It’s meant to make cars safer and easier to drive, but driving-assistance tech is quickly becoming the bane of motorists’ lives.
From lane departure assist to reversing cameras, modern motors are fitted with a suite of assistance features – often pushing up the price of new models by thousands of pounds as well as increasing the blood pressure of drivers.
But one system above all others is causing Britons a headache behind the wheel: auto start/stop.
The fuel saving function – which automatically turns the car’s engine off when a drivers comes to a standstill – has been voted the most stress-inducing new car feature when Direct Line surveyed 2,021 licence holders about irritating driver assistance tech.
Which other intrusive assistance features do British drivers hate the most? And do you agree with them?
We reveal the answers…
A quarter of drivers with auto start/stop in their car described it as ‘actively annoying’ and choose to not use it because of this, making it the most irritating driver assistance feature
Over a quarter of drivers whose car has auto start/stop described it as ‘actively annoying’ and choose to not use it because of this.
And the feature is one of the most common of all, with half of drivers having this start/stop functionality available in their vehicles.
The system actively shuts down the engine when a car stops at traffic lights or in a queue of stationary vehicles to reduce fuel consumption – and help drivers save money – while also theoretically lowering emissions.
But the unpredictability of the system – sometimes killing the engine just as drivers want to pull away – is causing headaches and forcing some motorists to turn it off entirely during journeys, especially through town and lots of stop-start intervals.
Some 27 per cent of motorists with the feature equipped in their cars say it’s more frustration than it’s worth having, according to the insurer’s poll.
Lane assist – a safety feature that uses cameras to keep a car in lane – came in a close second with 25 per cent of drivers with the feature opting to turn it off in order to motor in peace (36 per cent of motorists surveyed had lane assist in their car).
Lane assist is an increasingly common safety feature in new cars as it helps to reduce potential accidents by sending alerts to drivers who drift out of their lanes – and can steer the car back into lane.
It’s a key component in modern cars scoring well in Euro NCAP safety ratings.
However, the sensation of the vehicle steering itself and pulling against the direction the driver is turning can become irritating and perceived as dangerous, while the system’s incessant beeping and vibrating of the steering wheel to warn a motorist that they may be veering out of their lane is also triggering motorists.
Owners of MG4s have raised major concerns about the lane assist system in their cars, with hundreds of drivers reporting dangerous instances of the feature steering them towards hazards.
Lane Keep Assist (LKA) came in second with 25% of drivers reporting this as annoying enough to avoid using
The new Nissan Qashqai has a birds-eye view reversing camera, a view where you can see where the front wheels are and a 200-degree camera that helps you at blind junctions
A fifth of drivers with front and rear sensors in their car – 60 per cent have this feature in their vehicle – find the bleeping annoying and so turn off the sensors to avoid this.
Blind spot assist and collision warning were the next most irritating assistance features for drivers, with 14 and 13 per cent respectively reporting them as tech to actively avoid using.
Nine per cent of drivers avoided using remote parking and active cruise control because of how infuriating they can be, while 8 per cent of motorists hate the collision avoidance function in their car that can loudly warn them of an impending crash – sometimes when there is no threat at all – and automatically apply the brakes if the system deems the user is not going to react in time.
ALL new cars now fitted with auto speed limiters – it could become the most irritating feature yet…
A safety regulation mandate from the EU has demanded that all car manufacturers fit speed limiters to new models as of July 7, 2024 – and the same technology will also be installed in almost all new models sold in Britain, This is Money exclusively revealed last year.
Despite the UK Government’s refusal to implement the same mandate, the most popular vehicle brands tell us they already equip their latest models with Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA).
Introduced in a bid to cut road deaths on Europe’s roads, the automatic speed limiter system uses a suite of tech in modern vehicles to determine the speed limit a car is travelling in.
It uses a combination of GPS data, satellite navigation, speed-sign recognition cameras and forward-facing cameras to identify what the speed limit is at any given time and determine if the vehicle is exceeding it.
If the car is travelling over the limit, motorists will initially receive a number of warnings ushering them to slow down – all of which are triggered when a driver exceeds a limit by just 1mph.
These can be visual alerts on the instrument cluster or screen, a short audible warning, or a gentle vibration of the steering wheel when the limit is being exceeded. Manufacturers can use a combination of these – or all three.
Incessant warnings, beeps and judders will ultimately become tiresome for drivers.
ISA is only mandated for new models sold in the EU from July 7, 2024. However, This is Money exclusively revealed last year that it will be fitted to almost all UK cars, too
ISA must be active every time the car’s engine starts – but there also must be the option for drivers to turn it off for each journey
And if the alerts are repeatedly ignored, the system can intervene by restricting engine power to automatically bring the speed down to the legal limit.
At no time does ISA apply the brakes, achieving a reduction in speed only by curtailing the power from the engine.
ISA can be overridden for a short burst of acceleration above the legal speed limit, for instance when a driver needs to overtake a slow-moving vehicle.
To do so, the driver needs to push hard on the accelerator pedal to temporarily disengage the system. The ISA will allow the car to go above the permitted limit for a short amount of time before the alerts reengage.
So, can you switch it off? Under the EU’s ‘GSR2’ or ‘Regulation (EU) 2019/2144’, ISA can be turned off – but not permanently.
The system must automatically activate each time the engine is started, meaning motorists will need to switch it off before setting off on every journey.
How difficult it is to deactivate the system is determined by each car brand. Mainstream manufacturers have explained below how to turn it off in their vehicles.
Do you trust driver assistance features?
It’s not that drivers are just finding tech annoying; many reported to Direct Line that they don’t trust the tech.
When asked which vehicle technology feature they trusted least, 27 per cent responded with remote parking, while another 27 per cent cited reverse parking assist as the least trustworthy tech.
Cruise control, parallel parking assist and front/rear sensors all scored 17 per cent of the vote, while 15 per cent don’t trust active cruise control.
Blind spot assist, collision avoidance and driver drowsiness detection were distrusted by 14 per cent of drivers.
Hill descent assist wasn’t trusted by 13 per cent of drivers.
Cruise control was the least used feature, with 20 per cent of motorists telling Direct Line they never use it even though their car has it.
Reverse parking assist and active cruise control took home second and third place in redundant features, both scoring 16 per cent.
Older drivers surprisingly prefer using driver assist tech to younger drivers, the Direct Line research found
Older drivers MORE likely to use assistance features in their cars
A surprise finding was that older generations, despite not learning to drive with these technologies, were more likely to use them.
Drivers over the age of 55 use many more driving assists than drivers aged 17 to 24 years old.
For instance, 77 per cent of older drivers use front and rear sensors compared to just 53 per cent of younger drivers, while lane assist is used by 52 per cent of those aged over 55 but only 39 per cent of those aged 17 to 24.
Matt Pernet, Head of Motor Insurance at Direct Line, commented: ‘Car manufacturers invest huge resources in developing technologies to make the driving experience safer and more enjoyable.
‘While it can be daunting to rely on unfamiliar technology, the features installed in cars undergo rigorous testing and help to keep our roads safer.’
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