I recently purchased a new car after doing tons of research. But after buying it, I realized that what I found I enjoyed most about the car had little to do with all that research. Instead, it was an assortment of mostly tech features that improve comfort, improves safety, and just make things more pleasurable.
I purchased a Lexus RZ, an SUV EV that has received just fair ratings, simply because of its range of 220 miles. For me that was never a concern because I have a plug-in hybrid for the occasional long trip, I rarely go over 200 miles, and have a home charger. In fact, its lack of a much longer range, led to a substantial discount that made the car affordable.
So what were these unexpected features?
The car is equipped with a lot of advanced technology, not unlike other recent models from other brands, but moving from a 5-year old car, were new for me. When I walk up to the rear tailgate, I move my foot near the bumper and the tailgate magically opens. That means I can walk up to the car with both hands full of packages and drop them into the back.
I never have to carry a key fob. I simply carry a key card in my wallet lets me unlock the car with a touch. I can also control my car from an app, including remote starting, locking and unlocking.
I’m a big user of Apple CarPlay and now I never need to plug my phone into the car. The phone connects wirelessly so I don’t even need to remove the phone from my pocket. I use CarPlay mostly for listening to podcasts and for navigation. If I have an appointment on my calendar of have done a recent search, Apple Maps opens up with a suggestion of where I might be going. If I want to go elsewhere I can simply tell Siri to, for example, navigate to the nearest Costco. A car without CarPlay and Android Auto would be a dealbreaker for me.
If you’ve not bought a car in recent years, you’ll find that the LCD displays have gotten much bigger and more useful. I went from an fuzzy 8-inch to a 12- inch display with more than twice the area. Other new cars have even larger displays, some up to 40-inches wide. Displays are now sharper, brighter and clearer and can display multiple functions at once.
One big difference from previous cars is the number of cameras and sensors on new cars, almost too many to count, but probably over a dozen. They enable all sorts of new capabilities. A top down view of my car pops up on the display anytime I pull into a parking space, showing how the car is positioned between the lines. I can push a button and see a rotating view of my car as if a cameraman is walking around it. Multiple cameras are used to provide warnings when a car is in any of my blind spots.
Cameras are also used to self park the car. Simply engage a button, drive past a space, and the car automatically backs up into the space. A heads up display was something I never paid much attention to, but it adds a lot of functionality. It provides navigation direction, displays the speed limit and tells me what buttons I touch on the steering wheel, eliminating any need to take my eyes off the road. My rear view mirror can switch from a conventional glass mirror to a panoramic color view of the rear using another camera above the license plate.
Adaptive cruise control is a feature now found on most new cars and it makes driving safer and more convenient. It keeps the car at a safe distance from the car ahead, accelating or decelerating as needed. It also provides an alert when you stray over the line between lanes. While it alerts you if you remove your hands from the wheel, it will automatically steer the car through highway curves.
I never gave much thought to automatic folding side mirrors, but not only do they help when I park in my garage, they provide a visible indication of whether my car is locked, because they retract upon locking.
None of these features are a revelation to those who own a recent model year car, but they are worth mentioning because they are what you encounter everyday driving your car. For me they are more important than range, because while I have yet to use my entire range, I use these features everyday.