Toyota- wipers that come on when they "sense" rain falling. There's a commercial out about it.

Acura/Honda- a warning system that detects objects in front of the car. Sends a beep for warning, then another, and if close enough, activates the brakes.

Just seeing what you guys think about it. Personally, I think the Toyota one is just wasted tech and the Acura one only scares me about it automatically putting on the brakes. And how does it know if you're just close to somebody or if there is an accident ahead? I can just see it beeping repeatedly and annoying me a lot.

 

The wiper thing has been out for years. At least 3 or so.

The braking one is just plain dumb. I only need to brake when I press the pedal.

 

If the car can brake for me, why cant it drive for me? I need some serious Jetson's **** so I can sleep in the car on the way to work.

 

I couldn't care for the little gadgets (rain sensors and the like), but i would welcome tech like turbocharging, intelligent AWD, performance-oriented level-adjustable air-spring suspension, etc... stuff that improves performance and has practical uses.

 

I hate most automatic features. If I want something turned on, up, off, or adjusted I'll do it myself when I'm ready.

 

Geezus! That brake thing could probably kill more people than it could save. There are way to many variations in car accidents for the car to make the decision when the brakes go on.

 

I'm more for the car's hardware integrity than gadgets... I don't want to pay for something that I don't NEED. I might want but not necessarily need. That's why I pray for a Solstice type car... no frills just strong engine, transmission, brakes, suspension etc... I'd have that any day over programmable seats, mirrors... but I'm an enthusiast.

 

I've been seeing the commercials for Volkwagen (I think) and they are featuring headlights that are in sync. with your steering. It all just seems like a bunch of over-hyped, expensive, add-ons.

 

I'm all up for new technology, however there is no way in hell that i want a computer to decide when to throw on the brakes because it senses something.

Talk about a good way to get killed if something malfunctions and it slams the brakes on while your doing 70 on the interstate in front of a bunch of traffic, because something went wrong in the system and told the car to slam the brakes instead of gradually push them.

My other beef with new technology is that it seems to make it harder and harder to work on stuff under the hood. I'd like to not have to have an engineering degree to change spark plugs, because of all the stuff that takes up room in the way mkay?

 

i got another one....tell me if you've seen this yet.......it's an early warning system in Infinity that alerts you if you are about to leave/are leaving the lane you are travelling in....

how obnoxious would that get going through a construction zone that has double line syndrome?

 

Neither of those things are new technology... both GM and Toyota have had rain sensing wipers for 3+ years. And FWIW Lexus has had collision sensing radar as a part of their safety system for the past 3 years at least.

 

I was thinking the wiper thing was old news, but I wasn't sure about the collision sensing system.

 

We've got a 1998 Park Ave here with rain sensing wipers. That's nothing new.

 

None of this crap is really needed. Just more stuff that can go wrong.

 

That commercial is hillarious. In it, they actually acknowledge the fact that they wasted who knows how much money on an extra fraction of a second of something so unimportant. Not to mention the fact that one rain drop will turn on the wipers when they don't need to be and smear the windsheild.

If someone at GM suggested that at a meeting, which they probably already did. Everone would either laugh, or say, "uuuuh...no."