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HomeFeatures Classic10 Car Features Of The 2010s We've Already Forgotten About

10 Car Features Of The 2010s We’ve Already Forgotten About

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Nowadays, cars are more reliant on technology than ever before; Teslas have virtually no buttons anymore, just touch screens, Ferrari ditched naturally-aspirated goodness in favor of hybrid-turbocharged technology with their latest 296 GTB, and even Lamborghini won’t go on to produce their iconic NA V12 engines.



However, not all technologies are bad. See, we’ve been blessed by some revolutionary features like adaptive cruise control, automated emergency brakes, and more cars than ever before feature some sort of autonomous driving dynamics. It is worth mentioning with the rise of so many new features, many older ones have disappeared throughout time, and even some were first introduced before the year 2020 that many of us don’t realize. We’ll be diving into the most forgotten-about features that were showcased in the 2010s.

10 Night Vision

Night vision is something that sounds like a remarkable feature on cars, but as soon as you give it more than 2 seconds of thought, you realize it’s actually a redundant feature. In the year 2000, automotive night vision made its first appearance in the Cadillac Deville, and its sole purpose was to combine infrared technology, lidar, and radar to form imagines of objects that drivers wouldn’t be able to see due to poor weather conditions.

These systems went on to be featured in cars from the 2010s too, like the BMW 7 Series, but only this time around the Bavarians altered the technology to detect animals crossing the road. On paper, a night vision system sounds like an innovative idea, but in the real world looking down at your instrument cluster to see what’s ahead of you turned out to be more dangerous that just looking at the road ahead – not to mention that it was an excruciatingly expensive option – and as a result, virtually no brands make use of this feature anymore, and most people actually forgot it existed in the first place.


9 CD Changer

Everyone remembers CD players, well at least for the most part, but very recollect the existence of a CD changer. This wasn’t just a blank case to keep your CDs stored away so that when you’re done listening to one, you could ravish through it and find your next disc.

CD changers in cars were there to place numerous CDs, and once you’ve finished listening to one, you could choose to play the next CD without having t take the previous one out and insert a new one in by hand. Think of this almost as new different playlists to choose from on your music streaming service.

8 Built-in Satellite TV

There’s no wonder we don’t see satellite TV in modern cars anymore. See, we’re not actually talking about the screens mounted to the rear of the front seats for the rear passengers to enjoy watching a movie, but rather the main infotainment screen at the front.

One characteristic brand that made use of this was BMW, with their iDrive system. It allowed drivers to access satellite TV stations when stationery and switch on to live broadcasts that were displayed on the central infotainment screen for everyone to watch, not just the rear passengers.

Related: BMW Reveals All-New iDrive With 5G And A Personal Assistant


7 Fender Mirrors

Fender mirrors are most commonly seen on older Japanese cars like the Toyota 2000GT and Mazda RX-7, but unfortunately due to safety concerns, these quirks were briskly deemed illegal even before the year 2000. However, that doesn’t mean that some manufacturers didn’t find a way to incorporate the classy design onto their cars.

Take for instance the Pagani Zonda, although it might have made its initial debut in 1999 with its mirrors mounted on its A-pillars, it eventually evolved to have them attached to its fenders, and this stayed a staple feature up until its end in 2017. The Zonda’s successor, the Huyara too has fender-mounted side mirrors, but it is so far extended from its body, that we can barely consider them “fender-worthy”.

Related: Why Horacio Pagani’s Huayra Codalunga Is A Bespoke Long Tail Hypercar

6 Hood Ornaments

Hood ornaments used to be a distinctive feature to differentiate car brands from each other in the 20th century. Various Brands like Ford, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, and Mercedes-Benz all have their own unique ornament design that they flaunted on their hood.

However, like many other cool classic features, it was deemed unsafe by law, and most companies didn’t bother redesigning their signature marques to abide by regulations. This didn’t stop Mercedes and Rolls-Royce however, who went on to keep their iconic ornaments in an attempt to rekindle their heritage.

Related: Rolls-Royce Unveils Spirit Of Ecstasy Redesign

5 Manual Handbrake

Most modern cars nowadays come equipped with electronic park brakes, why that is, we’re not sure, perhaps for aesthetic appeal – but we really do miss the manual handbrake.

Only a very select few cars nowadays still come equipped with one, like the Toyota GR Yaris, but back in the early 2010s, virtually every single car came equipped with a manual handbrake you had to yank up, even the cheapest models, and as a result, you saw kids sliding around their dad’s base-model BMW 3-Series a little more than they should have.


4 Cigarette Lighters and Ashtrays

Now, this is one feature most people almost didn’t even use, and as a result, some manufacturers still provide it as an additional option, but most have disembarked the use of cigarette lighters and ashtrays completely to strive towards a cleaner environment and a healthier population.

Initially, cigarette lighters were used for their intended purpose, but eventually, buyers rather used them to plug in different devices like old-school GPS systems, and phone chargers. So, these were then replaced with actual power sockets, and the ashtrays were disregarded entirely.


3 Semi-Autonomous Driving

Self-driving cars seem like they’ve just arrived at our doorstep a few days ago, but in reality, they’ve been with us since the 2010s, and very few people know of them. In this time period, full-fledged autonomous vehicles didn’t quite exist, or well at least they weren’t mass-produced, but several different components were, however, and at the forefront was Tesla with its Autopilot system.

These revolutionary safety features found in modern cars like lane-keep-assist, automatic emergency braking, and adaptive cruise control were all inventions that started life in the 2010s despite many believing they originated post-2020.

Related: Why Cybertruck’s Eventual Arrival At The EV Scene Might Be Too Little, Too Late

2 On-Board Wi-Fi

Even today, not many people know that their car is essentially a Wi-Fi hotspot. See, there are two main ways your vehicle acts as a Wi-Fi hotspot: Firstly, your car connects to the internet to keep you updated with traffic reports, to detect your geographical location, and even give through weather reports, and secondly – the one most people never knew existed to this day – is that your car can actually act as a Wi-Fi router that your devices can connect to.

This is especially convenient for those who love to be chauffeured around in their uber-luxurious fast sedans between business meetings, so they can stay up to date with what’s happening around the globe.


1 Volvo’s Heartbeat Sensor

In 2007, Volvo showcased its revolutionary spy-grade level of technology in their S80. It was called the “Heartbeat Sensor” and it was designed to detect whether there was someone in your car, whether it be locked, or unlocked.

We say this is spy-grade level technology because, from the comfort of your home, you could monitor the status of your car’s cabin, just in case you feel like the windows aren’t transparent enough to see someone inside, or if its security system might be too weak for your liking to security.

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