I'm genuinely curious about whether buyers want those features or they're being pushed onto them to partly justify sky-high MSRP's?

I know that some Toyota dealers now have tech experts separate from the sales staff who spend on average 1-2 hours at delivery explaining the new nannies that buyer's didn't even know their vehicles had.

They don't know about many nannies because they don't have the Imeadiate impact of easing the burden that the Distracted Driving Packages have.
I don't want to be "that guy" but you will have to take my word that the public is demanding even more things that make driving "easier" for them. I have to sit through a 4 hour presentation every 1/4 and this is what they talk about for about 3 hours of it. The demand is there but I can not share the info and data to show it.


Here is a small (released) tidbit to chew on.


https://press.zf.com/press/en/releas...ease_6848.html


As far as pushing prices up goes the Eyesight system in my wife's Impreza cost her an extra $800. I doubt they made much money at that price since the stuff is expensive.

I have to wonder though if its not $800 for the "final mile" pieces. I would imagine a lot of the "infrastructure" for it is built into every car, even those that don't have it. Similar to how a lot of cars have wiring harnesses that have plugs for things you didn't get because it's easier to have one and spread the cost over all cars.

Oh I would be surprised if it wasn't built in all of them. That would be peanuts in cost though. I think that the 17 MY was the last where there was an upcharge for the systems from Subaru. Have never looked but am pretty sure they are just included with the cars now. At least the higher trim levels.

Those study outcomes will be important.

One example of unexpected consequences is a Car Control course run in the auto-x area of the local track, PIR. I've taken it a couple of times and thought it would help new drivers. The opposite was true.

According to an Oregon State University study that I can't find, CC graduates had a higher accident rate than non CC grads. The study concluded that the CC course created overconfidence in young drivers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...ature=emb_logo

So discounting for helicopter parents, maybe the NTSB will find reasons to include them in most production vehicles, the direction Toyota took with the latest Toyota Safety Sense v.2.0 system that's included at no cost in many 2020's.

https://www.toyota.com/safety-sense/animation/drcc

most people are shit drivers, glad they're able to buy tools so I don't get crashed into as often

I remember reading or hearing somewhere that wiring harnesses were built to match a specific car. Having loose plugs is a safety hazard and therefore not something that is allowed.

That may be, I can't say I'm an expert on wiring harnesses, it has just always been my impression that for things like fog lights and other "add ons" that may be done by the dealership the plugs were already provided. I have nothing to back that up.

Some these features are amazingly useful. My mother has a Lincoln SUV, and it has cameras covering 360º on the outside, so you can use them to make sure the behemoth is in the parking space or to make sure I don't mistakenly drive over my car when pulling it into their driveway. That's something I wouldn't mind having in most cars. Even our car it would be nice to not have to worry about smashing into those stupid parking concrete pieces every time.

Not to mention there is a time for enjoying a drive, but it is not when you have a commute through traffic and who knows what else. Commuting 30 minutes or more through rush hour is not something anyone enjoys. There is a reason I made sure I could walk to work.

That's 100% not true. In fact a lot of these modern cars have all the plugs for every option you can get for them worldwide. So things like automatically folding mirrors is simple plug and play. And in my last car, the Yaris, they even had the bodies built so that any car could have the Japan only awd system simply attached without major modifications. Everything was already present for it to bolt right up.

None of these plugs are "loose." The wiring is tied down every few inches or so in all of these cars. The only place our cars have any wires that are even remotely loose are in the headliner. I had to buy zip ties after I took mine out to keep those wires restrained.

Yea, I'd pay the extra for that feature in just about any car, but particularly larger ones like my Suburban.

I guess I'm an exception to this rule. I've commuted between 45 minutes to an hour one way pretty much my entire career. I actually like it. It gives me a decent separation between work and home in my mind, time to decompress or get ready for the day. For about two years I lived within walking distance of work and it drove me nuts. I felt like there was no buffer.

Thanks for the confirmation on this. I thought it was the case but didn't have any reliable proof.

At least soon there will be fully auto cars for people who can't drive. Of course the shittiest drivers probably can't afford them anyway LOL. The elderly might be able to, but that EBT queen in the left lane doing 45 with her crappy little SUV... not so much.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

If they rush it too soon, we'll just be trading people who can't drive but have some sense of self preservation for cars that can drive in 90% of conditions but are oblivious the other 10% of the time. I think I'll stick with the people.

That 2021 ZF coPILOT system is impressive. Hopefully they include a permanent opt out for data collection and distribution. Incidentally, Toyota does offer opt out on their latest Entune system but requires a trip to the dealer.

I bought NVDA stock yesterday thinking it will exceed the former peak from miner sales with the ZF rollout.

Short ZF demo from your link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRw0...ature=youtu.be