This is a seriously overlooked thing by auto makers!

@Ynotisay I think when you start making injection molds and molds for cast parts and program all the cnc machines and PLCs and robots for the assembly line making automated features it actually turns out to not be that much more expensive to include the automated features in all the cars....especially when we are talking about producing 100,000 cars

to actually split up the work into two lines of cars could be more expensive

just a theory I have

I have designed these lines before in my engineering career but not for cars but for other products

@orioninthenight The difficulty for the owner is that he or she might not want all these "features", many of which are meretricious, and merely add a lot of extra material, more to go wrong, higher sales price and more expensive and difficult to service.

We should be thinking of manufacturing goods to do what is necessary, rather than larding them with "because we can" extras wasting so much dwindling resources.

I don't advocate going back to 1960s crudeness and appallingly bad fuel consumption; but there comes a point where the "features" are not necessary and could even compromise safety!

I've a friend whose own car illustrates this. It is a hybrid, a Honda I think, and she is happy with it generally but it has one "feature" she finds annoying and potentially dangerous. If it "thinks" you are too close to objects on the nearside it does not warn you. Instead it grabs control of the steering - ignoring that you may have pulled in very closely for a very good reason, such as passing an approaching vehicle in a very narrow road. She does not want this, and tells me though you can switch it off at the start of the journey you have to do that for every journey - you can't turn it off and leave it off.

While looking at some car reviews, the amount of additional "stuff" and needless complexity especially in the more expensive models in some makes is staggering. Who the Hell needs 24 loudspeakers inside a car? Or a 700 Watt radio? Or has to use a "smart"-phone to adjust the seat?

I don't think it's a matter of needing separate assembly-lines but every manufacturer makes models differing in details like the additional "features" already, so it can't be that hard to design and build a variant that does just what is needed by buyers who don't want to waste their money on 22 surplus loudspeakers, or the potentially hazardous, so-called "infotainment" screens" in the middle of the dashboard - an idea as bad as the term. If designed properly the gee-gaws can be added later, or at least connected, by owners who want them.

@Zaphod42 Ah, I see. Yes, it needs a fair angle of turn of the steering-wheel to flip the switch back.

In those situations I sometimes hold the lever down with one finger - the others are still holding the wheel - just enough for the switch to work without pushing it past the click point.

@ArishMell Just briefly pushing it that far should make it blink three times in modern cars where it is all electronic.

@ninalanyon Ah, but I have never driven a car that modern!

@thisguy20 Mine does that. For tight spots it is often faster than I am at doing that. But it can only do it if there's a car parked either side or at each end.

@samueltyler2 it’s an option, sure, but in bumper to bumper traffic traversing multiple lanes? Not exactly practical.

@samueltyler2 And to be clear, it’s is mostly a thing I’d like to see implemented mostly because of how many times I get in traffic behind someone else who has their blinker on for miles, seemingly oblivious to it. Sure that happens to me from time to time as well, but that’s not nearly as irritating, lol

@Zaphod42 it is an automatic activity, I honestly don't know how I do it. There is an interchange ingo through.apmodtneverydsybwhichni call my white knuckle merge. I need to pay attention to how i do it and report to you.