Five tech features in cars you can live without

Cars have come a long way technology-wise in recent years but while some of the innovations are literal lifesavers, others are simply not worth your time. With new cars bursting at the seam with gadgetry, we thought we'd go through the in-car tech list and see what either rarely gets used and or could be better. Here are five tech features in cars you can live without.

By itself, the lane departure warning is relatively pointless.

Lane departure warnings alert you if you get close to veering out of your lane or if you have veered out of your lane. Depending on the car you are in, some warnings can be just an audible noise, others include steering vibration or if in other cases the entire cabin shudders and vibrates.

By utilising a camera mounted in the windshield that tracks the lanes of road ahead, the warning system can be activated based on the radar footage, however, it is not always accurate depending on the condition of the lane markings or even the weather conditions. Australia isn't the best when it comes to sensible roads and visible markings at the best of times.

Packaged with other safety features such as lane keeping assist and lane centre assist, the technology makes sense, but by itself it is only functioning as a warning alert.

If you are driving you should be capable enough to pay attention to the road, the warning alert can be overzealous and if you are relying on it because you are driving drowsy, you probably shouldn’t be driving at all.

Besides from an environmental perspective and better fuel economy depending on the driving situation, auto stop/start seems unnecessary, particularly in Australia.

The only time it benefits the car and driver is in bumper-to-bumper traffic that is not moving, making sense for your engine to be off for a considerable amount of time.

Potentially also within the inner-city where you are also constantly stopping at traffic lights for a prolonged time.

Though, in an ideal world, I wish that we had countdown timers at traffic lights and then based on this our cars could make an informed decision to maximise overall efficiency – but that is another conversation altogether.

Auto stop/start makes sense for fuel efficiency reasons but from a pure practical driving perspective it is inconvenient.

Until cars can perfect the idle engine to throttle in a seamless and less jerky and abrupt way, I would probably embrace it more.

Until then I guess I can keep turning auto stop/start off every time I get into a car.

Voice controls in themselves are limited inherently by the technological functionalities that your car offers. For example, in my 2012 Toyota Yaris besides using it for hands-free calling functions or browsing music, that is about all it can do.

These days there is a lot more going on in our cars, so voice controls make sense to a degree. Sure, it seems convenient to ask your car to put down the windows or change the driving mode, but realistically it would probably be quicker to click the button than starting a verbal queue with the voice assistant.

Granted, there are features where you want to use voice control such as for navigation or other features that require you to delve into several menus which is obviously not safe to do while you are driving. The key benefit here is to keep your focus on the road and off the infotainment screen.

However, unless you are rocking the most up to date Augmented Reality technology or hands-free intelligent voice assistants like in a BMW or Mercedes-Benz, often you are going to find voice control functionality to be not very helpful.

In modern cars with Hey BMW or MBUX or other intelligent voice assistants, they have the ability to learn from you and get to know your phrases and what you want, which is a huge improvement on traditional voice controls.

A feature that has been around since the early 2000s, and yet how many of us actually use this function?

Depending on the car, automatic parking might be offered for parallel parks, rear parking, and angle parking.

How does it work? Using sensors built into the car, your vehicle can detect and autonomously manoeuvre into a parking space.

So many cars include this feature, yet how many of us use it? Besides for testing reasons, I personally find it quicker and easier to just park my car without it. Especially with 360-degree cameras, and even just your standard rear camera and parking sensors, our parking visibility and ability is already greatly improved. 

If you are not comfortable parking your car in a certain spot, you can always just park it somewhere else. Just like no one is forcing you to parallel park either unless it’s in a driving test.

Okay, technically not an entire feature we could live without but one we would improve. When you think about it, we spend a large majority of time in our cars, so why settle for a sub-par sound system?!

These days there are so many options for in car audio, and in most cases, it is affordable, whether it is bundled in a package of options or a standalone. The upgrade is well worth it.

For example, in Mercedes-Benz vehicles you can opt for Burmester, Volvo you might be able to upgrade to a Harman/Kardon system or in a Skoda, you could opt for the CANTON sound system. 

There is a noticeable difference between audio qualities such as volume levels and clarity, so unless you are driving a Rolls-Royce with its own bespoke audio system, generally the no-name speaker variant is not worth your time.

Your audio experience is a huge part of your driving experience, whether it is listening to podcasts on the way to work or jamming out to your favourite playlist – it is probably one of the most used features your car has to offer so make sure it counts! 

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