What is your must have car tech?
 

Before the Z I drove a 97 Ford probe. My other vehicles are a 11 Ford ranger and the wifes 07 328i. When I decided to move away from the probe the only tech I sought after was pretty modest, bluetooth. Needless to say none of my vehicles have any notable gadgets (android auto, lane assist, etc.). Since you don't know what you "dont know" I'm curious what bit of tech has become a "must have" for you guys. For example, my Z has the tech package so the backup camera has become a must-have for me.

Bluetooth — key for giving you pretty much all the control over media you could ask for. I don't like being on the phone while driving, but of course if I have to, this is the only way I'm doing it.

Camera(s) — By all means I think it's important to actually get familiar with the front/back distance of your car, but with more and more BS in the road, you sometimes need that second set of eyes, and realistically, you can't always get it right anyway. Not to drag more Corvette discussion into places, but the PDR feature would be a nice valuable traffic recording built into the car.

Android Auto/Apple Car Play — this can bridge the gap across generations of infotainment. Of course they're not totally refined, but a universal navigation and media interface is a proper step forward. OEM options can be bad even if newer. I just don't like the possibility of possible system invasion by Google and Apple. Granted, having your phone + bluetooth with you is already a ticket to have them track all your movements and conversations in-car, but this takes it another step.

But really, I would like cars to stay simple and solely used to drive, as such with many things in the world. There's just too many morons on the road that stuff like blind spot monitoring is not a bad idea at all. They need to reinvent the blinker, though.

Android Auto, but aside from that... adaptive cruise and lane assist. I had a rental car with those in LA traffic, and it handled the stop and go traffic for me. Soooo nice.

Oh, and a dash cam. My $60 dash cam saved me thousands when someone merged into me and tried to say I hit them. Everyone should have one.

+1 on adaptive cruise control.

It is like going back to horse-and-buggy days to have to use regular cruise again.

backup camera -- bluetooth for the phone..
I like it simple

Auto start. Texas summers are brutal.

Heated steering. My hands get cold easy in the winter

Cooled or ventilated seats. Yeah. These are more important than heated seats.

Bluetooth and android auto.

Backup camera with Bsm and crap. Makes life easier

I’m an old man.
I really don’t like the inroads that technology is making in driving. I like some of the driving aids (cameras, blind spot monitoring), but I really hate when tech intervenes in the control of the vehicle (lane maintenance, adaptive cruise, forward collision avoidance). It’s a slippery slope from Vehicle Stability systems to over-automated cars. Not a big fan of electronic “virtual LSDs” either. Maybe, once this tech goes through a few more generations, it will be more useful.

Where I live, things like parking sensors are useful 7 months of the year, and downright annoying (besides useless) for most of the other 5 as they routinely give false positives due to slush and salt deposits.

I HATE computer nannies that help control the handling of the vehicle. :shakes head: Grew up when this stuff wasn't even thought of yet.

Cup holder.

This infiltration of tech nannies in modern vehicles just pisses me off. People are just getting more and more distracted while driving and the car manufacturers are facilitating this attitude by making these nannies standard on vehicles now. Not to mention, the responsible drivers subsidizing these tech changes. I can't option out of all those bs features which means I'm paying for a bunch of shìt that I not only don't want at all but also feel are facilitating poor driving habits :shakes head: :gtfo2:


My must haves are a stick shift and not having to pay for a bunch of worthless features I'll never use. Looks like the Z might be my last new car purchase, frankly :driving:

I don't think I could enjoy another stick shift without SynRev now that I've been using it for 8 years.

One of the things I really like about the 370z design is that presents a stripped down interface (analog gauges, simple stereo, no HUD or lane assistance or blind spot assistance etc), but it's not. Between the ECU and the VDC, it's a really smart car in all the right places, without interfering with the driving experience.

Ohhhh explains a lot. :tiphat:

My bad Sir

Aftermarket front/rear facing dash camera....or something like the Tesla video recording system

There are some gizmos I like to have (cruise, ABS) but I was perfectly happy with the all-manual, no-electronics 1964-1/2 Mustang I had. But I'm an Old Fart so YMMV.

The perfect Z is base or touring WITHOUT nav and an aftermarket sound system.