We’re more than a decade into advanced driver assistance systems becoming commonplace, yet it’s still a subject automakers seem to be figuring out. Some drivers like them, some drivers turn them off, and others have specific pet peeves. The car industry analysts at AutoPacific recently published a study on consumer sentiments toward and experiences of advanced driver assistance systems, and there seems to be a common thread: Drivers don’t like nagging, hyperactive, occasionally unreliable assistance systems.
Interestingly, distracted and drowsy driver monitoring systems drew the fewest fans, with only 34 percent of respondents saying they liked using these systems and 18 percent saying they didn’t. After experiencing a whole load of these systems, I kinda get it. Some driver monitoring systems just don’t work well with sunglasses, and some systems seem incompatible with secondary control operation. The Volvo EX30 is particularly bad because everything’s in the touchscreen, so if you need to turn off your heated seat, you’re likely to get a warning chime from the driver monitoring system. That’s just flat-out bad design.
AutoPacific’s qualitative data seems to support this theory about driver monitoring system unreliability, with the firm writing, “In addition to complaints about it not working properly, nearly half of those who didn’t like Distracted or Drowsy Driver Monitoring complain of not being able to adjust or change the sensitivity.”
Speed limit warnings run in a similar vein of unpopularity, with only 40 percent of users saying they liked it and 17 percent saying they didn’t. While many speed limit warning systems suffer from inaccuracies, AutoPacific notes that the disdain is “mostly due to annoying nagging reminders and beeping alerts.” When everyone around you is speeding and you’re trying to keep up, I can see those alerts getting old.
Another common complaint seems to be advanced driver assistance systems that are overly aggressive at times, with AutoPacific writing, “When asked about feedback on Rearward Automatic Emergency Braking, one of the top wanted ADAS features, some of those who have used it voiced concerns about the braking action being too abrupt or harsh, and the sensing too sensitive.” Again, I’ve experienced this with vehicles triggering automatic emergency braking or nagging me at inappropriate times, such as while driving slowly through a tight garage opening, approaching a rise in the road after descending a hill, or backing into my driveway when there’s obviously no pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk.
In contrast, the two highest satisfaction scores are for technologies that pretty much everyone would agree are helpful. A whopping 88 percent of drivers with parking sensors say they like them, while 83 percent of drivers with blind spot cameras like using them. It’s obvious those are two systems designed to be helpful in certain scenarios in the first place, and the chance of errant intervention is fairly low.
Beyond the demand for systems that help rather than distract or nag, there’s a more interesting overarching trend that AutoPacific notes. Demand for advanced driving assistance systems has stagnated. This doesn’t bode well for higher levels of autonomy in privately owned vehicles, as there isn’t a ton of proof right now that consumers want their cars to intervene more in everyday driving.
Perhaps the most amusing thing picked up by this study is the disconnect between the number of people who want night vision and the number of people with night vision who actually use it. According to the study, 59 percent of drivers want some sort of night vision system, but only 11 percent of drivers with that system actually use it. I suspect part of it’s due to implementation, with most night vision displays taking over digital gauge clusters and forcing drivers’ eyes off the road.
At the end of the day, this study suggests that advanced driver assistance systems should use some common sense: Drivers want technology that works and treats them like adults. They don’t like excessive intervention or nagging, and they’d rather systems not intrude any more than necessary.
Top graphic image: Thomas Hundal
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I think it totally depends on how these things are implemented. Lane assist for example seems very variable between cars. My parents have a Skoda Enyaq and the lane assist in that is very irritating – often tugging at the wheel, often binging. The system in my Polestar 2 however is much better! You can switch the nagging to just vibrate the wheel instead of tug, and it rarely intervenes. As a result – I don’t turn mine off, whilst my parents do.
Another reason I’m glad my car doesn’t have this shit is that I recently had a moron speeding down the highway spin out a bunch of times in front of me, look like he was going off the side of the highway only to have apparently kept his foot on the throttle and fire back across several lanes to stop perpendicularly in front of me and I ended up hitting him at the rear side wheel area, necessitating basically a whole new front end of my car. Since the GR86 is not a high volume car, the parts took a while to get and were only available OEM, which had me concerned that it would be totaled (the new ones come with the nanny bullshit now even on the manuals whereas it had only come on the automatics previously). Thankfully, perhaps because it lacks all that stupid “safety” garbage, it was repaired. (This also saved me from fixing some scratches and small dents on the fender and hood caused by one of my nieces—which one? Depends on the one you ask!)
Nags are one of the reasons I shut off lane keeping in my new truck. On a long straight stretch of road it would constantly ding at me to take control of the wheel, even though no wheel inputs were necessary.
It will also pop up the collision warning on the windshield once in a while as I go past someone who turned left out of my lane. I think it’s not quick enough to realize that they’re no longer in front of me and panics. Fortunately not enough to trigger an emergency braking event though.
I’ve only had loaners and rentals with the driver assist stuff and I wasn’t impressed. The adaptive cruise might be nice for long trips but the rest weren’t all that useful. They just didn’t seem to pick up on situations correctly by either not triggering at all or too often.
The only thing my own cars is the stupid seatbelt warning chime that never stops when it’s angry. I always wear my belt but sometimes I’ll have something in the passenger seat that will set it off so then it will loudly chime every minute until I can empty the car out. I was about ready to drive off a bridge to make it stop last time.
That’s something else I love about the GR86 (though I think it’s a Subaru thing): you can permanently kill the seatbelt chime. I wear a seatbelt, but I have a 1/4 driveway through the woods, so I often stop and pick up fallen sticks to toss them in the woods as I go up the driveway. Having to listen to the stupid chime while doing that is obnoxious. I also sometimes disconnect it to get the mail from the box as the f’n belt sometimes trips the pretensioner, grabbing like a restroom pervert and it’s not easy to slack it off so I can release it to lean out the window to open the mailbox.
My Focus used to have the stupid seatbelt thing if anything over maybe 20 pounds was in an otherwise empty seat. I considered going to picking up an extra seatbelt latch to leave it plugged in, but it wasn’t a common enough problem and I had people in the seat more often than stuff heavy enough to trigger the nanny.
You can silence it on Ford’s with Forscan. Not as easy as a menu option but not that hard either.
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My CPO gently used car came with a heads up display. It may be useful but it’s really easy to ignore 90% of the time. Somewhere on my car it will display the speed limit, which can be useful.
When my car was getting collision repair, my rental had lane keeping, which I hated.
I also hate stop-start. I would never buy a car in which I could disable it (even if I had to disable it every time I start the car.) I have never driven a hybrid but if it felt like stop-start, it would be a deal breaker for me.
The Rearward Automatic Emergency Braking on the Polestar 2 instills a technology-focused rage that I haven’t felt since I tried to beat world 8-3 in Super Mario Bros back in 1992. That shit stays with you.
The Miata has an irritating lane keeping assist and if I turn it off, it turns on a light in the instrument cluster which is exponentially more annoying.
The rear braking system is so variable too. It randomly decided to slam on when I was parking the other day in my space in the building car park where I park every time. No different going in than any other time. Nothing about, all hard concrete surfaces no waving plants or whatever. Normally it’s fine, but Friday, nope. Infuriating. First time it did it when I got the car I was at my parents, I think it was triggered by some of the plans near their driveway. Thought I’d hit something.
ADAS = Aggravating Driver Annoyance System
First thing I do when I get into a new vehicle is figure out how to turn off lane assist and adaptive cruise control. I don’t like how they function.
We got a 2024 Tuscon plug in Hybid to replace my wife’s 2012 manual forester (a shame to lose the manual but it was time and it had never shifted the same after the clutch had to be replaced) and we mostly both really like it – yeah, it’s still an SUV but it’s nice to drive and that’s what she wanted. I like (or at least they don’t annoy me) basically all the driver attention aid stuff with one exception – the lane keep doesn’t give false alarms, the crossing rear traffic doesn’t give false alarms, the lead vehicle pulling away chime doesn’t give false alarms and is nice, and I don’t think it’s ever told me I need to take a break, and the auto lane steering is off by default and I don’t use it much, but it’s been fine when I have. And I am firmly in the “adaptive cruise control is great” crowd.
The one exception is the hands on the wheel warning. I will literally have my hands on the wheel and it will tell me to put my hands on the wheel.
They really need to use capacitive touch sensors for the ‘hands on the wheel’ thing. My Polestar is the same and it’s so annoying.
How does it know? Torque on the wheel or maybe a camera watching you?
First thing I do when picking up a rental is turn off lane keep assist and lane departure warning, and turn down sensitivity on rear cross traffic monitoring. Those are my top 3 for false alarms.
I feel like rental fleets should have a way to disable all this. In my own car, that I drive everyday, I understand the quirks of the driver “assist” systems. In a rental that I’m unfamiliar with, a wonky lane assist function can be pretty dangerous.
I imagine they won’t do this for liability reasons.
The most annoying thing about the nanny cars is that you have to turn the nannies off every time you start the car. For me all the beeping is more of a reminder that I missed a safety feature when I was turning everything off than anything else. I even hate those parking sensors that everyone apparently likes. All they ever do is make me panic brake when they go haywire over the curb in front of me when I’m backing up. However, when I look around at all of the cars with Camry dents and bollard scars on their doors I understand why they’re necessary. We’d probably be better off, though, if they just made it hard enough to get a license that people who shouldn’t be driving aren’t.
This. All I want to be able to do is turn the goddamn thing off and have it STAY OFF.
Auto stop/start is the worst offender of this to me, but not really relevant to the discussion.
The IIHS requires it turn back on every time to make it count towards their safety rating.
Direct your hate accordingly.
Yesterday my mom and I went to the store in her Santa Cruz, and after backing out and starting to accelerate, it made this noise like you hear in a game when a missile is locked onto you. BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP. I thought I missed a car driving toward me, but no. It was alerting me the rear door was not latched properly. Which, while I DO appreciate it communicating to me, it was insistent that I stop right this second in the main area of a parking lot, rather than doing a gentle chime like every other vehicle does and waiting for me to safely park. I’m just glad it didn’t lock me into park because it would have been a very bad time.
As someone who drives a lot of new Lexuses, Lexi? Through a car wash it really does annoy me when it sounds like an F-18 getting radar locked in a warzone and then harshly applying the brakes, though i know its with good intentions but man did it get old fast. Do love my job though!
“… Lexuses, Lexi?”
I believe the word you are looking for is “Lexupotomusses”.
It’s not a nag, but my Toyota declares “Welcome to Oregon!” (or whatever state I’m driving into) whenever I cross a state line. To be clear, the nav or radio doesn’t have to be on for this to happen. I guess it would be useful if I accidentally drove into Yemen.
I just figured out how to turn that off!
I’d tell you how but I forgot.
I could get behind a system that declares “Welcome to Oregon or whatever state you’re driving into!” whenever any state line is crossed anywhere.
“Welcome to a state of rage/frustration/resignation”
“Welcome to the state where your car is illegal. Toyota does not advocate for or condone avoiding law enforcement.”
Every single day, my car identifies the shadow of overhead utility wires as a lane line, and nags me about a lane departure. Well, not every single day. Just when it’s sunny enough for there to be a shadow.
It also warns me about lane departures when I pass parked cars on narrow roads, with nothing at all to say about the *freaking parked car* in the lane ahead of me.
Our old Tucson had lane keep and, if you had it on, it would try to jerk into turn lanes at 60 miles per hour that lacked dots because it would think the road required you to turn.
After one or two times of that, none of us used lane keep. xD
Gah, I swear I’m not stanning Tesla. But, aside from the lane departure being way too sensitive, it’s pretty good in my HW4 vehicle. Blind spot doesn’t go off unless the vehicle is changing lanes and there’s legitimately a car there. The attention nag has an okay grace period and works fine with sunglasses. Brilliant car, idiot CEO.
I don’t own a new enough car to have any of this crap, but I did find it extremely annoying when the new Expedition I rented last summer kept beeping and telling me to put my hands on the wheel, when they were already on the wheel.
All the giant screens and the beeping, it’s too much! I felt so relieved when I returned it and climbed behind the wheel of my 25 year old shitbox Corolla.
I’ll take No Fucking Shit for $400, Alex
Most real driving enthusiasts don’t want a light telling them anything other than the blinker is on .
BMW drivers don’t never have to worry about that ,they don’t use blinkers .
Ever ^ oops
My neighbor got one of the first Mercedes that had a drowsy driver warning light. It looks like a coffee mug. When the car was new, he was driving and pre ding to be sleepy to set off the coffee mug warning light to experiment to see what would happen. And he got pulled over by the police.
He started to explain what was going on and the officer said “stop. I know what you’re gonna tell me, there’s a coffee mug warning light You’re trying to set it off. Don’t do that.”
I hate that coffee mug. The van has yet to make me an espresso, but beeps every time I turn my head to the right to make a right turn.
I got a bit of this on my 25 Leaf S, though I went with the S trim specifically for less of this stuff.
Blind spot monitoring goes on and stays on when I go to pass other cars, even though I’m several car lengths ahead by the time I merge back into the slow lane.
Parking sensor popup comes up whenever I put the car in reverse, but it doesn’t do anything or display anything.
Car computer takes a couple seconds to go through its start sequence. So I can’t drive it till that happens, which is a minor gripe but I never had that issue with my older ICE vehicles.
Best I can tell there is no button to turn off the infotainment screen, even when it is literally doing nothing. On the Leaf it’s only good for screen sharing with my phone, and when it’s not doing that the screen is still running.
I still need to read the manual, but it’s like 600+ pages -_-
My Mazda also has blind spot monitoring that uses a pretty large distance (the forums say 50m) before the nagging stops. In practice, that’s way more than necessary. I turned the beeping off and left the flashing light on.
I thought the same thing with my GR86, but I found out that I can go to “display” in the main menu and turn the screen off while it continues playing music or whatever. I can even use GPS as the gauge display has an option to show directions. Obviously different companies and all, but maybe there’s something similar with yours.
Just found that myself, wish it was a dedicated button though.
I’m not at all surprised at any of this. The annoyance generated is terrible enough, but that is just the beginning of the issues.
Most of this crap will not improve actual safety, may make things more dangerous, and is all more stuff to potentially brick the car once any of it stops working after the warrantee is expired.
3rd hand users when these cars are 15-20 years old are going to be screwed.
What? Night vision is the best. If it’s night and I’m not on the highway I’m using it.
Also it’s kind of hilarious that automakers have put themselves in this hole where cars have to nag drivers because they can’t do basic functions without looking away.
Volvo be like “People are taking their eyes off the road to turn on the heated seat” my brother you put the heated seat controls on the screen what did you expect? For people to say “Hey My Volvo, please turn on the drivers heated seat and adjust it to level 2”. Nobody is fucking doing that.
Every time it’s cold out, my car chimes at me that the roads may be icy, which makes me take my eyes off the road to see what the hell the car is complaining about. The timing is such that this routinely happens while I’m backing into the street, or turning onto the highway.
Stupid promaster likes to sound alerts right when you press the accelerator. That’s the worst time to distract a driver.
90s and early 00s BMWs used the exact same chime for the cold temp ice warning as the check engine light chime of death. It routinely scares the heck of if owners in warmer climates when they hear the chime just because it got under 37 deg F. I have fallen for that scare a few times.
I surprised the Park Assist feature is not listed. it seems most people don’t use it (too slow or doesn’t work) except for the occasional novelty.
I don’t trust it! Only used it on the test drive.