A lot of high tech in the interior of cars is nothing more than dangerous distractions. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:
Is it Ludditism to complain about “tech” that doesn’t make things easier? An obvious example is the bum’s rush to replace buttons, knobs and switches with tap/swipe interfaces.
What has been improved?
It’s pretty self-evident that the “tech” has done the opposite of that. A knob to increase or decrease the volume of the audio system (or to change the station) is simple, intuitive and can be operated without having to look at it. How is it an improvement to replace a knob with an “icon” on an LCD screen that requires the driver to look at the screen to accurately tap/swipe?
The answer is it isn’t. But it’s sold as that and many people buy into it because many people are bedazzled by “tech.” Especially the younger crowd that grew up with “tech.” For them, “tech” is a given. They can’t image a world without “tech” because they have never experienced a world without “tech.” Thus, they think “tech” is always an improvement.
The vehicle manufacturers play into this for obvious and not-so-obvious reasons. The obvious reason being the feedback loop. “Tech” is almost a religious movement. Almost anything you can imagine that was done without “tech” in the past is an opportunity to engineer “tech” into it. Even to the extent of toothbrushes that have “tech” in them to help the tooth-brusher do something everyone did without “tech” from the beginning of time to our time. In the process, a simple toothbrush has become a complicated, nannying piece of . . . “tech.”
It is why a new jalopy is $50,000 dollars?
Report back to base and turn it off remote is no feature!