Bad driver assistance systems are just as frustrating for passengers
I will say this, though: while they're all subject to the same regulations and are all to an extent very annoying, these systems do work in subtly different ways, and that is starting to matter.
By MIRA, the two of us had reached the conclusion that we're not far from ADAS behaviour being a part of the brand-loyalty equation. Performance, design, practicality and price are all big decision-influencing areas when it comes to car buying, but none of them are going to matter if the thing drives you up the wall every time you want to pop down to the shops.
Two things particularly matter: the manner of the intervention (everything from the timbre of the bong to the pick-up of steering auto action) and how simple the systems are to disable.
Some manufacturers do get it. They tend to be the ones that have traditionally put the driver first. BMW, for example, has a superbly gentle lane keeping action and lets you curtail the speed limit warning with one push on the wheel (seriously, who can stand bings going off at 52mph in a 50mph zone when, as every road tester can confirm, you're really doing only 49.5mph?).
And with the launch of the Vantage Roadster, Aston Martin has introduced a physical ADAS shortcut button, right next to the exhaust and damping switches. To them, it's that important.
On the other side of the equation there is Toyota. God I love Toyota, from Yaris to Land Cruiser, but its current, faintly paranoid ADAS are just infuriating. There's even an alert to tell you when another car is wafting up behind you. Gratuitous or what? Would I like to take a break, as it suggests, 12 minutes into my trip? No, but I might like to steer off that cliff. The 'off' switches are also buried in fiddly menus and you can't access them on the move. Not sure I'd buy one.
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