There’s a lot of new car technology that impedes the driving experience. These tech features don’t.
Though normal cruise control is nice, radar-based adaptive systems are where it’s really at. The system senses whether a car is in front of you, and adjusts your car’s speed accordingly to maintain a set distance. It makes congested highway cruising a whole lot less stressful.
Magnetic adaptive suspension uses a fluid that stiffens and softens based on the amount of electricity pulsing through it. It’s incredibly clever, and used on everything from Corvettes to Ferraris.
If adaptive suspension isn’t your thing, a company called Multimatic has a wonderful solution—its trick spool-valve damper setup is used on all sorts of race cars and performance minded road cars like the Ford GT, Camaro Z/28, and Colorado ZR2.
We know nothing can beat the feeling of shifting gears yourself. But if you have to get an automatic transmission, you can’t go wrong with a dual-clutch. Shifts are seamless and lightning quick, meaning faster lap times and less jerky movement.
Mechanical LSDs are great because they’re consistent, but if you want the most high-performance differential out there, you have to go electric. Depending on where you are in a corner, they can lock, unlock, and send power to a designated wheel that needs it most.
This works by having the car brake the inside wheel while going through a turn, simulating a limited-slip differential. It allows for a better distribution of torque across the driven wheels, and therefore, more grip. Most of the time, it works seamlessly, meaning you won’t feel it happen at all. You’ll just see the results.
A side-effect of driving big, long cars is a large, hard-to-see blindspot. That’s easily remedied by blindspot monitoring systems that can sense when a car or other object is in the very spot you can’t see. Clever, and extremely useful.
We don’t really see a downside to avoiding a crash when possible. Anti-collision systems like Subaru EyeSight can warn you if it thinks you’re about to hit something, and even apply the brakes for you.
There’s no better feeling than hopping into a ventilated seat on a hot day. The same goes for feeling a seat heating up in the middle of winter. If you’ve experienced it before, it’s hard to go back.
Massaging seats are one step above climate-controlled seats, and use little motors scattered throughout to give you a customizable massage while driving. Like heating and cooling, once you experience it, you’ll want to have it in every car you drive.
Like seats, it’s a pleasure to feel heat emanating from the steering wheel on a cold day. No more wearing gloves when you drive to work in the morning during sub-freezing temperatures.
Being able to see all of a car’s vital readouts plus navigation directions is a huge help in situations where you shouldn’t take your eyes off the road. Newer head-up displays are customizable, which means you can see what you want to see, and get rid of useless info.
Source: https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/g21596652/best-new-car-tech-features/?slide=13