Five features we need in cars

Car makers are constantly coming up with new features they think we need, from big screens to weird door handles.. Often these cause more problems than they solve.. We get it, since that very first person with a face full of mud 140 years ago said:.

"Geeze I wish my jalopy had some kind of screen to protect me from the wind", manufacturers have been trying to wow us with newer and better features in the hope we'll buy their product.  Who can argue with windscreens and wipers, air-conditioning and airbags, radios and sound systems?. And we love proximity unlocking, head-up displays and heated seats.  Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are superb, blind spot warning and parking sensors have saved us from embarrassment and saved lives.  But then there are the other inventions that make you wonder what on Earth were they thinking?. Vibrating seats?.

Door handles that disappear and are hard to use?. Giant glass roofs in Aussie summers?. Huge screens that have done away with all the real buttons?.

Safety alerts so distracting they're possibly even dangerous?      We know what we want so here's our list of features we'd like to see, and please jump in and tell us what you think cars need and maybe the message will get through to the carmakers.. There are few features more disappointing than the voice command function in cars.. The promise was a Chat GPT or Siri style helper that could not only carry out vehicle functions easily but also plan our journeys and organise our calendars..

Well they couldn't keep the promise, because the current versions in cars are next to useless.   Is it too much to ask for our real dials, switches and buttons back?. Over the past five years we've watched them disappear before our eyes into touch screens, making the process of just turning the air-con temperature down an awkward process of finger swipes and stabs.. The windscreen was a great idea, and combined with windscreen wipers, meant driving in all weather conditions was now possible..

But are we not at the stage where a kind of smart chromatic glass can be used that adjusts to cut glare and brightness when driving into the sun.  Yes, there are sun visors and sun glasses, but there are many reasons why these aren't perfect.. While we're at it is there a better way to keep windscreens clear in torrential rain?. Windscreen wipers are fantastic but can a charged windscreen be developed where water doesn't hit it in the first place?.

Just asking…  Full-sized spare wheels are heavy, take up space and are hard to change.. But they're better than space savers spare wheels, run flat tyres and repair kits.. For years we've seen innovative tyre prototypes that aren't filled with air and don't puncture, but here we are a century later still driving around on balloons.  Cars dent and scratch way too easily..

The cost of repairing metal panels and respraying is huge, and means the car is off the road for weeks sometimes.  Yes, the ultra high-strength steel and aluminium that's used today is better than the steel we used to use, but why aren't we using plant-based fibres and resins to build the bodies of our vehicles?  Steel is so last century.. Actually it was last century in 1941 that Henry Ford patented his soybean car, which had a body made from plastics reinforced with hemp and flax fibres.. The car was 500kg lighter than a regular steel car and up to 10 times stronger than steel.  So what happened?.

World War II seemed to derail the push for bioplastics and steel continued to rule the world..