There was a time when many cars did not have AC, mainly because it was an expensive option well into the '80s. But lots of people still opted for AC – the italics are used here to make a point – because they considered the cost worth what they got. As more and more people opted for AC, it became unusual to find a new vehicle that did not come with AC.

Because that's what most people wanted.

AC is now standard equipment in all new vehicles.

But note the progression – from available option to standard feature. Now consider what is marketed as "advanced driver assistance technology." This encompasses such driver interference "technology" – this word is always used whenever they want to make people think something infantilizing is sophisticated – as Lane Keep Assist, Brake Assist and various other iterations of "assistance" that assert control over the vehicle. It can be understood by imagining a normally healthy man or woman fully able to walk unaided  trying to cross the street having an annoying Boy Scout manifest by their side, grab them by the arm and try to "assist" them across the street – probably by holding them back so they can't do that.

Everyone dislikes this – as a recently published survey performed by J.D. Power establishes. As if anyone didn't already know this. Drivers "don't seem particularly satisfied" with "technologies" such as Lane Keep Assist, Brake Assist and so on, the study states.

And in other news, it has been discovered that most people dislike going to the dentist. . .  .

"J.D. Power's 2024 U.S. Tech Experience Index Study surveyed 81,926 vehicle owners about their perceptions of 40 types of automotive technologies. The findings indicate that, while advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are becoming increasingly common, many drivers feel they are relatively useless."

This is soft-pedaling it. I say that as a car journalist who hears from a lot of people and not one of them has ever told me they merely regard the "technology" as "relatively useless." They uniformly despise it and ask about how to defeat it. Figuring out how to turn off these driver interference technologies is the first thing I-can't-tell-you-how-many new vehicle owners ask me about.