Vehicle Nannies are ANNOYING in new vehicles

[awd.nv]

Holey smokes,

So while I am in a loaner for my truck being in the shop, I was surprised by how annoying the seat belt warning is on this new Escape they have me in. Picking up my kids, cruising through the lot it seems to kick on around 5mph.

Then my wife's 2023 Pilot is horrible with them too! I do not drive her SUV often but find it a pain with the warnings. My father in law mentioned his BMW SUV makes the steering wheel stiff unless he uses his signal. Dealer told him they can't change it. Sure he should use it but gezzz.

I'm not sure if attorneys are to blame or people being so bad at driving auto makers are doing it to themselves.

So if I decide to replace my truck pending how this repair goes, this is just one other thing I need to pay attention to on a road test. Go figure.

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[AzScorpion]

I hate the coffee cup that keeps popping up wanting you to take a break! I disabled it right away in my Ranger but had it once in a rental car and it drove me crazy! It was going off every 15 minutes and I finally told Annie to get on her phone and look up how to disable it or I'm pulling every wire under the hood until it stops. lol

Your FIL steering wheel sound like the lane assist and should have a way to turn it off. Our Ranger has it on the blinker stalk and I only use it occasionally when one long highway trips.

 

[awd.nv]

I hate the coffee cup that keeps popping up wanting you to take a break! I disabled it right away in my Ranger but had it once in a rental car and it drove me crazy! It was going off every 15 minutes and I finally told Annie to get on her phone and look up how to disable it or I'm pulling every wire under the hood until it stops. lol

Your FIL steering wheel sound like the lane assist and should have a way to turn it off. Our Ranger has it on the blinker stalk and I only use it occasionally when one long highway trips.

Ya know I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case with the BMW. Our Ranger, I have used it if I am eating while driving on a road trip. It feels too much like a bumper car to use often though.

 

[subquark]

Holey smokes,

So while I am in a loaner for my truck being in the shop, I was surprised by how annoying the seat belt warning is on this new Escape they have me in. Picking up my kids, cruising through the lot it seems to kick on around 5mph.

Then my wife's 2023 Pilot is horrible with them too! I do not drive her SUV often but find it a pain with the warnings. My father in law mentioned his BMW SUV makes the steering wheel stiff unless he uses his signal. Dealer told him they can't change it. Sure he should use it but gezzz.

I'm not sure if attorneys are to blame or people being so bad at driving auto makers are doing it to themselves.

So if I decide to replace my truck pending how this repair goes, this is just one other thing I need to pay attention to on a road test. Go figure.

I "programmed" my front seats to no longer chime about the seatbelts.

I do wear my seatbelt on the highway but not on the 8 block, 25 mph trip to the grocery store. Oh yeah, I live on the edge, baby! =D

We are the "live free and be violently ejected through the windshield" state.

Also no helmet laws. And, oddly, not a single knife law. Stilettos are federally outlawed but not by state law ...

Not that you should drive without a seatbelt while sharpenning your switchblade.

not that type and never to the dump =p

 

[dtech]

Friend of mine bought the new lexus GX 550 I believe, traded in his old GX, was so frustrated by all the alerts constantly sounding off (dealer said they can't be turned off ) that he asked to return it, dealer said "they would work with him" - and offered him $18k less than he bought it for , real sweet hearts . He's keeping it but is irate with lexus.

 

[awd.nv]

Friend of mine bought the new lexus GX 550 I believe, traded in his old GX, was so frustrated by all the alerts constantly sounding off (dealer said they can't be turned off ) that he asked to return it, dealer said "they would work with him" - and offered him $18k less than he bought it for , real sweet hearts . He's keeping it but is irate with lexus.

Yeah man, that is the frustrating thing with buying a new car. The test drive honestly is rarely long enough unless you already had a friend/fam with one.

When we got our new 2023 Pilot I kinda assumed it would be the kind of experience as our 2016 (prev. gen) but the new Pilot had even more warning signals and such. Thank goodness it is my wife's car.

Next truck I buy I am going to have to watch for some of those things, maybe make a list even. For example, the new 6G ranger when activating cruise control will automatically turn on lane assist, why?!?!? Dumb things like that. My lack of confidence in the dealer has me wondering what truck might I buy if they screw up my Ranger (possibly engine needed at 50k miles).

 

[TJC]

I hate the coffee cup that keeps popping up wanting you to take a break! I disabled it right away in my Ranger but had it once in a rental car and it drove me crazy! It was going off every 15 minutes and I finally told Annie to get on her phone and look up how to disable it or I'm pulling every wire under the hood until it stops. lol

Your FIL steering wheel sound like the lane assist and should have a way to turn it off. Our Ranger has it on the blinker stalk and I only use it occasionally when one long highway trips.

I turned off almost all of the chimes in the truck, including the seat belts using Forscan. Wife loves it this way. On long trips she'll unbuckle to reach back to access the drinks and snacks in the cooler. No more nagging!

How did you turn off the coffee warning? Menu setting or Forscan?

 

[Chris M]

Is there a Forscan-like doohickey for other vehicle manufacturers that will help them turn off the annoyances?

 

[underwhelmed]

I hate the coffee cup that keeps popping up wanting you to take a break! I disabled it right away in my Ranger but had it once in a rental car and it drove me crazy! It was going off every 15 minutes and I finally told Annie to get on her phone and look up how to disable it or I'm pulling every wire under the hood until it stops. lol

Your FIL steering wheel sound like the lane assist and should have a way to turn it off. Our Ranger has it on the blinker stalk and I only use it occasionally when one long highway trips.

How do I disable it? Have seen it 3 times in 18 months.

 

[subquark]

I hate the coffee cup that keeps popping up wanting you to take a break! I disabled it right away in my Ranger but had it once in a rental car and it drove me crazy! It was going off every 15 minutes and I finally told Annie to get on her phone and look up how to disable it or I'm pulling every wire under the hood until it stops. lol

Your FIL steering wheel sound like the lane assist and should have a way to turn it off. Our Ranger has it on the blinker stalk and I only use it occasionally when one long highway trips.

I don't have a coffee cup warning in my lowly Soupie, but then, I do have a real coffee cup!

 

[Motorpsychology]

You can change /turn off the warning settings for everything but the seatbelt chime in the driver info display, at least on the 5G Rangers. I believe on Lariats and high pkg XLTs, you can choose between old school cruise and nanny cruise that does the following distance and lane keeping. My Flex and Escape both had the smart cruise and rarely got used. The same with rain sensing wipers and auto dimming lights.

 

[RedlandRanger]

You can change /turn off the warning settings for everything but the seatbelt chime in the driver info display, at least on the 5G Rangers. I believe on Lariats and high pkg XLTs, you can choose between old school cruise and nanny cruise that does the following distance and lane keeping. My Flex and Escape both had the smart cruise and rarely got used. The same with rain sensing wipers and auto dimming lights.

I don't consider the adaptive cruise, rain sensing wipers or auto high beams to be "nannies" - I really like all 3 of those options. The auto high beams in particular I thought was a gimmick, but driving in the country is WAY better with them, not having to continually dim your lights. The rain sensing wipers are great here in Oregon where we get the "Oregon mist" which doesn't require wipers to work consistently. And the adaptive cruise is just way cool - I always hated having to adjust the cruise or just shut it off if there was ANY traffic at all.

And as far as I know, the adaptive cruise does not do lane keeping unless you have that turned on (which I don't - that is one feature I rarely use).

 

[AzScorpion]

How do I disable it? Have seen it 3 times in 18 months.

On mine (Lariat) it's from the left side steering wheel control.

Driver Assist
Driver Alert
Make sure the box is unchecked

 

[Motorpsychology]

There seems to be about an equal number of folks here who like some or most of the driver assist features and those who don't. While I don't have any empirical facts to back it up, I have a hunch that those who turn the stuff off or don't order it in the first place when new, most are folks who grew up riding motorcycles or later ATVs, UTVs at an early age, or farm implements, or experience with big trucks.
My personal background is learning to drive on an International Farmall M when I was 14. Later I got into motorcycling and still ride today. Much later I drove semi trucks for 25 years and ~3.5 million miles, with no chargeable accidents and three two tickets (fought and won one).
My point is that those of us who were exposed to operating basic vehicles and motorcycles from an early age, and/or who have driven professionally generally have a better skillset than those who started driving later in life or drive seldomly.
Operating motorcycles and heavy trucks require a higher "Be Here Now" factor or alertness in other words, than driving today's light vehicles, and much of the assist features are not needed or wanted.
If CoPilot 360 and such features help you be a better, safer driver, then that's a good thing. But for me, the tech allows me to take my eye off the ball too much.

I know to dim my lights when I can see the oncoming vehicle's single headlight separate into two, or their flare as I top a hill, square off turns at an intersection- its a corner, not a curve, two second following distance, at a stop sign or signal, stop when the side mirror appears to be almost directly over the stop line- your bumper will be right at the line; try it at a big box parking lot.

Driving is a privilege. It is your right to do it well.

 

[RedlandRanger]

There seems to be about an equal number of folks here who like some or most of the driver assist features and those who don't. While I don't have any empirical facts to back it up, I have a hunch that those who turn the stuff off or don't order it in the first place when new, most are folks who grew up riding motorcycles or later ATVs, UTVs at an early age, or farm implements, or experience with big trucks.
My personal background is learning to drive on an International Farmall M when I was 14. Later I got into motorcycling and still ride today. Much later I drove semi trucks for 25 years and ~3.5 million miles, with no chargeable accidents and three two tickets (fought and won one).
My point is that those of us who were exposed to operating basic vehicles and motorcycles from an early age, and/or who have driven professionally generally have a better skillset than those who started driving later in life or drive seldomly.
Operating motorcycles and heavy trucks require a higher "Be Here Now" factor or alertness in other words, than driving today's light vehicles, and much of the assist features are not needed or wanted.
If CoPilot 360 and such features help you be a better, safer driver, then that's a good thing. But for me, the tech allows me to take my eye off the ball too much.

I know to dim my lights when I can see the oncoming vehicle's single headlight separate into two, or their flare as I top a hill, square off turns at an intersection- its a corner, not a curve, two second following distance, at a stop sign or signal, stop when the side mirror appears to be almost directly over the stop line- your bumper will be right at the line; try it at a big box parking lot.

Driving is a privilege. It is your right to do it well.

It is not that I CAN'T drive without the "nannies", it is just that it is fewer things to think about. For the auto high beams - I find that I drive on high beam a lot more with the auto high beams than I do without - because it is a PITA to keep flipping them up/down with oncoming traffic-call it lazy if you want. And driving with high beams (where possible) is safer for sure.

For the others, it is simply a convenience. I wouldn't say it makes me a better driver - it is simply one less thing to worry about, and I could argue it allows me to focus more on the actual driving - and paying attention to events around me. Now for some, it might make them LESS attentive and I'm sure that is the case for some people, but for ME, it does not.

If dealing with the technology is distracting (enabling/disabling it, dealing with issues), then it is a net negative, IMO. But from my experience, it is easy to enable/disable and works well, so it is a net positive.

I do agree that there are WAY too many people that don't pay enough attention to driving.

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