{"id":9207,"date":"2019-01-25T07:39:14","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T21:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/?p=9207"},"modified":"2020-06-20T00:17:52","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T14:17:52","slug":"the-least-useful-bells-and-whistles-on-modern-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/automotive-design\/the-least-useful-bells-and-whistles-on-modern-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"The Least Useful Bells And Whistles On Modern Cars"},"content":{"rendered":"

You really have to hand it to the car designers and developers.\u00a0 They really do a great job of putting out new models all the time and coming up with all sorts of new things.\u00a0 Some of these innovations are fantastic and useful \u2013 improved battery range in EVs, increased torque alongside better fuel economy in a diesel engine, and finding more places to stash airbag. Inside the car, you have delights like chilled storage compartments where you can put your secret stash of chocolate where it won\u2019t melt on a hot day, and comforts like heated seats.\u00a0 Some of the innovations and nifty luxury features you find on cars today aren\u2019t quite as useful.<\/p>\n

Now, don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0 I\u2019m not knocking any of these things.\u00a0 In fact, I quite like a few of them, especially as I\u2019m a major sucker for anything that involves sparkly lights and LED technology. It\u2019s just that they\u2019re kind of pointless and not really necessary.\u00a0 They definitely fall into the category of \u201cnice to have\u201d but if an otherwise decent new model didn\u2019t have these features, it wouldn\u2019t be a deal-breaker.\u00a0 Kind of like having a cool print on a ski jacket \u2013 it won\u2019t keep you any warmer than a plain jacket but it looks nice.<\/p>\n

So what are some features that you can find on modern vehicles that could be classified as \u201cuseless\u201d? \u00a0Here\u2019s a selection\u2026<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Colour Changeable Interior Lighting.<\/strong> This is one of the ones I actually quite like while admitting that it\u2019s not really necessary to good or safe driving.\u00a0 LED technology can do all sorts of pretty things, and this is one of them.\u00a0 At the touch of a button, you can select a different shade for the lighting inside the cabin of the vehicle, either from a pre-set selection or a customisable shade.\u00a0 It\u2019s quite fun but it\u2019s not going to make you a safer or better driver unless you let fractious children play with it so they don\u2019t bug you and whinge, causing a distraction.<\/li>\n
  2. \"\"Illuminated Door Sills.<\/strong> Another example of LED technology being put to use, this involves a wee light, possibly showing a brand logo or badge, on the doorsill.\u00a0 Right where you put your grubby shoes.<\/li>\n
  3. Lane Departure Warnings.<\/strong> Look, if you can\u2019t tell you\u2019re drifting to one side by, you know, looking out of the windscreen, you shouldn\u2019t be behind the wheel.\u00a0 These sensors and warnings also have no way of telling if you\u2019re carefully easing around the council mowing machine that\u2019s bumbling along the grass verge, overtaking someone in the bicycle lane, avoiding a trail of debris or edging into a median strip \u2013 or if you\u2019re really drifting out of your lane.\u00a0 Active lane departure correction is even worse\u2026<\/li>\n
  4. \"\"Integration with Social Media.<\/strong> You should not be checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or any other form of social media while behind the wheel.\u00a0 If merely texting is distracting and the cause of more than their fair share of accidents, then seeing someone\u2019s loopy video share is worse.\u00a0 Checking your social media on a display screen at eye height is just as distracting and takes your eyes off the road just as much as a phone does.\u00a0 Are you really that hooked on your online presence and that full of FOMO that you can\u2019t even stop while you\u2019re driving?\u00a0 If it\u2019s that bad, then just take the bus and use your phone or tablet.\u00a0 (I don\u2019t count the ability to access your Spotify playlists while driving to be useless, by the way, which is probably the only thing that justifies this feature.)<\/li>\n
  5. Paddle Shifters on Anything with CVT.<\/strong> The whole point of a CVT system is that it doesn\u2019t have regular gears and doesn\u2019t change from one to the other like your standard manual or auto transmission.\u00a0 What, then, do paddle shifters on a CVT actually do apart from looking cool and making you feel like a racing driver?<\/li>\n
  6. Gesture Control for Audio.<\/strong> It\u2019s very cool and sci-fi: you wave your hand or make a similar gesture and your audio system turns up the volume or turns it down.\u00a0 OK, it might be fractionally safer than reaching down to fiddle with a knob while driving. However, it will also respond to any hand motion in the sensor\u2019s vicinity.<\/li>\n
  7. Dinky Roof Rails.<\/strong> Roof rails are very useful if they are large enough to actually strap something like a kayak, skis or a ladder.\u00a0 If they\u2019re teeny-weeny things, however, they\u2019re just there to look sporty but don\u2019t really do anything much.<\/li>\n
  8. \u201cDoor Open\u201d Alarms. <\/strong>I\u2019ve got this on one of my Nissans and it\u2019s a feature that\u2019s been around for a while. The idea is that if you have the door open and the key in the ignition, the car beeps at you so you don\u2019t lock your keys in by mistake.\u00a0 The trouble is that it keeps beeping if you leave the door ajar while refuelling or if you have to hop out to open a gate, driving passengers nuts.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how many times I\u2019ve wanted to find that beeper and smash it!<\/li>\n
  9. \"\"Images in Puddle Lamps.<\/strong> Puddle lamps in themselves are not useless, especially not in a Landrover or other 4×4 driven how they were originally intended to be driven (i.e. off road), as they help you see if you\u2019re about to step out of the car into a pile of horse or cow crap.\u00a0 Even around town, it\u2019s nice to see if you\u2019re about to step out into a puddle while wearing your nice shoes.\u00a0 But is it really necessary to cast a shadow of the image of the car into the middle of the light?\u00a0 Cool, yes.\u00a0 Useful, no.<\/li>\n
  10. Automatically Switching Off The Cabin Lights When The Door Opens. <\/strong>Now try and retrieve your cabin baggage by feel in the dark with the lights off, and hope you don\u2019t miss your wallet.\u00a0 Honestly, the old-school system where the lights came on when the door opened was better, although it could lead to drained batteries if you left the door open too long\u2026 but a manual switch usually took care of that.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There are some honourable mentions that could go on this list but they might possibly be useful.\u00a0 One is the ECO light, which comes on when you\u2019re driving fuel-efficiently.\u00a0 As I could give the stereotypical Scotsman serious competition in the stinginess stakes, this one might help me save a few dollars here and there\u2026 not that I\u2019d pay extra to have this feature!\u00a0 Night vision is the other one I\u2019m unsure about.\u00a0 Yes, knowing that there\u2019s a warm body somewhere on or near the road might be useful and help safety (as well as looking really cool) but in most cases, headlights will let you know about any obstacles \u2013 and night vision requires you to look at the dash display rather than the road.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019m sure that there are other features found on modern cars that are cool and fun but not really useful \u2013 give us your top picks in the comments! http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/avtokredit.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    You really have to hand it to the car designers and developers.\u00a0 They really do a great job of putting out new models all the time and coming up with all sorts of new things.\u00a0 Some of these innovations are fantastic and useful \u2013 improved battery range in EVs, increased torque alongside better fuel economy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-automotive-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9207"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11121,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9207\/revisions\/11121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}