Drivers yearn for ‘good old days’ of ‘dumb’ automobiles says shocking new study

As we grow older, many of us will find ourselves in the awkward position of saying something eerily similar to something our parents would say.

It won’t quite be “get those whippersnappers off of my lawn”, but it could certainly be pretty close.  We will be lamenting some “newfangled” technological impasse, or perhaps the fashion sense of the next generation.

And we certainly can’t forget the old standard, “back in my day” – the four words that are most likely to cause a millennial to tune out of the rest of your sentence immediately.

Today, one of the most common recipients of this nostalgic nagging is the automotive industry, whose cars are getting smarter each production year.  As it turns out, that may not be what drivers are looking for.

A new study from J.D. Power found that many drivers disable features like Advanced Driver Assistance Systems because the alerts are so bothersome. For example, 61 percent of drivers who said they were annoyed by lane-keeping and centering systems sometimes disabled the feature.

Some drivers said they wouldn’t want the “nannying” technology on their future vehicles, according to the study.

The numbers were staggering.

J.D. Power surveyed more than 16,000 car owners with 2019 model-year vehicles at 90 days of ownership, looking at categories including entertainment and connectivity, collision protection, comfort and convenience, driving assistance, smartphone mirroring and navigation.

The study found some built-in apps were not as easy to use as drivers would like, and 29 percent of owners said they discontinued the use of those apps.

Luckily for car manufacturers, 90% of car owners saddled with the overzealous technology indicated that they would recommend their vehicles to potential buyers.

Now if we could only get manual transmissions to come back into style….