28-05-2025
Which new cars have driver assistance features that are easy to switch off?
Dear Alex,
I recently bought a new Toyota Yaris and the speed limit alerts and lane-keeping assist affecting the steering are driving me bonkers. It's not simple to switch them off, so which new cars have a simple push button to cancel these so-called driver aids?
– BC
Dear BC,
You're not the only one. These systems are now mandatory on all new cars, yet buyers I've heard from almost universally despise them simply because they don't work quite as well as intended.
Lane keeping assistance, for example, can often be over-zealous. Some models simply vibrate the steering wheel to warn you if you cross a white line without indicating, but many nudge the steering wheel back into the correct lane.
This can be not only distracting, but unsafe – for example, if you move out to pass a cyclist without indicating (as you may wish to, if indicating could cause confusion), some cars will calculate that you're drifting across the white line unintentionally and push the steering back into your lane – toward the cyclist.
Speed limit warning systems use cameras to detect roadside signs and emit an audible alert if you exceed the prevailing limit by more than a certain margin.
The trouble is that these systems still aren't reliable, despite having been around for more than a decade. Only recently, one car tried to tell me it was in a 35mph speed limit. Never mind that such a thing doesn't exist in the UK; the limit was actually 40mph, which meant the car then bleeped at me repeatedly to tell me I was speeding, when I wasn't.
No wonder so many buyers want to turn off these so-called safety aids. In fact, it has got to the point that at launches of new cars their makers point out how easy it is to do so. That's right – manufacturers are being forced to fit systems that are so unfit for purpose that they're boasting about how easy it is to switch them off.
In addition, buyers are paying for these systems as part of the list price – it's one of the reasons new car prices have inflated over the last few years. The situation is absurd, which is putting it diplomatically.
Who is to blame? Car makers point to legislators influenced by Euro NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme), the safety and crash testing organisation, which requires such systems to be fitted in order for a car to achieve the maximum five-star safety rating.
Euro NCAP, for its part, says many makers are fitting cheaper systems – and this corner-cutting is resulting in driver aids that don't work as well as they should.
Either way, I don't blame you for wanting a car in which it's easy to switch off these systems.
The models I've found in which it's easiest to do so are Peugeots Renaults and Nissans, which allow you to set up one button that you can press and hold to do it all.
Citroën, meanwhile, has started fitting buttons for both these systems next to each other, so that you can turn them off by pressing both at the same time. Hyundai and Kia now fit a press-and-hold function on two of the steering wheel buttons, which has the same effect.
Also worth considering are the cars with systems that are better calibrated and therefore don't cause you to want to switch them off in the first place. Of these, Volvo 's is about the best – I rarely feel the need to deactivate its lane keeping system as it works well, only kicking in when it really needs to. Volkswagen's speed limit warning, meanwhile, is so quiet (perhaps deliberately) that you can barely hear it over the radio.
