The Eight Worst New Car Features
The Car Connection — “In general new cars are fantastic - vastly more reliable and better-built than the cars of the past. But some have features you wish would stop working, or that had never been installed in the first place.”
In effect, this is a
usability rant. I know some people *cough* me *cough* that like some of these features. What do you like? What do you hate?
July 14th, 2004 at 2:46 pm
How about a radio that stays on until you open the driver’s door more than 6 inches!
I had my car stolen and got a rental car. It took me at least 2 minutes to figure out how to turn the radio off in the rental the first time I stopped the car! Even the regular power switch didn’t work.
The worst “old” feature of many cars I hate is the location of the turn signal stalk usually too far to reach and still keep your hand on the steering wheel. The rented Cavalier had this problem, yet my 1988 Honda CRX and 1999 Dodge Caravan have excellent placement of the turn signal stalk…
Kevin
July 14th, 2004 at 8:01 pm
Seatbelts are the worst feature ever to have been built into cars. They make the car occupants safer, therefore encouraging faster, more reckless driving, which reduces the safety of other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists.
I’m serious. As somebody who uses a bicycle for regular transport, seatbelts have been a disaster.
July 15th, 2004 at 8:05 am
GM’s always-on parking lights
This is actually a good thing. In several European countries you are forced by law to always have the lights on. Apparently some studies have showed that this reduce the number of accidents.
Toyota’s back-up alarm.
In a van made by Citroen (French car) the alarm sounds like bird song. That have to be one of the worst usability mistakes in car history.
Belt Minder
This is actually a Swedish idea. Volvo were the first cars to have “belt minders”. But only as a small warning light on the dashboard. I guess it is typically for American car manufacturers to take a good European idea and turn into something totally useless and annoying :-)
Pacifying features
Radar-guided parking, intelligent cruise control and other pacifying features may not be dangerous by itself, but a collection of such features makes it easier for drivers to loose attention to their driving and they may not be able to react fast enough to unexpected events. The question that have to be asked in such cases: “Does the benefits of this feature out weight the disadvantage?”. I would guess that many features wouldn’t be introduced if that question had be asked. The only question car manufacturers is interested in is: “Will this feature sell more cars?”.
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Kjetil Wikestad
http://blogs.psykologi.org/wikestad
July 15th, 2004 at 3:39 pm
I think the engine is the worst feature. I mean, before cars had engines, they moved very slowly and were therefore very safe for both their occupants and any pedestrians and cyclists.