If they can get you to accept the first thing, the next thing is certain.
What is styled Advanced Driver Assistance Technology (ADAS) is a case in point. “Technologies” such as Lane Keep Assist, Brake Assist, Back-up Assist and Speed Limit Assist – there are many more and more to come – started showing up as standard features in a relative handful of new vehicles about a decade ago. As of now, they are standard features in every new vehicle and that’s interesting because they are not popular features. Lots of people – probably a majority – say they do not like these features and that’s interesting because it has generally been the case that – absent a government requirement – features people do not like are generally not made standard equipment.
Most people do not like vinyl roofs, for instance – and for that reason one rarely sees vinyl roofs anymore. The vehicle manufacturers stopped offering them because not enough people wanted to buy them. So why is it that the vehicle manufacturers have all of them gone all-in on Advanced Driver Assistance Technology? It is like McDonald’s insisting on putting anchovies on the Big Mac.
It’s becoming worse than that – because even if McDonald’s did put anchovies on the Big Mac, you could still take them off. It is becoming difficult-to-impossible turn off the array of Advanced Driver Assistance Technologies that are now standard in every new vehicle. The vehicle manufacturers are bit-by-bit eliminating the Off button.
Instead, you are allowed to tone down the degree of driver assistance this technology imposes. In place of Off, you have what is styled Alert Intensity, ranging from low to high but always on. The Alert Intensity takes various forms but is typically an annoying chime or buzzing sound accompanied by some sort of frantic display in the instrument cluster – which is now a smartphone-like LCD display in almost every (and soon every) new vehicle. Several of the more advanced (note the manipulative marketing verbiage) of these driver assistance technologies (more marketing manipulation; the word is meant to convey the idea that ADAS is cutting edge stuff and so desirable stuff) are designed to interfere with your driving, in addition to being annoying and distracting.
Apparently “distraction” is just another fake excuse for imposing control. If that were not true, then it would be against the law to build tap/swipe smartphone-emulating control interfaces into vehicles that force drivers to take their eyes off the road to change radio stations and other such things. That’s all perfectly legal. But you’ll get a ticket if a cop sees you tapping/swiping your smartphone.
For example, the 2025 Ford Expedition I am test driving this week has a “technology” that will preemptively slam on the brakes when you are trying to back the thing up if the “technology” decides you are getting too close to the bush behind you. Never mind that you know exactly where the bush is and how much farther you can back-up before hitting it. More finely, never mind that you are capable of backing up to just shy of not hitting the bush (or whatever the object is) without being “assisted” in any way. The technology assumes you are not capable of doing that because some people are not capable of doing that.
ADAS is dumbing-down technology, in other words. And effectively mandatory, if you want to buy a new vehicle – since it is no longer possible to opt out of it or to turn it off. But it is also something more sinister than insulting (it is insulting to regard every driver as a presumptive incompetent because some drivers are incompetent) and here we get to the meat of the matter.
ADAS is being systematically incorporated into all new vehicles for the same reason, basically, that every major media outlet was amen’ing the wearing of masks and the pushing of drugs (something only the government has the power to do). The idea is to impose ADAS on every driver with the end goal being total control of driving by the technology. Of course, most people would balk if this were announced openly or introduced all at once so it is introduced gradually, to get people used to this so that they will accept that.
Since most people do not like or want assistance technology, the first vehicles that came standard with it also came standard with Off buttons. I can attest to this as a guy who has driven pretty much every new vehicle made for the past 30 years. The power to turn assistance technology off was key to getting people to tolerate it being pushed on them as standard equipment. Hey, don’t worry – the salesman would explain – if you don’t like the system, you can just turn it off. That was enough to get most people to accept the presence of the “technology” in their new vehicle.
Once everyone – most everyone – has gotten used to the “technology” being standard in all new vehicles, the Off button became a no-longer-available option. Or so it is rapidly becoming.
The reason why ought to be obvious. They intend to control your driving to the nth degree and the really interesting thing is it’s a concerted effort. It is not merely one vehicle manufacturer that is offering this “technology” – which would indicate it isn’t a concerted and calculated effort to impose something on all of us. The fact is all of them are pushing it and this strongly suggests prior agreement on common ends, especially given the fact that ADAS is unpopular with almost everyone.
Not being able to say No Thanks to something is arguably the defining essence of evil because of the coercion that is implicit.
Forced “assistance” being just exactly that.
. . .
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Hey Eric, speaking of new vehicles, I went to the dealership a few weeks ago, as I was curious as to how much the touch screen is in my newer vehicle. Like you, I hate the damned thing and wish for the days when vehicles were simple and not computerized. Holy cow, $6,000 price tag if that thing goes out! I may as well take that money, get a small loan, and dump a new engine into my old vehicle.
Morning, Shadow!
I am not surprised at all – about the cost of a replacement touchscreen. Even worse, I suspect, replacements for many of these will not be available in ten years or so and then you’re really screwed if you own one of these rolling not-so-smartphones.
No More Donate Button
This is so terribly sad:
‘Former President Joe Biden is running into a problem in his nascent effort to raise money for a presidential library: Donors are checked out.
‘Half a dozen people who were once major Biden donors or bundlers who spoke with NBC News said they harbored no ill will toward Biden himself but either wouldn’t give to the library or would give only a token amount.
“I want an $800,000 refund,” said John Morgan, a personal injury lawyer. He was referring to the nearly $1 million he said he raised for Biden that went to then-Vice President Kamala Harris last year.
“I don’t believe a library will ever be built unless it’s a bookmobile from the old days,” added Morgan.
‘Donors groaned about a lack of access to the former president when he was in office. They said they were tapped time and again to write checks but then couldn’t get a phone call returned, with some blaming a close-knit circle for isolating the president — only for contributors to later find out he was showing signs of mental decline.’
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna230452
Dementia Joe is experiencing the fallout from four years of deceiving people.
I’m willing to do for “Joe’s” presidential library exactly what I did for the Clinton Legal Defense Fund: send a nickel, taped to a greasy piece of cardboard cut from a pizza box. Mazel tov, Joe! 🙂
I watched a review of the 2025/6 Toyota Land Cruiser recently, and the reviewers even commented on how annoying the dings and bings of the ‘safety’ features were. You could hear the noise in the video. It would annoy the crap out of me for the vehicle to constantly be making noises like that. Why anyone would want that is beyond me.
Hi Jonathan!
I don’t get it, either – in that I have yet to have even one person tell me they want/like these “safety” nannies. On the contrary, I’v had countless people tell me they hate these nannies. I conclude, therefore, that the vehicle manufacturers are pushing these “safety” systems for reasons we can guess at – which I touched on in the article….
Where are the retired insider whistleblowers from these walking-dead auto companies or their contractors? Inquiring minds would like to know:
• what went on in the planning meetings, and the fate of the engineers who objected to the imposition of ADAT features;
• the marketing managers who (falsely) claimed the “youth market” demanded these “advanced” features;
• the bean counters who were told (by whom?) to ignore the costs and proceed anyway.
Perhaps they were contractually sworn to secrecy upon leaving…?
27 years working in the industry with the last few working on ADAS.
There is no whistle to blow.
Go read the regs and proposed regs from NHTSA and ECE. It’s all out in the open.
Nothing changes until people stop buying this crap. But people can’t be inconvenienced and they have access to easy credit and cheap money.
Keep buying what the Government mandates and you’ll keep getting the crap you deserve.
Whoa — 27 years — how did you last that long?
I had two fabulous back-to-back summer engineering internships at GM in my last 2 years in college, so I was a shoe-in for a career at GM after graduation. But the ’81 recession triggered a hiring freeze at the Big Three, so I left the Rust Belt, and went a completely different direction to the west coast. Perhaps it was for the best. It would’ve been heartbreaking watching the controlled demolition of the American auto industry from the inside.
I honestly don’t understand how or why people keep buying the new crap at such ridiculous costs — taxes + insurance + interest. It sure looks like the end is near. The system as it is seems unsustainable.
“The system as it is seems unsustainable”
Agreed
I agree with you, Burn. I bought my newer vehicle knowing it would have this kind of junk in it. And while-for now-I can shut the crap off. However, it is also why I will fix my older vehicle for a back-up because I dare say the older vehicle will last longer than this newer one.
I have a cheap TracFone which I don’t think tracks me when I turn the power off. Old model, last one in stock, bought it at Best Buy for $75 when my flip phone stopped working.
Been a car guy from the time I got my first Tonka truck. Now I just don’t care anymore. If someone would have told me 40 years ago the oem`s would become the enemy I would have said you’re crazy. Fish heads for all them,they can not go bankrupt soon enough.
Ditto. We’re fed UP, ain’t gon’ TAKE it no more.
You hit the nail on the head. I just got a 2025 Lexus, it has so much technology it annoys me. Mostly I can turn it off but it always wants to interact with my hand held computer (phone) which I have the assist apps mostly turned off. I want to drive the car, not have the car drive me. I like to have a new car for the dependability it offers. Yes, the automatic brake stops me when I am backing into a bush at my cabin in the woods, problem is, I have to hit that plant to back out of my parking space there so it turns into a five point turn. Luckily I have my 1973 CJ5 to drive that helps me keep my sanity.
Started with them taking away the option to remove phone batteries. They knew people could pull it and it would shut off and stop tracking you, then it spread to laptops, which can use their WiFI to map the house interior. Not sure if all laptops are like this but the one I am using you cant remove the battery without taking the bottom off. Same with cars.
Non-removable batteries isn’t about trying to track you. It was the bean counters who didn’t want to make it easy to repair them and marketing demanded thinner phone that were more waterproof. So the removable battery had to go. It did allow the opportunity to distribute the battery. Instead of a bulky packaged battery that required it’s own case and terminals and access we just spread the cells all over inside in whatever nook and cranny we have. From a external packaging standpoint it’s better for the user (if they appreciate the thinner profile and higher capacity for size and weight). It screwed any real way to repair the thing, which I don’t like as a consumer or a designer.
As far as tracking you and pulling the battery from a device, simply put, with enough paranoia anything is possible.
The best thing you can do is just not carry the infernal thing 24/7/365.
By the by, they have bare metal level surveillance backdoors but they don’t work if you don’t use the device. Some of them continue to work for hours and sometimes even a couple of days after the battery is removed and will report back next time the device comes on. It depends on what they’re tracking, mainly location in that case. It can’t actively update via WiFi or cell with no battery but they will still record location for a while. I’m not aware of any that have a second battery but some of them have a super cap that runs the core of the device for a many hours, which isn’t just for spying. It prevents the device from losing it’s mind during a battery change. Phone and laptops don’t have mechanical hard drives and EPROMs but use DRAM and flash to do everything. The amount of memory that is permanent and persistent is small compared to the dynamic memory. So without power you will lose information over time. SSDs for example need to powered on and allow their memory controllers to refresh the flash periodically otherwise they lose data. It’s known as bit rot. It might be months up to a couple of years but information on a NAND flash drive will eventually be blank.
So the only truly safe choice is to not carry or use it in the first place.
Eric: “The fact is all of them are pushing it and this strongly suggests prior agreement on common ends, especially given the fact that ADAS is unpopular with almost everyone.”
ADAS is the Obamacare of the auto industry by example of changing private healthcare into *national socialist healthcare* so is ADAS into…Transporation as a Service (TAAS). Just as Obamacare was designed to fail by making the private healthcare system a dog’s breakfast mess, overly expensive and a lure for greedy insurance companies to go along for short term profits but eventual destruction, so is ADAS. All the major auto companies are on board because one of them, maybe two, will become a government approved monopoly selling driverless UBER’s for a mandatory monthly fee. Just as you can keep your doctor and save $2500 per year, you won’t have to buy/own an expensive car, you won’t have to worry about parking it and you can play with your phone, sleep, get drunk and not have to worry. Except you lost your freedom because every time you call for a ride you are asking *permission* to go somewhere from someone representing the government. ADAS is a means to an end. Real men would tell the auto industry to f’ckoff but we have tranny soy boys today. Some cannot stand to hear someone argue another point of view therefore they need to kill to keep the lie alive their Marxist teachers indoctrinated into them which was the plan all along. But I digress.
Fat, dumb, happy, drunk, drugged and vaccinated but most of all… safe. Small price to pay to the monopoly for you to “screw your freedoms”, as the former Austrian governor of California said.
Imagine what will happen when people come to depend on this technology. Most of us here are pretty good at knowing where the automobile ends and the garage door begins, but I imagine many people rely on the crutch of the ever faster beeping as they get closer to the wall. What happens when the object they’re about to hit doesn’t trigger the alarm? Do they still go slow enough to not cause damage, or do they learn an expensive lesson about relying on low cost technology?
Now fast forward a decade, when most vehicles have this stuff. Drivers no longer exercise caution when backing up, just punch the “R” button and give ‘er the gas. No worries, the smarts will stop in time. Until it doesn’t because the obstruction was too low to be detected, or because it only works properly below 5 MPH, or a myriad of other unanticipated scenarios. Who’s responsible for the damage? Not the manufacturer, who sold it as a smart feature. Not the government who requires it. No, the driver who assumed the stuff actually works.
Thats why everyone needs a tennis ball on a string. Used to laugh at my grandpa having that, now I know. Its just a nice easy way to know the cars are parked exactly where they should be.
I am patiently waiting on the first auto bankruptcy. Who is buying new cars anymore? Besides the atrocious advances in technology that no one desires the prices are absurd. How are these companies still holding up?
Fleet sales, government sales, leasing, rental companies. But I see plenty of new Broncos on the road, lots of Tacomas and of course RAM and F-150 trucks.
Funny that I see a lot of F-150 Lightning trucks with federal plates. I guess they’re for the BLM managers and administrators, no way would a smoke jumper want one of those things out in the backcountry!
Keep an eye on Stellantis. They’ll probably be the first to crack. The American brands will be jettisoned. Chrysler and Dodge will bite the dust. RAM will be okay but even Jeep isn’t doing that good. I see a lot of Wranglers around but not many new ones. People seem to prefer the Bronco over them now around here. And the rest of their lineup is massively overpriced garbage.
I can see this happening as well, Raider Girl. But I have to wonder if that is not the end-goal? TPTB know Americans cannot stand this saaaffety “assistance” technology in vehicles, and yet they still refuse to remove it. Instead, mandating more as if they are deaf, dumb, blind, and stupid. At some point, the Feds know Americans will simply give the Feds the middle finger, and refuse to purchase said, computer-big-brother-on-wheels. The entire auto industry collapses, with a possibility of nothing taking its place (theorizing here). That is, back to pre-computer-on-wheels vehicles, and voila! You get the you-will-own-nothing-and-be-happy, 15-minute city walking (modern day gulags) without ever having to fire a gun. It is the frog-boiling-slowly-in-hot-water analogy when it comes to the freedom of movement and our vehicles, and our right to control what we purchase.
While I can’t speak for anyone else I intend to avoid a urinal with grasping claws although I suspect a government that would impose “driver assistance” on the populace would have no problems imposing urinals with grasping claws on it.
One problem with reducing the number of miles driven per year is the tax revenue to fund road repair also goes down and while some might think that would be good I suspect certain people who were kept from driving might well take to dropping heavy objects on cars still driving on public roads. Some might say this would be unlikely but the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk shows certain people would have no problems doing it.
Patents are key to advancing an engineering career in large US companies.
A Patent for a software “feature” is a lot easier for the attorney to argue than an improvement on a physical dial or switch.
Also, if the GM “tech center” here in Austin is any indication, most of the software “engineers” working on the technology are questionably-qualified visa labor, mainly from India. They will do as they are told and not push back.
The majority come from wealthy families so the paychecks and the long term really don’t matter as much as keeping the visa to stay in the US. Plus, the women try to finagle what should be full time jobs into part time via “work from home”.
This emigration of the wealthy class from India to the US is confounding. If they are already wealthy, why would they want to come here? I can’t think of anyone that welcomes there presence and I would rather live in my own country.
They are being paid by their government to destabilize this country in every way imaginable. And it’s working.
India s one of the few countries that is still kowtowing to israel…not good…
Colonization. America has rule of law, and the native born population is generally honest and polite, attributes to be exploited for financial gain.
I take pleasure in washing my car & never go to the expensive automated car washes. Since there’s no off option on all the collision & other “assist” functions, I guess the computer just goes nutso blitzo right?
Channeling William Shatner in Airplane! The Sequel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebo0aLLPYwA