What is up with car door handles these days? | Dave Schilling

Why is everything computerised, automated or impossible to turn off these days?

I believe, deep in my soul, that car companies' number one goal in life is to ruin the experience of driving. I don't have any direct evidence of this conspiracy to rob us of the pleasure of the open road, other than the cacophony of beeps, blips, bloops and blops that greet us in the latest models. Oh, and the screens. Every year, they try to find a new place to glue a touchscreen in a car, like Pizza Hut hunting for more orifices to stuff cheese into one of their pies.

Everything is computerized, automated or impossible to turn off. According to surveys of new-car buyers by the market research firm Strategic Vision, satisfaction with car controls plummeted by 23 percentage points in the last nine years. The whiz-bang gizmos foisted on the North American car buyer have devolved from the glorious, life-saving back-up camera to gesture controls that allow you to turn an invisible knob to crank up the volume on Espresso without touching a single thing in your vehicle.

Turn the volume up: circle your finger in a clockwise direction.

Turn the volume down: circle your finger in a counter-clockwise direction.

Accept a call: point to the BMW iDrive touchscreen.

Select navigation/custom setting: use two fingers to point to the touchscreen.

Change rearview camera angle: draw a circle using your forefinger and thumb.

Regret your life choices: look in the mirror for 10 seconds.