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Originally Posted by trogdor007
With cars getting more and more like smartphones with apps, nav, and the like, I wanted to get your opinion on car technology. I'm talking in-cabin stuff like touch screen and voice activated head units and performance and convenience options like rear parking aids and blind spot indicators. A lot of the guys I've talked to aren't very techy per se, but they said they'd love some of the new radio/sync technology but only if it's standard. On the other hand, my mom for example loves all the latest and greatest and bought an Ford Escape Titanium for all of the extras like the liftgate thing and MyFordTouch. I'm somewhere in between. While I love consumer tech and all, I feel that it can overwhelm the driving experience. I know the FR-S/BRZ interiors can be a bit sparse on comfort features, but they have more than enough tech for a lot of you. What do you guys think? Has car tech made cars better or drivers worse?
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Tech in cars has indeed made them better, but lazy operators (they only operate the vehicle, not drive it) have abused the tech to distract themselves and be even more unsafe than they already were.
I like advanced tech which allows me to have good quality radio/music in the car without requiring me to interact with it much. For example, Pandora service through the smartphone, bt in-car handsfree, built-in navi (either in unit, or through phone gps and phone map service like gmaps), etc. But the less that it requires me direct interaction, the better.
That's the advances I like. The advances I dislike are all the "look at me look at me!" distraction stuff. Having adjustable backlighting and wallpaper is great for interior accent and theming and I will pay for those features, but I don't need the unit to play all the latest video formats and have advanced disc playback features, etc. That's more appropriate to a minivan, and relegated to the control of she who is XO and otherwise running the minivan while you drive it. It does NOT belong in a sports coupe.