It's not even Nannymobile, more like the Distractor Tractor - some of the stuff is downright distracting and dumb. I figured out the Bluetooth is to basically get my phone to talk to the car so I could take and receive calls while driving. Uhh...how about we NOT introduce blinky random distractions like calls and texts to the cockpit and just focus on driving the car, hmm? The thing has a back-up camera, but I rarely see it because I turn my head and shoulders to put my eyeballs out the back window. I read that all new cars from 2018 need to have these cameras. Great...a safety related item that will probably cost a few kilobucks to fix for inspection.
I'm tempted to look through the fuse box to pull the ones related to the touchscreen/Bluetooth crap but that would probably brick the car or lock the doors and drive me automatically to the dealership for a $1000 fuse box "service" or "re-education". Maybe I should cover everything with lots of black electrical tape.
I still drive my 2005 Civic to work and local trips and now I really want to keep her for a while. It's going to take a *long* time to get cozy with the new blinky car.
I'm with you on wanting things like that to be optional rather than mandatory. I've often thought that my next truck will be a mid-80s Ford, preferably from a southern state.
But some of those gadgets I like. My current truck is a 2005. It has automatic headlights (like), automatic dimming mirrors (love), side view mirrors that pitch down in reverse so I can see the curb while parking (like), power windows and locks (like), and zone air conditioning (okay).
None of those things was a requirement for me; they came with this trim option. The next option down was a bare bones "contractor" truck that has manual everything and no carpet, for use on filthy worksites. Now that I have that stuff I'm addicted to most of it!
I really wish the stock radio had Blue Tooth so I could play my phone's music through it. If you don't like Blue Tooth or talking on your phone, turn off your phone's BT control.
Backup cameras? Nice as an addon; but I'd prefer to have a simple proximity sensor. Sometimes it's hard to see how close my rear bumper is to light poles or short railings.
What I did NOT want was OnStar or equivalent. I don't need to be tracked, and my phone has a variety of GPS apps to choose from, all of which get updated frequently. I do NOT want a vehicle that has to connect to the internet for any reason. Fortunately, my vehicle has pretty much just the right mix of new tech and old. It's been coast to coast more than once and I dread the day I have to replace it.
My other gripe with modern cars is that even things that used to work perfectly fine and were easy to fix/replace now have to be computerized or otherwise made more complicated than they need to be. I have a light out in my instrument panel; the only way to replace it is to replace the entire circuit card for a few hundred bucks...so I guess I will live with the out lamp for a while. On my old Volkswagen Sirocco I would've bought a new lamp for about 50 cents and replaced it in about 5 minutes.
