The most automated "car" I've ever owned has been my 2011 Tundra truck with 4wd. I'm still not exactly how all that traction control, stability control and the electronic engagement of the traditional 4wd transfer case work. I know the rear diff isn't an electronic locker or even a mechanical limited slip, it uses the rear brakes to apply traction, that's pretty much how the whole 4wd system in this truck uses to get traction, instead of traditional locking diffs, it uses electronic trickery and brakes the one spinning wheel and applies power to the wheels that do have traction.

This truck, you flip the switch over to 4wd hi or 4wd lo and hope the truck does its thing to get out of a nasty situation. Its not like an 80's Toyota 4x4 where you shift the transfer case lever, hop out and turn the switch on the hubs, if you have air lockers on the diffs, you press the button, all this stuff on my newer Tundra is completely electronically automated, for better or worse.

Worst thing I can think of for using this truck is pulling up a slimey boat ramp, driving in the snow, maybe pulling a stuck car out of a ditch on a snowy road. Its too damn big to really take off road.

 

Well I have auto climate control in my WRX but it's pretty crude IMO - also I do like to manually control the recirc vs outside air. In the wife's A5, the climate control is very effective but I still override the with recirc'd air (Summer heat).

 

For auto climate control, initially entering a hot car, I prefer manual because I don't like the rush of high volume of contrasting cold A/C air the system delivers to bring the hot cabin down until the preset temp is reached. I'm somewhat sensitive to cold drafts and despite angling the vents away, high-speed air still manages to hit me. In addition, when passengers are around, it's also not great for some of them to have this cold air blasting on them. However, once the cabin is comfy (say 23C ~ 74F), I usually engage the auto-climate control to automatically maintain the temp/low fan speed.

For cruise control, I heavily use DRCC/Adaptive in my cars though I wish the system more quickly anticipates acceleration when a gap is created between you and the front of the car. I end up having to manually accelerate to avoid cars cutting in front of me from the large gap left which then engages the brakes on my car and alarming the driver behind me. Not very efficient. The system in the Stinger is marginally more responsive than Lexus' though still not as quickly as I'd like.

Love all else - reverse tilt mirrors, cameras, parking/collision sensors, LKA, etc. LKA on the Stinger is marginally "better" than the Lexus' ones I've experienced as it tends to keep the car centered more despite tinkering with the sway and sensitivity settings on my Lexus' vehicles (i.e RX).

 

Definitely.

On the cruise-control issue, in general, I use it only when my right leg or foot is tired or has an ache. I can often get better average mileage on the highway with my right foot than with the cruise-control, because I know how to feather the gas pedal very gently to adjust for grades, traffic, and other factors. In my experience, most cruise controls tend to adjust the fuel-flow to the injectors with a little more of a bump or surge than I do, which uses more fuel, say, to keep the speed up on a gentle hill. It's not a big difference, but, in my experience, noticeable.

On the heat/AC, again, I much prefer to do it manually. That way, I can add or take out heat and adjust fan speed as needed to keep myself comfortable and as needed to keep the windshield defogging effective and prevent moisture-condensation from the glass itself getting too cold. Again, my experience is that I find that using my own senses to deal with typical heat/cold/defog conditions, for my purposes, works better than with automatic systems, which often rely on pre-set computer programming. Operating the climate control manually also allows you, if needed, to hit the "Recirculate" button, which shuts off outside air....the computer can't tell if you are stuck behind an idling truck or bus spewing diesel-fumes into the car, or the strong smell of tar outside in areas that are being re-paved. And, in the winter, though you obviously don't want to freeze inside just to save a little wear on the engine, using too much heat inside while the engine is warming will slow or delay the warm-up itself, since the heater, through the inside-heater-core, acts as a small radiator....it actually bleeds off, to heat the interior, some of the hot anti-freeze that would normally be circulating in the engine block. I notice that on almost every gas-powered car I've ever driven in the winter....longer warm-ups on the temperature gauge while using the heater.

 

 

Interesting. That may (?) explain why the climate-system in my old IS300 was constantly reverting to the Recirc-mode when I didn't want it, and I was constantly clicking the control-dial back again to outside air. Maybe it was just reacting to the pollutants in the air around here...we get a lot of traffic in this area, and vehicles spewed out more emissions back then. Anyhow, though, I found that system exasperating.....I often didn't feel I needed recirculate, but the system was always reverting to it. And you never want the recirc mode in the defog cycle...it will just fog up the windshield. Most automatic systems automatically shift to fresh air with the defog....for some reason, the old IS300 didn't, at least as I remember it.

 

I used to constantly fiddle around with the HVAC but in my last few cars, just keep it set it on Auto year 'round and may just adjust the desired temp now and then.