I like to think I'm not yet old enough to be classed as a boring old fart who is just set in their ways and resistant to technological progress, but if I get a hire car that has some modern gadgets I always look to see if they can be turned off.
Daytime running lights (DRLs) are a bugbear of mine - how often do you see cars at night running around with the DRLs illuminated, with no other lights on. The driver presumably unaware because the DRLs on normal daytime mode are bright enough to light the road ahead so they seemingly don't notice they don't have any lights on. With DRLs often brighter when in normal day mode, they can be pretty blinding at night! Some even relatively modern Suzukis and Dacia cars I've driven have DRLs which is fine, but the dash is only backlit when you turn the dipped beams on yourself. This reduces the risk of driving around with only DRLs on the front and nothing on the back at night as you can't see your instruments, so when you get in the car at night you don't forget to put your lights on.
On the subject of lights, the ones that seem to move around over bumps and look like people are flashing - what's that all about? Is this an automatic replacement for the old manual adjustment system that you used to move your beam up and down depending on how much weight you had in the car or when pulling a trailer etc? I once had a friend call me up after picking their car up from the garage as their headlights wouldn't switch on. Turns out during the service the switch had obviously got moved off from automatic lights...
Things like lane departure warning etc, as already mentioned. I get the principle of why they exist but in practice have found them sometimes having the potential to cause issues, such as the example above regarding overtaking vulnerable road users and it tries to guide you back in when you cross the line. Makes you use your indicators a lot more though, as that seems to overrule the system on ones I've tried, but sometimes if nothing is around you might not always think to use them for a quick overtake.
The light that appears in the mirror if something is in your blind spot... I've often wondered if a better system would've been the other way round so that it was on when there ISN'T anything in your blind spot? Currently if the system itself fails, or just fails to pick something up, then people see no light and may just move out thinking it's clear. A light on at all times, only going out when there is something there, would see people looking for the light and only moving out blindly if it was lit. Therefore if the system fails (or fails to pick something up) then no light is shown, and people will hopefully assume that means something is there and hopefully perform a good old fashioned blind spot check. I must confess I've not had a car with them, just seen it on other people's when one of us is overtaking/next to the other and on a hire car I once drove only briefly and in daylight hours, so I don't have first hand experience of how big/bright these lights are from a driver's perspective.
Satnavs are another big one for me. Now I do use one sometimes, mainly when driving abroad, and when used properly I believe are a good invention. I think I've read that these days you have to use one in your driving test, during which time people's training has hopefully seen them taught to use them for guidance in conjunction with getting into the habit of still doing blind spot checks etc. People who passed before this was added, which group I fall into myself, I fear has a subgroup within it whereby they blindly react to what the Satnav tells them. It say get in the right hand lane, so they move across without even checking their mirrors or blind spot (sometimes without any indication or only indicating after beginning to move over), nearly taking you out! I say this because so many times this manoeuvre has been pulled on me, you then see through the rear window that they do indeed have a satnav going, and in many cases where not integrated into the dash it's mounted right in the middle of the windscreen in what seems to be a place where it must surely block some of their view? Rather than say on top of the dash or in the bottom right hand side of the windscreen more out of the way. The user-fitted phone mount in my neighbour's car looks to be almost right in front of their face!
My car is possibly due an upgrade, but I'm reluctant because it is very much a basic vehicle without many of these gadgets or gizmos. It has electric windows, integrated satnav/Bluetooth/Radio, and heated door mirrors... but that's about it! It does have cruise control too, but I've only really found it useful abroad where the roads are generally a bit less busy - not found it worthwhile over here. I guess that might change if I had the adaptive type though. I love it for its simplicity though. I sometimes fear too much tech disconnects people further and further from the actual driving itself, sort of de-skilling the task of drivers at a time where the driver is still ultimately needed to control the vehicle. Maybe too much too soon?
