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Heh, what would be funny is if we asked the op why they needed a new car and they were like "Oh, I got over into another car".

I do have some complaints about modern cars, but damn, the safety features have saved my ass multiple times. Backup cameras and sonic warning systems are great. I've had people come out of left field at high speed in parking lots when I'm stuck between someones mega vehicles. The system watching from the rear can see what I can't. The turn signals while getting over (and lane detection in my car) is highly useful, especially in the multilane interstates where some jackwagon decides to do a multilane pass on the far right on the other side of a semi and then fly into the middle lane in one swoop while I'm attempting to get in the middle lane from the fast lane.

Uh, none of these are good reasons. At best they are extremely rare and weird edge cases and good UX is not making the weird edge cases dominate the experience.

I mean, how likely is it that you are in the car, NOT sitting in the front seat and a kid is sitting in the front seat and fiddling with the starter knob? I mean, even if they press the start button, then the car won't start unless you've also pressed the brake pedal? And if you're not sitting in the car while the kid is playing in it, then ... the beep does nothing anyway?

Really, the constant beeping and maniacally locking the doors all the time is ridiculous.

Also, can anyone explain why in the US if I click unlock on the remote, it just unlocks the front door? This keeps happening on rental cars. You have to click twice on unlock to get all the doors to open. Of course if I want to put something in the back seat, that means first breaking my fingers while pulling on the handle, then cursing and clicking the open button the remote 10 times to makes sure the idiotic system has unlocked the doors. Which I wanted it to do in the first place.

Really, the author of the article is 100% correct. The UX on most new mid-range cars is ridiculously bad.

> Also, can anyone explain why in the US if I click unlock on the remote, it just unlocks the front door? This keeps happening on rental cars. You have to click twice on unlock to get all the doors to open. Of course if I want to put something in the back seat, that means first breaking my fingers while pulling on the handle, then cursing and clicking the open button the remote 10 times to makes sure the idiotic system has unlocked the doors. Which I wanted it to do in the first place.

I don't have an answer as to why, but this isn't a new car feature in the US. It's been this way my entire life. In the US we've just been conditioned to press unlock twice.

If you want my guess of the intent, it's so you can get into your car without the possibility of someone sneaking into / stealing from the other side of the car.

The pressure sensor answer is a good reason. I have two cars with pressure sensors, and they've gone off a handful of times over the years. Each time I check, the pressure is low and I put more air in.

If they're going off constantly, they're faulty, and should be replaced. That's not a design decision failure; sometimes parts are bad.

The double unlocking has been a thing for a long long time, I believe as a safety feature or something. My 2004 dumb-car also has this feature (and I also dislike it)

// At best they are extremely rare and weird edge cases and good UX ... how likely is it that you are in the car, NOT sitting in the front seat and a kid is sitting in the front seat ... I mean, even if they press the start button, then the car won't start unless you've also pressed the brake pedal?

"Tell me you don't have kids without telling me you don't have kids." But seriously, this happens all the time - I am taking something out of the trunk or taking the baby out of the rear seat, meanwhile my toddler jumps into the driver's seat to play around with the steering wheel. 20% of the times he does that, he's gonna hit the big blue start button. I hear it because I am right outside the car, and it matters because this turns on the electrical system so leaving it that way will drain the battery.

// Really, the constant beeping and maniacally locking the doors all the time is ridiculous.

You can turn most of that off, and if you're doing normal things like starting the car the right way, you never hear them. EG, I only hear that beep when the toddler does his thing or on the very rare occasions when I intentionally turn on the electrical system w/o starting the engine.

// Also, can anyone explain why in the US if I click unlock on the remote, it just unlocks the front door?

Sure. I relate to this use-case less personally but it's a safety feature for when you're parked somewhere desolate and dark. The idea is that by unlocking only the driver door, you create less room for someone to jump into the car from the other doors and carjack you. Like I said, not something I encounter but I suppose it got created for a reason.

It's also a thing you can turn off. Here's the instructions for Toyota[1]. It's also obviously a muscle memory for cars you own, where you press once or twice depending on which doors you want to open.

// Really, the author of the article is 100% correct. The UX on most new mid-range cars is ridiculously bad

The author reports a couple of things that sound like straight up BUGS and I pointed those out as things he should really talk to a dealer about because they are so dumb that it might just be his car specifically. The rest of them and the ones you listed - are very reasonable features and sane defaults as I described. You may not be used to them in rental cars and obviously you aren't going to fiddle with the settings in those cars, but if this was your car you'd either turn them off, adjust your style to match the device (ie - what ARE you doing that you're getting that beeping all the time?) or maybe your life will evolve to a place where you appreciate some of these kid-focused features more.

[1] https://www.toyotanation.com/threads/remote-2-press-unlock.1...

> This is the one that sounds truly wrong - if your car alerts you of adjacent vehicles when it shouldn't, (a) you can probably turn off that assist and (b) you should tell the company because it literally sounds like a bug.

This is the one which I empathized with, because it happens to me all the time (2022 Mazda CX-30). The "car next to you" warning doesn't come on randomly or anything, it's that the software can't distinguish between the scenario when I'm driving straight and about to make a lane change, or when I'm turning at an intersection and there's a car in the turn lane next to me. It is admittedly annoying that the car beeps at me in the latter scenario, but I have to imagine that it's hard to distinguish between the two.

I am trying to figure out why this doesn't happen in my car or happens naturally enough that it doesn't bother me. I have to keep an eye out for it.

Might just be that you are the rare one actually using the turn signals silencing the warning:)

You've misunderstood what we're talking about. Using the turn signal is what triggers the warning in this case. The car is correctly detecting that there's a car in your blind spot, but it incorrectly interprets the turn signal as "I'm going to change lanes" rather than "I'm making a turn".

I see, sorry

And this one makes perfect sense:

But, only if you put it in neutral first, refrain from even thinking about touching the accelerator pedal, and fully depress the clutch (even though you just put it in fucking neutral)

I always put the car in neutral and press the clutch, before trying to start it, so wouldn't even notice if the car enforced that... my car only enforces that the clutch be pushed down, but taking it out of gear is a good best practice for extra redundancy, for instance to protect against the case where the clutch hydraulic cylinder had a leak so the clutch didn't fully disengage)

I stopped paying attention to the alert sounds because they can be triggered for so many reasons and finding out why the sound is playing every time, would mean that I would be constantly distracted while driving. So, ignoring the warnings is actually the safer option in my case (2023 Toyota)

Funny, I have a '21 and find it reasonable.

> This is the one that sounds truly wrong - if your car alerts you of adjacent vehicles when it shouldn't, (a) you can probably turn off that assist and (b) you should tell the company because it literally sounds like a bug.

My vocabulary fails to adequately convey how useless that bug report would be. Who would you even contact to report the issue?

// Who would you even contact to report the issue?

The dealer.

> These are almost all reasonable

These are all almost reasonable.