10 Comfort Features That Need To Be Standardized In Modern Cars

With more advancements in technology, there are now cars with features that we never thought was possible, and they increase luxury and comfort to a whole new level. We understand that they come at a huge price, but there are other features that are pretty old and do not cost a fortune for them to be made available on every car. In this article, we discuss ten creature comfort features that need to be standardized in modern cars. With the considerable increase in prices of vehicles even without a single change, we believe at least adding these features can make sense.

1. Dead Pedal
   

   

   A dead pedal is a handy tool for automatic and manual transmission vehicles. This is a feature you never knew you wanted until you tried it. Most of the time, especially in an automatic transmission, the left foot, which does not have much work to do, does not have a predetermined position to stay at. Because of this, you will start experimenting with different positions, which might be harmful as you’re confused while driving. Without the dead pedal, it will be challenging to keep your leg in the same place in the footwell. If you have a dead pedal, you can rest your left foot on it for the entire day if need be, and it will feel very comfortable.

2. Rear Seat Headrests
   

   

   You as a driver might not be able to understand this, but the rear seat headrests are one of the top comfort features that need to be standardized in modern cars. These rear seat headrests not only offer much-needed rest for the rear occupant’s neck but also protects it. During a frontal crash, without a headrest, the rear seat occupant’s neck will snap due to something called the whiplash effect. The headrests stop their head from falling over at the back and prevents the whiplash effect, thereby protecting it. So, this is a comfort as well as a safety feature that needs to be standardized.

3. Steering Mounted Controls
   

   

   Imagine pulling yourself towards the steering, bending over to the centre while making sure you are still watching the road and going through all this circus to increase or decrease the volume. Not to be swanky or anything, but steering mounted controls are a lot more comfortable to use for changing volume, seeking radio stations and changing tracks. They also make sure that you achieve reducing the volume or even muting the system with just a press of the thumb while you still have both hands on the steering wheel, reducing the time you take your eyes off the road drastically.

4. Day/Night Internal Rear View Mirror
   

   

   The most irritating and dangerous entity while driving at night is the headlights from oncoming vehicles and those behind us. While you can’t keep shouting on all the oncoming idiots to change to low beam, a day/night internal rear view mirror reduces the light glare from the fools behind us. Since your eyes never rest even for a second while driving, it is important to have features like these that help reduce the strain on them by a lot. It would be helpful if you had a feature like this on your external rearview mirror as well.

5. Power Windows
   

   

   Imagine you buy a new car right now in 2022, and you have to crank the window up by rotating the lever on the door. You will feel outdated and sometimes even embarrassed in front of those cousins who have cars with power windows. The power windows are more of a need than want in this era of cars that have even more advanced and cool tech features. On a side note, it will be easier for you as a driver to close all the windows at once while locking the car or opening them all at once on a hot day. In this day and age, power windows are one comfort feature that needs to be standardized.

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6. Central Door Locking
   

   

   Just like the manual rotating windows, you don’t want to insert your key into the door handle and then lock it every single time. Imagine your house is on the second or third floor in a building without an elevator, and you’re not sure whether you locked your car or not. You wouldn’t want to risk ignoring it, and so you go all the way down and twist the key after inserting it into the key slot only to find it was indeed locked. To save you this hassle, there is a straightforward and comfortable yet important feature called the central locking system. It is not just comfortable but safe as well.

7. Power steering with Tilt and Telescopic Adjustment
   

   

   While the power steering feature has become common in every car, we feel that the tilt and telescopic adjustment is another comfort feature that needs to be standardized. Everyone is of different shape and size, and the manufacturer needs to understand that driving comfortably is a very important thing irrespective of the distance and time spent in the car. The tilt adjustment is currently standard on every car, but the telescopic feature seems to be missing even on cars costing more than Rs.10Lakh, and this doesn’t seem justice to me.

8. Automatic Climate Control
   

   

   There are cars right now that have 3-zone or even 4-zone climate control that sets different temperatures and maintains it for different people in the same car. While on the other end, we have cars that don’t even come with Air conditioning and are fitted with blowers. For the price that you pay especially for the above 7lakh segment, automatic climate control should be made standard. One of the hassles of cars without automatic climate control is the fact that in some cities, we need to constantly increase and decrease the temperature or fan speed to escape the heat and at the same time make sure the windshield does not get fogged up due to difference in temperature.

9. Navigation
   

   

   Navigation is one of the very important things one needs in order to reach his/her destination, and it’s not always that you will know the route whether it is in the city or to other locations. Currently, people use their phones and hang them on their phone holders to use for navigation, which is not a bad thing, but if you have separate devices for navigation, we believe it would be more accurate and easier for the driver to view it without any distractions.

10. USB and Bluetooth Systems
    

    

    No matter the size and power of your car, you cannot spend more time in it without music. We have observed that many cars in their base models don’t even have a single-din music system, and surprisingly they don’t have speakers as well. The worst in this list is the diesel Mahindra XUV300 base model, which costs around Rs.10Lakh and does not even come with speakers. Imagine paying 10 Lakh for a car without the basic speakers. We believe a basic music system with average quality speakers is a comfort feature that needs to be standardized. Investing in an aftermarket accessory after spending 10 lakh seems a bit too much especially considering these vehicles are made to go long distances.

These are some comfort features that we believe need to be standardized on all modern-day cars, and as stated before, considering the price you are paying as a consumer, it definitely makes sense too. What do you think should be a feature that should be standardized for every car right from the base variant that will improve the comfort and drivability of a car? Let us know in the comments section below.