ve heard plenty of times before, the radio is easier.

NuXCOM_90Percent ,

What bothers me the most (aside from getting rid of all knobs and physical buttons…) is that I bought a car the better part of a decade ago with Android Auto. And it is awesome. It is everything I want in a car “entertainment” system and it makes it trivial to navigate and listen to music.

So… of course car companies are going out of their way to block that and apple auto. Because they want subscription fees.

IMongoose ,

I just got a new car. I get a text message. I click play on the main menu. It tells me I need a subscription to listen to text messages. I open up android auto, click play. It plays. WEIRD.

barsquid ,

We need some serious federal regulation against bullshit in vehicles.

Every function that is normal to use while in motion needs a physical button.

Absolutely no fucking spyware reporting back to the manufacturer.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I don’t want to ban it. Some people apparently want it (well, or at least the price reduction that comes with the auto companies having a new revenue source). I’m hesitant to try to impose my preferences on them.

I just want an option to pay regular price for a car myself and not have everything I do be data-mined. If it costs $N to pay your costs and make your profit, just charge me $N. I just want to be the customer in the relationship, not the product.

They operated just fine like that for decades. I don’t see a need for that to change.

draughtcyclist ,

If the backdoor exists, it will be abused.

Also, that relies wholely on trusting the manufacturers to not mine your data when they have the ability to collect it.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

If the way you want the market to work is “everyone does things the way I want” rather than “let everyone choose what they want”, the chance that the single route that is taken is not what you want is considerably greater.

Choice is good.

Disaster ,

It beggars belief that people still make the argument you responded to after the whole Clownstrike debacle.

skuzz ,

Most of the bullshit exists because of federal regulations requirements that they ran away with. Even backup cameras (which are arguably useful) because of shape/size/economy restrictions causing rear windows to be less easy to see out of.

AFKBRBChocolate ,

Some is great and much appreciated. For instance I love the things that takes the camera feeds and creates a simulated top down view. But some things are just useless and needless.

ohwhatfollyisman ,

what is the purpose of that view, though? why does driving need a bird’s eye?

bdonvr ,

Not for regular driving, it’s great for tight parking and backing.

AFKBRBChocolate ,

It kicks on when you’re parking, so you can see your car in a top-down view with all the lines and obstacles. When I drive our other car that doesn’t have it, it’s the thing I miss the most.

SSJMarx ,

It will get worse.

https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/d8a129a5-ba7c-428a-98a5-b20d2955f8ad.jpeg

Maggoty ,

That’s because they’re putting dumb shit in. We have the technology for example to -

Have high beams shine around other cars. (Regulators actually fucked this up)

Put all the speed and other needed information on the windshield.

Put a thermal image on the windshield so you can see the road as if it were daylight.

Use “fly by wire” controls instead of the same control scheme as a Model T.

And quite a bit more. But no instead we have the world’s worst mix of UI/UX and software in an attempt to save money and sell data.

TheWeirdestCunt ,

Fly by wire would be a terrible design for a car, I’ve seen people driving on space saver tires or with taped up windows for months. If people already just ignore warning lights until something physically stops them from driving then at least having a physical steering column means there’s still control after the power steering fails so that they don’t go straight on into oncoming traffic.

On your other point about still using the same control systems as a model T, modern cars don’t. Hydraulic steering came around in the 50s and almost all modern cars have electric power steering, the model T had completely unassisted rack and pinion steering. I can’t find any definite answer on what the last car without any hydraulic steering was but I’d definitely like to find out if anyone knows.

MegaUltraChicken ,

You got me curious and found this article from 2019, it looks like the Alfa Romeo 4C didn’t have power steering. It was discontinued in 2020.

driving.ca/…/these-six-cars-were-the-last-without…

bdonvr ,

Yeah FBW is cool for like big super complex systems that are maintained and inspected rigorously.

Not small sporadically maintained, almost never inspected vehicles with two pedals and a two dimensional control wheel.

Maggoty ,

Don’t look at cruise control systems then.

Maggoty ,

I was referring to the control scheme. Wheel, pedals, etc…

And we already digitally control speed. Direction can’t be that hard.

jawa21 ,
@jawa21@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I’ve driven a car that used a projected HUD like that before and hated every second. It is horribly distracting and unnecessary. The traditional dash is just better and has remained unchanged for so long for good reasons.

Maggoty ,

Okay. And I’ve driven stuff with projected HUD and loved not having to look away from the road. The best part about tech like that is you can turn it off. It takes literal pennies to implement.

als ,

My parents just got a new car with one of those tablets built into the console. They were showing it off to me and turned it on, only for the radio to be blaring and my dad had to go through like 5 menus to get to stop it from playing.

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