posted in Technology
One In Five Drivers Switches Off The Safety Tech Meant To Save Their Lives
www.carscoops.com/2026/08/unused-car-features-study/
Replying to @sanitation@lemmy.today
I deliberately sought out a car without that stuff when I had to buy a new(er) car recently. It’s usually quite annoying - the worst was a rental car that had an alarm buzz whenever I activated my turn signal while there was another car anywhere near my blind spot.
IMO the only technological improvement from the last decade and a half that’s worth having is a backup camera, and that’s only because I must shamefully confess to being terrible at parallel parking without one despite having years of practice. (I was tempted to buy a Miata since they still have real dials, but ultimately I did settle for a car with a digital display instead of an instrument panel.)
The reverse camera is useful so you’re not backing over some little kid. Anything else it does is a bonus.
Maybe this makes me sound like a jerk, but my thinking in that regard was “I don’t have children and rarely drive near other people’s loose children. Why should I pay for hardware I don’t need?”
Knowing that something rolled up just behind your car can be a saver in many ways… not running over surprise debris, for one, not hitting the neighbor’s anti-cut boulder on the edge of the grass that you can’t see when looking behind you for another…
First, yes it does. Second, you’re not paying extra for it at least in the US as it’s federally mandated equipment, you can’t legally get a new car without a reverse camera.
I meant that I would be paying extra for it as opposed to a hypothetical car manufactured without the requirement. So it would be like having my taxes raised to pay for providing me something I didn’t want.
or you could also just choose a small vehicle
There’s still a blind spot on any size vehicle that isn’t a two wheel motorcycle.