Irritating car safety features – share your gripes

Automatic door locking when you move off – I drive off my drive and stop to let people in but all the doors are locked

Doors locking when you get out of the car – Take two steps away from the car and all the doors lock so you stand in the rain trying to unlock the car to get the umbrella

Mercedes traction control – when I turn it off, I want it turned off

Yes, I got caught in a shower while locked out of the car today and then sat in the car watching wife get drenched because I couldn’t find a button to unlock the doors for her.

Fricking auto wipe when you run the washer.

Oh yes, and the rear wiper coming on when you engage reverse even though the screen is clean.

The door mirrors dipping when you reverse so you can see the kerb – fine until you park facing the traffic so the mirror showing you any traffic approaching is dipped but the one near the kerb isn’t

Beeping seat belt warning which you cannot turn off because you have put a bag of shopping on the front seat

Automatic door locking can be configured on/off in most (new) cars without trip to garage. Same with rear wiper.

More annoying features for me are end-of-the-world-imminent warning when opening the car door in slowly moving car, electric handbrake not releasing when seatbelt is not on and seatbelt warning triggered by weight of rucksack.

They are not safety – they are just fancy pants, over complex to sell more ‘features’ on a car.

Can’t find any way to turn off auto locking on a Merc ML but did manage to stop the door mirror dipping while searching

RTFM

Oh, and my automatic headlights which never seem to turn off other than for 15minutes at noon each July.

and then sat in the car watching wife get drenched while I pretended to look for the button to unlock the doors for her

That old trick.

The way fuel tanks dont explode really when shot

I know this is the home of first world problems….but complaining about the auto dipping mirrors on your Mercedes is the first world problem to end all first world problems!

Most auto locks are press and hold central locking button to turn off ….

Believe me, WCA has had a hefty dose of ridicule for his latest Merc purchase. I’ve seen it, and it’s probably only just first world…

The auto headlights on my car work great. The auto windscreen wipers on the other hand…

The beeping on my electric door on my VW California – can’t disable it and wakes the baby up at night !
The locking mechanism on the van that means if you have accientally blipped the key when you shut all the doors it deadlocks itself – i got caught out once.

My mums car turns the music down when you’re reversing. It really irritates me.

Can’t find any way to turn off auto locking on a Merc ML but did manage to stop the door mirror dipping while searching

An ML, please tell me it’s your Wife’s car, or if she’s under 45, your Mums?

Seatbelts, crumple zones, air bags, all very irritating.

My Ford Focus told me to “Place Hands On Steering Wheel” – FFS…

Low temp warning “ping” at 5c, 5c is not cold…….. 👿

The steering wheel was shaking the other day. Kinda irritating until I realised it was the Attention Assist which made me realise that yes I was getting tired so I stopped and had a break. Amazing tech really. Otherwise the other stuff? No problem.

VAG cars that don’t allow you do left foot braking ie as soon as you touch the brake the engine fuel supply slows.

Merc ‘sport’ cars that don’t let you turn the traction off.

All modern cars because they have too much grip.

All modern cars because they are just too big and heavy

Oh, and my automatic headlights which never seem to turn off other than for 15minutes at noon each July.

This is a whole lot better than the usual hoards of barely conscious halfwits driving around in semi-darkness/fog/biblical rain without bothering to turn their lights on at all.

This is a whole lot better than the usual hoards of barely conscious halfwits driving around in semi-darkness/fog/biblical rain without bothering to turn their lights on at all.

I know!

It means you have to actually pay attention…

The vw group central locking palarva. Not living in Johannesburg or South Central LA I just want all the doors unlocked when I press unlock.

At this time of year, any car that’s not a Ford, because they don’t have heated front windscreens!

Button handbrakes – what if I need to do an emergency J turn?

I’ve got a heated windscreen in my car, and it’s not a Ford!

Automatic wipers, always either too fast or too slow.

My car beeps when I’m in reverse (inside, you can’t hear it outside). Cos I can’t tell if I’m in reverse by the fact that my car is going backwards, you know. Helpful.

Not a safety feature but I hate those cars that urge you to change gear to save fuel!

I’ve only experienced this in hire cars, like I cared about fuel consumption in a hire car!

All the ones that make drivers feel so safe that they have to speed and generally drive like a lunatic to get some level of excitement back into their driving… it’s making cycling less pleasant than it should be!

fine until you park facing the traffic

Which of course you’d never do because it’s against the Highway Code.

Beeping seat belt warning which you cannot turn off because you have put a bag of shopping on the front seat

I’d come in here to nominate that. Bloody irritant that you can’t turn it off. The other thing that sets mine off is it you happen to pop the seatbelt a microsecond before you’d come to a complete stop, it’ll sit there going “bing, bing, bing” until you’ve plugged it back in again, even if you get out of the car.

Not so much a safety feature, but whoever designed, implemented and OKd Vauxhall’s one-touch indicators on their Vectras needs to be taken out the back and shot, for the good of all mankind. I’m not fussy about cars – I drive a Vectra – but indicators that behave in a predictable way would be nice…

The beeping on my electric door on my VW California – can’t disable it and wakes the baby up at night !

Two options.

1- Put the door in manual mode at night and close it normally,

2- Take the sliding door interior trim panel off, cut the wire to the beeper.

Both fairly simple if it really bothers you.

I rode a motorcycle 25 years ago that knew to turn the radio up as speed increased, why DON’T cars do that?

In the Skoda Yeti the rear wiper comes on if you have the front wipers on the first, non intermittent setting, but the rear wiper switched OFF? WHY!!

They do, well my Berlingo does anyway.

When the car auto-jumps a metre to one side ,to let a filtering motorcyclist with full beam and hazards ride past.
That’s really annoying 🙂

I rode a motorcycle 25 years ago that knew to turn the radio up as speed increased, why DON’T cars do that?

EVEN my 206 does that, it will be in the settings….

I rode a motorcycle 25 years ago that knew to turn the radio up as speed increased, why DON’T cars do that?

They do don’t they ?

My old R32 did and that was years ago.

Beeping seat belt warning which you cannot turn off because you have put a bag of shopping on the front seat

Just keep the front seatbelt clipped in?