Too much technology

I am a car nut. I restore and collect classic and muscle cars for a hobby but when it comes to new cars, there's just way too much technology in them for me. We usually buy a new car every few years but I don't know if we'll be buying any more new ones. The touch screen feature is a problem. I have driven a number of new cars wit them and HATE them. Doesn't make a lot of sense to be pecking at t touch screen to change the speed of the A/C fan when the last place you were was on the radio.

I don't need wi fi, don't need my car to read my email and find the touch screen to be quite a distraction. (I worked as an accident investigator for years.) I even turn off my phone while driving.

I don't live in my car, but use it to get from point A to point B. I don't need to be "connected". It wouldn't be bad if manufacturers would give the buyer a choice, but these features are being put into most new cars as standard equipment. Yes, there are people who like and want these features, but there are also people like me who don't want them. I guess I have effectively been eliminated from the new car market as I am not willing to pay for these features that I really have no use for.

Why can't manufacturers give the buyer a choice instead of shoving these features down car buyers throats.

"Tech", it's to appeal to younger buyers who have to stay connected to their parents or their peers 24/7.
It's not what YOU think that is important. It's to appeal to a different demographic that needs a transportation pod to get from A to B.
Remember that younger buyers have been subjected to public school brainwashing for most of their lives--- that cars are evil, and you should take mass transit to save the planet.
The Wifi and Bluetooth are installed as bait so that a different, more politically correct and socially responsible audience will buy the car.
However,
Awhile back, I read an article by a futurist (somebody who looks at current trends, then extends them out into the future).
This fellow stated that there will be two classes of people in the developed countries of the world.
The underclasses and the overclass.
The underclasses will represent the the vast majority of the people.
The underclasses will be connected to their family friends and job 24/7 by means of mobile phones, laptops, headsets, etc, even while on vacation and at home.
The overclass will NOT be electronically connected to the world.
Their employees or servants will deal with that.
Needless to say, it cracks me up to see people on the beach in Thailand tapping away on their laptops with a headset probably working on a Powerpoint presentation.
So, you can look at new cars with all the bells and whistles as training devices for the future social underclasses!
Well, at least I do.

I personally like the touchscreens since it's a nice change to page through different menus for different sources or make bluetooth functions like calling a little more sensible. Even putting A/C functions into it can work if they pull it off correctly as in being responsive when you do something, being well placed, or have physical knobs that interact with the screen like my dad's truck.

But at the same time I don't like what they occasionally do which is what some people call feature creep which is putting features that don't really make much sense in a larger system or some cases hamfist it. As much as I like my new Subaru and all it's glory, I find it a little unnecessary to connect my Google Calender to my car if it takes me an unreasonable amount of time to even check the calendar (page through menus, wait for phone to communicate.)

I also agree that there's a lot of fluff like Wi-Fi enabled cars (Who wants to pay for internet service in a car if you have a phone with internet service?) and radios with social media support (I don't need Facebook in my car. Or at all.) but at the same time I can see where it would make sense for someone.

I think I just want the head units to at least have customization so you can tuck away the stuff you don't want and have what you need or have more cars with CarPlay and Android Auto since those will support your phone's ecosystem and make the whole put-your-everything-into-this-radio make some sense.

We just got back from a trip for national bowling tournaments in Las Vegas, NV and Reno, NV from Montana. In order to have enough room for 4 adults, luggage for a week and all of out bowling equipment, we rented a full size SUV and ended up with a Chevy Suburban.

This thing had to have every bell and whistle available on it. No key was needed to start it. It didn't have a key. It had a charging pad for cell phones on the center console. I would rather have had cup holders than a charging pad. The tough screen feature was a distraction being that I wasn't used to it so the front seat passenger had to figure it out. Unnecessary as far as I am concerned. So many of the features were unnecessary, but I am sure that a lot were options which were added to the truck. I'm sure that there were also features on it that we had no clue that were on it.

My problem is that when trying to buy a new car today, many features, such as the touch screen and many others are now standard equipment and the buyer has not choice in the matter. The manufacturers are just expecting the buyer to accept them and pay for them even if they don't want them. I am NOT willing to pay for these features that I am not interested in so I guess that I have been eliminated from the new car market.

You can thank stupid people for many of the bells and whistles on cars today. Thanks to the "wonderful" US government backup cameras are soon to be standard in every new car made for sale in the US. This is because people are too stupid to look behind them when backing up, or other people are too stupid or too distracted to pay attention that a car is backing up and get themselves hit.

My mom has a backup camera in her car and it honestly made her WORSE at backing up. She seems to try to use just the camera for backing up, and that is not what it is intended for, and I have tried to explain to her what she is doing wrong, but she is too stubborn to listen.

You can thank stupid people for many of the bells and whistles on cars today. Thanks to the "wonderful" US government backup cameras are soon to be standard in every new car made for sale in the US. This is because people are too stupid to look behind them when backing up, or other people are too stupid or too distracted to pay attention that a car is backing up and get themselves hit.

I've got an annoying feature to tell you about; back up alarms. When you get close to an object while backing up, it beeps. Sounds handy to stop you from backing into things, right. Find a truck that has one and try hooking up a trailer, a task where the whole point is backing up close enough to attach it to the truck. It just beeps and beeps and it will drive you to the edge of reason after a while. This would be a good use for that camera...

Yes I definitely agree back up camera would work well for hooking a trailer. When I used to haul a 20' trailer for work on occasion I would back up, put it in park, get out, look to see how close I was. Get in, back up further til I thought I was close, put it in park, get out, look to see if I was good, and repeat.