Heated seats, GPS and more are all additional features that can make a car more or less desirable based on your own opinions and needs. You’ll learn about the pros and cons of various car features below.
These will not only be good distractions to prevent you from thinking about the potential penalties for violating Texas license plate laws or how much these features may cost while also giving you an idea of which features you may want to watch for in a new vehicle.
Infotainment Systems
Infotainment systems are a relatively new vehicle feature that replaces the center console of your car with a touch screen. While these screens are often home to many conventi features, they create many new problems.
There’s already a problem with people texting while driving, so many are baffled as to why car manufacturers would make this problem worse by placing a giant tablet in the car. This screen isn’t typically avoidable either because many essential controls like a/c or heating and the GPS are tied to it.
Displays that show what vehicles are in your blind spot and rear-view cameras also end to showcase their feeds here. The worst ones even move the speedometer, a vital feature for any vehicle, onto the screen. This doesn't even cover technical issues like slow or unresponsive touch screens or physical issues like cracked screens.
It’s not all bad, though. These systems can make it really easy to play your music and, as mentioned above, may provide the car with a built-in GPS. The ability to constantly see what’s around and behind you can be busy to look at until you get used to it, but the information can be vital once you’re accustomed to it.
They tend to be more helpful than not so long as they only provide these auxiliary features, but they become a big problem when they’re crammed full of essential information that’s locked behind multiple taps.
Bluetooth Capability
Choosing what you want to listen to during your morning commute is incredibly freeing, even if it’s just the same song you’ve had on repeat for the last week. This is why Bluetooth is being added to more cars.
A long, quiet drive is the perfect time to catch up on your favorite podcast, listen to an e-book or just jam out to your favorite songs. You don’t even have to use it all of the time. Cars with Bluetooth still let you listen to all of your favorite radio stations. Of course, you can also drive in silence if you want, but where’s the fun in that?
Bluetooth does bring some new problems with it, though. For instance, you can have a phone call without ever touching your phone. Far too many people don’t see a problem with this, but phone calls can still be distracting to a driver, whether they touched the distraction machine that is their phone or not.
On top of this, listening to whatever you want isn’t always a good idea. A funny podcast may leave you laughing and unable to focus on the road, sentimental songs may result in you being lost in thought and listening to TV shows or movies always brings the temptation to grab the phone for just a quick peek.
The biggest problems with car Bluetooth though all relate to technical troubles. When the bluetooth doesn't connect or the sound quality is incredibly poor, you’ll find yourself frustratedly searching for a solution instead of driving.
Heated Seats
As a child, you glamorized adult life. You imagined yourself buying all kinds of things with money you earned at your fun job, went to bed whenever you wanted and drove a really cool car. While this dream of life as an adult wasn’t entirely accurate, there is one part of it that many dream even still of making a reality: heated car seats.
Unfortunately, while they can be pretty cool (or hot?) they aren’t perfect. You’ll know this if you've ever read the label on the heating pad you have at home. You’re warned to be careful about how you use it so you don’t suffer from skin rashes or even burns, and this same device needs to apply to heated car seats. If you’re really unlucky you may get burned anyway because fault seats go from an exciting relaxation feature to a fire very quickly.
When they work correctly and are used responsibly, the comfort they provide is unmatched. The cold chill of winter will struggle to make its icy bite last as you sink into the seat for a hit, letting the warmth melt away your worries, aches and pains. There is very little that could make such total comfort completely untenable.
Backup Cameras
The benefits of backup cameras are difficult to overstate. For large vehicles, they may provide visual information that you’d be lacking otherwise while smaller vehicles see an increased visibility range. They also beep or otherwise warn you audibly when you’re too close to an object.
The warning plastered on the screen encourages you to use the other methods of seeing what’s behind you like your mirrors to get a full picture of your surroundings. All in all, these cameras can make a good driver great or boost the anxious driver’s confidence by providing more information.
However, you wouldn’t be reading about it here if there were no negative aspects of backup cameras. The biggest is when a driver decides to rely on it completely. They will forget or refuse to check their mirrors or look out the windows and focus entirely on the screen despite the warnings.
These cameras can’t see everything behind you; you have to use your mirrors and windows to get an accurate idea of your surroundings. These cameras are also subject to poor quality and becoming dirty, both of which replace their benefits with distractions and frustration. And, of course, adding a screen to a vehicle is likely to create additional distractions for the driver.
