They agree with us!

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Modern cars are being made with more and more gadgets and electronic gizmos to allegedly ‘help’ the driver. Well yes inbuilt SatNav could be handy, if you were going to a strange place and it was easy to use, but otherwise I don’t see the advantage. Over last summer we had the opportunity to use several different vehicles, more modern than ours, and this whole touch-screen palaver was a real issue. Something like tuning the radio, for example. In our current car, you simply press a button for ‘on’ and then another to select a radio station if it isn’t already set on your preferred one. Simple, and takes just a second or two. For adjusting the volume there are little finger-operated switches that you can touch without taking your hands off the wheel. Operating the windscreen wipers takes just a flick of a lever, again without taking your hand off the wheel, and the same for the lights. In these new cars you had to navigate through a series of menus and sub-menus to find things like ‘environment’ – ‘in-car entertainment’ – ‘audio’ – ‘radio’ – then a whole list of digital stations to try to find what you wanted. If I didn’t have someone with me to do it from the passenger seat I just had to wait until I could stop somewhere. How could anyone do that while driving? And having to use these screens for something as simple as operating the wipers is just outrageous. Thankfully now we are not the only ones concerned about this issue. Tests by ‘Auto Express’ found that such systems made simple tasks take a dangerously long time. In the worst car they tested, it took 20 seconds to tune the radio. If you’re driving at 60 miles an hour, that’s a third of a mile covered while you are looking at the screen. A lot can happen in that time! Luckily people are starting to see sense. The independent car safety body Euro NCAP has started to downgrade safety ratings if cars don't have physical buttons to control five functions - indicators, hazard lights, horn, windscreen wipers and SOS function - those models will receive lower marks in crash tests. Using a mobile phone while driving is banned because it takes a driver’s attention away from the road. These are no different.