11 Car Features Modern Tech Made Obsolete

Look from afar, and modern cars don't differ much from their predecessors. They still have four wheels, engine compartments, and metal bodies with windows. Peek inside, and it's the same story. Every car has a steering wheel, a dashboard with instruments, and at least a seat for the driver. Most cars always had trunks, too.

Dig deeper, though, and you'll find that modern tech has made many older car features obsolete. Mechanical simplicity was replaced by convenience, and safety became a much higher priority in the industry. Not to mention the emission regulations, which greatly impacted the industry. People have also changed over the years. More than anything, cars have become computers on wheels, completely changing how we interact with them.

In this article, we'll revisit some of those once-ubiquitous car features. We'll explore why they disappeared and also play the devil's advocate for the positive or negative impact of their replacements. From driving mechanics to in-car entertainment, here are 11 car features that couldn't survive the tech revolution.

Search with the keyword manual transmission online, and you'll find dozens of articles regretting the death of the stick shift. Of course, these articles were likely written by car enthusiasts. And these people, us included, love a more engaging driving experience. Stick shifts, of course, increase your involvement. Remember, you are not only moving the stick but also playing with three pedals down there. Just thinking about it gives us goosebumps.

Most people aren't interested in driving engagement, though. In fact, the less they interact with the car, the better. For most drivers, an automatic gearbox is by far the preferred solution. It's way more comfortable and convenient. All you need to do is accelerate, decelerate, and steer. Not to mention, automatics are quicker. Thus, not many cars offer a manual transmission option in 2025.

But the manual isn't dying only because of fading demand. Electricity played its part, too. Hybrids, for example, function much better with automatics or continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) because advanced electronic control units (ECU) can keep the powertrain predominantly in its most efficient range. For instance, the latest Prius gets 57 mpg city thanks partly to its e-CVT transmission.

Electric vehicles (EVs) will only exaggerate the efficiency discrepancy. Most electric cars only need one forward gear because they produce maximum torque immediately. Sure, Toyota has been working on a fake manual for EVs, and in general, there has been a push for saving the manual in sports cars. So, there is some hope for enthusiasts, but the writing is already on the wall for most cars.

Much like the automatic transmission killing the manual, the electronic parking brake decimated the manual parking brake. For most people, it's simply better. It requires less force and does everything automatically. You engage it with the press of a button, but once you want to start moving, the electronic parking brake does everything automatically. Just press the gas pedal, and off you go.

Still, driving enthusiasts find the engagement of a manual parking brake much more enjoyable. Indeed, handbrakes allow you to activate them for tail-happy shenanigans during cornering. Good luck drifting with an electronic parking brake. Much like a stick shift, nothing beats the interaction you have with the lever. 

Thus, many enthusiast cars still come with handbrakes. The Toyota GR86/Subaru BR-Z twins have one. So do the Mazda MX-5 and Toyota GR Corolla. But the exceptional Honda Civic Type R, which has just about everything that matters in a performance car, doesn't. This doesn't make it any less enjoyable because — let's be honest — when was the last time you used your handbrake to make a turn?

Driving is mostly a stressful activity, but you can greatly enhance the experience by playing your favorite tunes. Music enhances your mood, but its rhythm can also help you keep a focused tempo while driving. Automakers knew this during the early years of the auto industry, with the first cars equipped with radios appearing during the 1920s.

It wasn't until the 1970s that the music-listening experience in cars improved tenfold with the introduction of cassette decks. Passengers could now listen to their favorite songs without waiting for radio DJs to play them. Audio equipment manufacturers quickly followed the trend and introduced improved aftermarket stereo systems.

The in-car entertainment experience got another boost with the first CD player, made by Sony for Mercedes-Benz. Now, the driver could choose any song within a second instead of rewinding or fast-forwarding. During the 2000s, car stereos received auxiliary cord capability, which allowed the music to be played directly from the owner's MP3 player. 

Today, though, cassette decks and CD players are a thing of the past. Heck, most don't even have aux capability. But it's all for the better. In modern cars, you can play tunes directly from your favorite streaming service through the infotainment system, Android Auto, or Apple CarPlay. Yup, that's most of the world's music at your fingertips — or speech command. Just ask Gemini or Siri to play a song you like, and you'll get it in seconds. You can also use your smartphone to play music via Bluetooth. Neat! Shockingly, though, the automotive CD player isn't completely dead. Eight new cars still offer CD players in 2025.

Most cars today come with a seating capacity for five people, with the front seats accommodating two passengers. However, front benches were once a staple in classic American cars. They could fit three passengers by utilizing column shifters and minimizing the dashboard. It made sense to offer buyers more seating capacity in the same footprint.

Today, though, front bench seats are fitted exclusively to large trucks and SUVs, and it's all because modern tech made them obsolete. For starters, automakers found it increasingly difficult to provide center passengers with a lap/shoulder belt and airbags, lessening their safety. Also, bench seats offer no side support, meaning quite a lot of sliding around during cornering and crashes. To make things worse, many people utilized the tight center seating area for their kids. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) does not recommend using the center seat on a regular basis.

Still, in-car technology also played its part. In the past, cars had minimalistic dashboards with almost no controls, but today, automakers try to cram everything from climate control buttons to huge screens into the space. The vacant center area also has valuable nooks and crannies. People grew accustomed to these things.

However, this might change in the foreseeable future. The latest Land Rover Defender has the option for a center bucket seat up front. Moreover, because they have no transmission tunnels, EVs have more space to accommodate front-center passengers. Automakers also use more screens and fewer buttons (arguably to the detriment of safety), opening even more space in the middle.

Smoking was once a widespread activity. It looked cool to people, we guess, but smoking is also incredibly addictive. More than that, though, people didn't know that smoking caused cancer and other illnesses due to propaganda from tobacco manufacturers as late as the 1970s.

Naturally, people wanted to smoke everywhere, including their cars. So, almost every automobile back in the day was equipped with an ashtray and a cigarette lighter. Heck, some cars had an ashtray for every passenger! Imagine the cloud of smoke that would create. Yikes! But people also drive their children in cars, which is one of the main reasons why they are some of the classic car features that have been banned. In some states, you'll get penalized when smoking in cars with children or pregnant people.

Fortunately, automakers replaced ashtrays and cigarette lighters with much more useful features. Cars today have storage areas and cupholders instead of ashtrays. Moreover, USB ports for charging are a standard feature across most new vehicles. Wireless smartphone chargers are becoming a staple in the industry, too. 

The cigarette lighter plug is also absent from modern vehicles, though the 12V port that it utilizes is still a standard feature. The 12V port can power some handy car accessories, like an additional smartphone charger, a 12V tire inflator, or even a 12V car refrigerator. You can also use it to power a cigarette lighter if you wish, but you'll need to purchase it separately.

Opening a window has always been an important feature of cars. Not only does it allow fresh air inside, but it also makes activities like giving something to a person outside or going through the drive-thru possible without opening the door. Back in the day, passengers operated the windows with manual window cranks. Easy to operate and reliable, manual cranks became a staple in the auto industry from its early days.

Manual window cranks are among the classic car features that are probably gone forever, though. They have been, of course, replaced by power windows, which are today operated exclusively by electricity. However, the 1941 Packard 180, the first car to feature power windows, had a hydro-electric system to manage the windows. Meanwhile, the Mercedes-Benz 600 W100 had fully hydraulic ones.

Obviously, using one finger instead of your hand's muscles is a much more comfortable way to open the windows. Power windows are usually quicker, too, and in fully automatic systems, you can press the button once, and the window will open or close without any further intervention.

Don't write off manual cranks just yet, though. Surely, the lack of electronics makes them way more reliable. They are easier and cheaper to repair, too, and perhaps safer for kids. Oh, and you can also open the windows without even putting the keys in the ignition.

External side mirrors are among the most important safety features, as they greatly enhance visibility. Because of their importance, side mirrors were introduced quite early in the auto industry. Famously, Ray Harroun won the 1911 Indy 500 with his Marmon Wasp, which was the first car ever with a rear-view mirror. During the 1920s, side mirrors were installed on sports cars, though they were not fitted as standard in most vehicles until the 1960s.

One of the most important aspects of side mirrors is their adjustment. Drivers come in different shapes and sizes, which can dramatically change a person's field of view, so adjusting the mirror angle is crucial. For most of their history, side mirrors were adjusted manually, either directly or via a lever.

Levers were preferred because they allowed the mirrors to be adjusted from inside the cabin. Still, the driver needed to reach the other side to adjust the passenger-side mirror, which often required unbuckling the seatbelt. Fortunately, electricity has made this operation way more comfortable. The controls are now situated on the driver's side, always at the driver's fingertips. Sure, this made them more complex, but it greatly improved usability.

Not only that, but automakers today equip side mirrors with many more useful technologies. For instance, side mirrors with memory function allow multiple drivers to save their preferred configuration and revert to it using one button. Heating elements ensure they don't get fogged up. Blind spot monitoring further improves visibility and safety, and power-folding is a beneficial addition that allows cars to squeeze into tight parking spaces. 

This is a controversial one. Many drivers still wonder why most modern cars don't come with spare tires, and rightfully so. A spare tire is the most convenient solution to getting a flat, allowing you to continue driving quickly. And in the case of full-size spare tires, there were no limitations on the speed or mileage you could cover.

But then came smaller donut spares, many of which were limited to a top speed of 50 mph and a distance of up to 50 miles. To make matters worse, automakers later replaced them with repair kits. These kits were very straightforward to use but completely unserviceable on punctures wider than 0.15 inches (4 mm) or blowouts.

Meanwhile, in premium vehicles, you have run-flat tires, perhaps the safest solution of them all. Run-flat tires work by having reinforced sidewalls, which not only allow you to drive with a deflated tire but also to have control over your vehicle in the event of a blowout. Like donut spares, many run-flats are limited to 50 miles and 50 mph once the tire loses pressure. Run-flat tires are wildly expensive, too.

Fine, but what's so bad about a full-size spare tire, anyway? Well, they do occupy space that could otherwise be utilized for cargo. Furthermore, removing the spare lowers the weight, resulting in better performance and fuel efficiency. Above all else, they reduce production costs. Deducting the price of a tire and a wheel from thousands, or even millions, of vehicles can significantly increase profits for automakers.

Carburetors were an integral part of any gas engine before being replaced with fuel injection systems. Invented back in 1826 by American Samuel Morey, carburetors mix fuel and air before it enters the combustion chamber. They create a vacuum utilizing high-velocity air from the intake plenum, pulling the fuel from a float chamber. The more you press the gas pedal, the more air goes into the carburetor, and more fuel is pulled from the chamber. The best part is that carburetors are fully mechanical and very reliable. They can be easily repaired, too, unlike fuel injection systems.

Still, for modern cars, fuel injection has more advantages than carburetion. To begin with, carburetors don't always produce the optimal air-fuel mixture. Meanwhile, fuel injection systems can vary the ratio depending on inputs from the vehicle's ECU. This improves power and efficiency and, crucially, lowers emissions. Environmental factors, like temperature and atmospheric pressure, can also affect the functionality of carburetors, with fuel-injected systems taking all those measurements into account. The bottom line is that fuel injection systems always deliver the right amount of fuel the engine needs.

Not all fuel injection systems are the same, though. Port injection, where the injector is situated near the intake port, creates a more homogeneous air-fuel mixture, making it great for high-RPM operation. Meanwhile, direct injection systems spray fuel directly into the cylinder, meaning a less homogeneous mixture. Still, they allow for finer adjustments and reduce the probability of high-RPM knock by directly cooling the cylinders. Hence, some modern engines have port injection for lower RPM and direct injection for higher RPM operation.

Screens have already taken over car interiors. First, they were positioned in the center console to display guided GPS navigation and maybe the songs you were listening to. However, screens soon swallowed audio controls, climate control knobs, and even analog dials. Many cars are nearly touchscreen-only today, including Tesla models and the latest Mercedes-Benz CLA.

Should we complain about this? Well, there should be physical controls for the most used functions inside your car for safety. Not that this will happen anytime soon. Screens and software are cheaper, meaning higher profits for automakers. Still, the case can be made. Regulatory bodies can also intervene and require physical controls for key functions.

As for analog instrument clusters, though, not so much. Look, we love a well-designed analog dial. Automakers often differentiated themselves with proprietary designs, giving extra character to their models. For some, they are the soul of the vehicle. However, you can make digital dials look the way you want. In the latest Ford Mustang, you can replicate the analog dials of Mustangs from the past. They are not the real deal, but they still look cool.

More importantly, digital clusters can provide the driver with more information, including average fuel consumption, current track playing, turn-by-turn directions, and crucial information from advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). Not to mention, over-the-air (OTA) updates can also improve the experience down the line. So, maybe it's time to let analog gauges die.

Most gas engines use a high-intensity spark to ignite the air-fuel mixture. Spark plugs do that by utilizing high-voltage electric current, which causes a spark to jump between the ground electrode and the center electrode.

Distributor caps were used to bring high-voltage current to each spark plug for quite a long time. Driven by the camshaft, distributors were designed to deliver electricity at the right moment, i.e., during the power stroke of a four-stroke engine. To achieve this, a rotor turned inside the cap, making an electrical circuit when it touched the contacts for each cylinder. Electric coils are also necessary in these systems to create high-voltage current.

However, modern engines don't use distributor caps. These systems don't use rotors but rely on electronics to send current. Then, the current is converted to high voltage using the ignition coils over each spark plug. This makes them much more reliable, as no moving parts are involved. Moreover, they require no timing adjustments and are more efficient, as no power from the engine is used to drive the rotor.

Distributorless ignition systems have multiple other advantages. For instance, they are driven by the ECU, which uses data from the crankshaft and camshaft position sensors to vary the timing. As such, these systems provide automakers and engine manufacturers with higher control over the combustion process, leading to more efficient combustion.