As an old fogy who's first car had no automation apart from the points and coil providing a spark. Since then I have owned and maintained, mainly my three daughter's, cars with increasing levels of electronics and complexity.  In every case there have been problems caused by damp, connection problems and hardware errors in the clever electronic bits. Given the hostile environment of a car, especially as it gets older, I do not see any attempt being made to ruggedise components by design or manufacture. Many car designs appear to be made to fail with all the connections and computers located where they will get wet when the sunroof drains block or a seal gets damaged or mislaid during maintenance with no attempt being made to damp proof the components. I worked on one car where there had been recalls to stick bits of polythene sheets to stop condensation entering  multiple computers

The result is that I am concerned  that all these "aids" stand a chance of failing to danger when the car is older irrespective of maintenance. Even if they fail will the driver be expecting them to work and have an incident as a result. I read the odd aircraft accident report and if aircraft systems can fail with all the redundancy,  regulations, testing and strict maintenance schedules and procedures what chance does a car built the lowest price stand when it is few years old.

My sister in law recently got rid of her new car as she could not work out how to work all the aids that made her feel she had no control over the car and kept sounding warning sounds that she did not know what they were for  and distracted her from driving. 

I read that people are now questioning the safety of the touch screens for basic controls when compared to simple switches or rotary controls. I must admit I have to look away from the road to alter my heating in my car which I never had to do with the old rotary controls with set positions. 

I feel that progress is often being made for the sake of progress rather than safety.

These various new systems seem to cause wide spread problems/confussion:

Two in five drivers switch off vital vehicle safety features (fleetnews.co.uk)

I've had to turn off the parking sensors when they are covered in snow and bleeping at low speeds. 

Good point!  i wonder how that risk assessment proceeded.  Volvo have had all DRL for ages but when mandated it only applied o the front lights.  Odd.

Having watched several vehicle reviews on YouTube recently, it sounds like some of these safety features can be very badly implemented on some cars.  Whether it's the lane keep assist that beeps frantically and then tries to pull the steering out of your hands, or the emergency braking system that operates without warning when it's not needed.

If that's the case, then I'm not surprised if people turn them off.

So far, the lane assist on my new car only seems to create a gentle rumble - less than I get if I hit the rumble strip on a motorway.  If that's all it's going to do, then I'm happy to leave it on.

Simon i think you are right here and it's typical MSM repeating press releases without engaging their brain.  How about disabling a passenger airbag because there is a child seat in the front - yep that would count as disabling a safety feature. Switching off auto-wipe probably does too even though you only do so because it is totally incapable of working properly (unless on a VW see above). 

I quite like the gentle rumble effect, so that is a good driver aid.  But in a free world I surely retain the right to turn it off without the nanny state tut-tut-ing.  Rather like the MoT test that has mission creep and everything now is safety.  My old car failed because the fog light tell tale light had stopped working.  The fog lights were fine but this "safety feature" meant it failed - it didn't need a light but because  it had one that didn't work it was a "fail".  Give me strength.

Last year my car failed the MOT as the screen wash jets were not working..... Given that it was minus 10 that day and the screen wash tank was frozen solid (as well as many other drivers screen wash tanks had too) then I'm not surprised  

Gave it some time to thaw out again then lo and behold it passed.... 

Paul Ch said:

My old car failed because the fog light tell tale light had stopped working.  The fog lights were fine but this "safety feature" meant it failed - it didn't need a light but because  it had one that didn't work it was a "fail". 

Sounds right to me.  So far as I know, it's always been a requirement since fog lights became a requirement.  I'm sure all of us have found ourselves stuck behind a car with its fog lights on, despite there being no fog for days.

Now imagine how often it would happen if cars didn't have a warning light on the dashboard.

I've just seen an electric push bike on my walk into town at lunchtime. As it went into the underpass beneath the roundabout not far from Futures Place, its lights came on automatically (both front AND rear) and then back off again once the rider had exited the underpass and back into what passes for daylight at this time of the year. 

Now if only cars could do that too.... 

My Peugeot 508 does that when set to auto lights.  DRL then full lights when the sensors think it is needed.  There is one slight flaw in the system.  When it snows it thinks that full lights front and back are not needed so I then switch to manual overide.  Also in foggy conditions I sometimes need to manual overide it. 

Sergio Fernandez said:

My Peugeot 508 does that when set to auto lights.  DRL then full lights when the sensors think it is needed

Is that both front and rear lights though Sergio? Many cars I see on my daily commute will have only the front DRLs on with nothing on the back. It's a bit scary when you come up behind someone in thick fog with no lights on the back but their fancy LED strip lights on the front are on so they think that's sufficient! 

I've recently had a dash cam fitted to one of my vehicles as I'm fed up of drivers cutting tight in front of it to turn off at a junction rather than pulling in behind to wait a few seconds. My truck is 2 tonne and doesn't stop on a penny like my usual mode of transport can! I have a lot of renewed sympathy for truck drivers... In a recent commute to work in heavy rain I'd say there were around 2 in 10 cars on the road that were not sporting rear lights on their cars. Overtaking them and you could see their DRLs were on but no lights at the back where it's really needed especially on motorways and small country lanes! 

Is that both front and rear lights though

On my other half's car it is - front DRLs when it thinks it's daylight, sidelights/dipped headlights front and rear when it thinks it's dark.

   - Andy.

Is that both front and rear lights though

On my other half's car it is - front DRLs when it thinks it's daylight, sidelights/dipped headlights front and rear when it thinks it's dark.

   - Andy.