Things That Annoy Me About Cars

Similar to the 'EV Stupidity Checklist' from John Siracusa:

https://hypercritical.co/2026/05/29/ev-stupidity-checklist

I own a Tesla M3 2019, and recently drove 2-3yo MG HS as rental.

Glass roof: agree.

Buttons: yes, if Tesla would have kept the stalks and added 3-4 programmable buttons, I might rate them higher for a next car. That said, with the MG HS I guess I should have read 20+ pages of manual just to operate the 4-axis 3-rings windshield wipers stalk, not to mention that I could never engage cruise control at all despite trying; so my take on buttons is: something more than Tesla, way less than full-optional/overloaded car. At least with Tesla there's aftermarket options.

Smartphone/NFC: with the MG HS I had to perform a 4-point checklist every time I started it or parked it, and after 7y of Tesla it felt like a huge chore (esp. for quick stops). I've been very happy with Tesla and smartphone (failed maybe twice in 7y), and keep on me the Tesla card as backup (never needed it in the end). A key fob wouldn't annoy me if it worked just like the smartphone on my Tesla: if I don't have to do anything but keep it in my pocket, it'd be fine.

Door handles: the M3 handles are at the right intersection for me to be minimal, efficient and still mostly understandable (push, grab and pull). I can understand they're not regular grab and pull and not everyone is happy about it. I accidentally set off the MG HS alarm while the door and car were already unlocked by pressing the small button on the handle, which after seeing it for 10+y on many cars I still have absolutely no clue what it does (and most times it's only a placeholder for the small button).

Poorly calibrated ADAS: my experience with Tesla is extremely good and again strikes a good balance, while extremely poor applies to Hyundai i10, MG HS and others that I've driven recently. Also: the latter list seems to treat "silent ADAS" as a feature, while Tesla explicitly tells you whether auto-steer or cruise are being engaged or disconnecting, which seems a way better UX. I stopped using the lane assist on the MG HS because it'd randomly drop out even in mild curves without any clue whatsoever. The "auto-enable on restart" for these things is a reason I'll immediately drop the brand from the list of cars I may consider in the future (Hyundai i10).

One pedal: agree.

People write off the Chevy Bolt (as does GM) but it solves all of these issues and is what has kept me from "upgrading." Normal buttons, normal car, normal handles, simple, fast, zero maintenance, and because they aren't fancy incredibly cheap used-car prices with near new batteries.

Ugh the glass roofs. I don't know why people like them. "Why yes sir, I would love to get beat down on by the hot sun while lacking airflow over me and risk an expensive repair bill from a falling walnut!"

Unfortunately probably not available in Australia, but as I've mentioned in other comments, GM for all its faults has managed to check all these boxes with the Bolt EV. It feels pretty much like a normal, boring car, which is a great thing. The only thing that violates the author's must-haves is that they put the A/C, heat, and heated seat controls on the touchscreen, although the "auto" climate control works well and is operated with a physical knob. Also I believe we have the higher trim model and it does not have motorized seats or seat memory, thankfully my wife and I are similarly proportioned enough that I only have to move the seat forward when I drive. It is by far my favorite of all the vehicles we've owned in recent years, and it's very affordable in the US.

I got a used 2023 Chevy Bolt and initially disregarded one pedal driving was an absurd and unnecessary feature, but now I think I would skip a car that doesn’t have it.

there's a big one that i'm surprised doesn't get more attention: motion sickness. Several friends of mine have commented that they avoid Uber's that are Teslas, because they are so jerky. Hard suspension, super torquey drivetrains, rigid chassis (good!), and spartan seats make for a pretty uncomfortable ride as a passenger.

i've never once been excited to ride in someone's ev, though they are fun to drive.

Combined turn signals and brake lights!

A sim card which connects the car to the internet.

Add automatic high beams to the list.

They just don't work half as well as when people did it manually.

Before the pandemic, it was rare to get blinded by a person's brights. Now if I drive at night it's just non-stop, and I live in an area with street lighting. (Some of this is also due to after market LEDs and possibly lost driving manners.)

It's extra obnoxious as a pedestrian because at best they get turned off way too late, or frequently not at all.

One-pedal driving trains a driving habit that could lead to a regrettable mistake when getting used to a vehicle without it. The driver's seat is no place for poorly considered conveniences.

One Pedal Drive Option tends to cause motion sickness.

I agree with most of these but

>Smartphones and NFC cards instead of keyfob with buttons

Using a phone as a key is super convenient, and having a little credit card sized NFC key works great as a backup. I've rarely had any problems with it.

>Turning on/off headlights, auto lights are good but I still regularly need to manually control them.

Why? Auto headlights work 99.9% of the time in every car made in the last 20 years.

I suppose as a band aid solution for the sunroof you could have the roof wrapped in the body color, an other color or even a funky design.

Also perhaps a hybrid would also fulfill the authors needs?

I do sympathize with the opinion that most new cars are not very attractive. At least to me as a petrol head.

I don't get the allure of one pedal driving. I have a Model Y, so I use it, but I'm just kind of "meh" about it. I think they introduced it related to re-gen, but these days it's kind of an arbitrary UX choice - on the Tesla you can enable brake assist to mimic the one-pedal driving experience when it's cold or you have a 100% battery, and other cars (maybe Tesla?) will periodically use brakes instead of regen to dry them off or otherwise exercise them a bit.

So then, if it's not actually a "fly-by-wire" mechanical system, why would you choose that as the UX? It cramps my calf constantly keeping it partially activated and the pedal half way depressed. More often than not I'll relieve my foot by doing short stints of cruise control, but that's tedious to manage.

My dream set up would be the accelerator pedal is, well, an accelerator, and the brake is a decelerator, and if you're not pressing either the car maintains the current velocity. It feels like _most_ of the time that you're driving you're just trying to make it go the same speed, and then you can press whichever pedal you need if you're wanting to stop or start again.

I don't suppose any cars work like this? ICE vehicles more or less in the moment do but "coasting" does decelerate a small amount so that over time you have to push the pedal again.

As I was reading I thought “hey my Skoda seems to be ok with most of these things”, having gone for it more or less for the same reasons. Skoda seems to get it better. Is it because being a non-luxury tier car, they value function over form much more?

The lack of buttons is also extremely annoying on kitchen appliances. To open my microwave door, I need to make sure my finger is clean (it’s a kitchen!) and also adds a very annoying latency between the “pressing” and the door opening.

Turning indicator stalks that don't allow soft-signaling (i.e. ability to nudge the stalk without snapping it into place).

I wonder if there's a blog or something that tells the story of how good car design went off the rails. I'm pretty sure that there was a culture of design that gradually worked out what a great car is like until somewhere in the 2010s - and then got flushed down the toilet, but I don't know anything about it.

I can see how this might have happened. Tessla was a big deal and had those horrible door handles and companies probably wanted to look innovative rather than have good working designs. And physical buttons are more expensive to put in and don't look nearly as futuristic. I heard an add for a car a few days ago on NPR that was literally just "it has 30+ inches of screens!"

But perhaps the story is more about consumers who just want new, exciting things like weird door handles and 30 inches of screens, who cares what they do, and the car companies just threw up their hands and gave them what they wanted? I don't know. I would love to know the full story. I'm sure its documented somewhere.

I recently bought a new car for the first time in 16 years. I had all the same concerns - my Acura MDX solved them all. It’s not perfect (has opaque shade for panoramic roof) but the number of physical buttons (dozens) is glorious. And the door handles are great.

I drive a Hyundai Elantra GT hatchback, and if there was a way to just rip out the engine and gas tank and replace them with an electric drivetrain and battery, I would. I literally do not need any more car than that, and every attempt to sell EVs on pointless futurism pisses me off.

The last time[0] I rented a car they tried to put me in a Tesla. I literally spent 30 minutes in the parking lot with my foot on the brake trying to figure out how to put it in park before giving up and engaging the parking brake buried three settings menus deep on the touchscreen. Walked back inside and they gave me some Kia EV that was about a million times better by virtue of having an almost-normal gear selector. The only real problem was that even the DC fast chargers took like an hour to get the car to full and "just charge it to 80% and top it off before you drop it off" is not an answer when your flight is at 8AM at JFK.

Related note: I'm not really interested in autonomous driving either. Cars that drive themselves are a band-aid solution for the underlying problem that cities build too much private car infrastructure and not enough transit infrastructure. People don't like sitting in traffic, they will actively avoid paying attention to the road when in traffic, and the easiest way to fix that traffic is to provide convenient alternatives to driving.

[0] Emphasis on last: this rental wound up being so comically overcharged that I am actively avoiding car rentals and taking public transit - or, worst case scenario, an Uber.

Subaru Trailseeker was the best I could find, for us.

I hate the tall center storage boots that leave me with no room for my elbow. There is no reason for anything to be there in a front-wheel-drive vehicle.

Why do I have less elbow room than in some 60-year-old rear-wheel-drive that has a transmission and axle in that spot?

Short, tasteful drink tray and storage bin, please.

I thought this was going to be about the noise, pollution, danger, bullying etc. Ah, no, it's about things that annoy the person on the inside of the car. So if both the people outside and inside the car hate the things, why are we stuck with them?

You could easily avoid every single one of these issues by driving an older bog standard, cheap car rather than one costing tens of thousands. Seems like a no brainer really?

There are EVs with no sunroof.

“ A Hyundai executive told the media in 2024, "we also tried out putting touchscreen-based controls, and people didn’t prefer that", "people get stressed, annoyed and steamed when they want to control something in a pinch but are unable to do so".”

I always wonder if the folks who make these decisions themselves ever drive a car. Because this nonsense is wildly irritating. No one who regularly drives long distances could possibly think these are positive features, right?

I can tell you this annoyance - if you're behind a Kia Niro EV and you wonder why the driver is braking from 70 to 30 randomly all the way down a totally clear motorway, it's not the driver. The car's cameras have spotted a shadow across the road and decided it's an obstruction and panicked.

It's like being driven by an inexperienced and terribly stoned driver, paranoid, jumping at shadows, hallucinating shit all over the place.

The ones we have at work keep pinging and beeping about all sorts of shit - oh you're too close to that car over there! (Yeah the road is really narrow, shut up, you're the same width as my Range Rover, you fit just fine). Hey watch out for that twig that's 50 metres away across the field! Oh you wanted to change lanes? I don't think so! OMG WATCH OUT FOR THAT CAR YOU'RE ABOUT TO HIT! (yes because you steered back towards it you stupid machine).

Hey you look tired you should take a break right now so I'm going to ping and beep and make the instrument panel flash until you do, even though we only left five minutes ago and there's still over three hours to go!

Fuck everything to do with them. They're exhausting and stressful to drive. I don't know how anyone can cope with EVs.

I am so happy to get rid of physical buttons. When entering a rental car I often feel like I've entered the cockpit of an airplane. I think Toyota bz4x has 20 separate buttons on the steering wheel alone.