10 Weird Car Features that (Thankfully) Never Caught On

You know you’ve had one or two of these—ideas that sound great that first time, but reveal themselves to be duds the more we think about them. Thus, we end up scrapping them and relegate them to that cobwebby place at the back of our minds where they rightfully belong. But sometimes, the ridiculousness of these ideas doesn’t present itself until it’s much, much too late, when it’s out there for all the world to see—and mock. Here are 10 instances wherein a car engineer’s seemingly brilliant idea managed to reach the production stage, but never really took off.

1. Curb feelers

Curb feelers are antenna-like devices attached to the front end of a car designed to detect curbs. When the car gets too close to a curb, the wires or springs make a scraping noise to alert the driver, which supposedly helps avoid damage to the hubcaps, wheels, and fender. Electronic sensors pretty much put curb feelers out of style.

2. Interlocked seatbelts

The seatbelt went through a barrage of innovations that went nowhere, but none were arguably more useless as interlocked seatbelts. Basically, this technology prevented drivers from starting the car unless the locked their seatbelt in place. So what made them useless? When drivers just left their seatbelt buckled and sat on top of them. When legislators and carmakers realized this, interlocked seatbelts made a swift disappearing act.

3. Motorized rearview mirrors

Not everything in a car needs mechanization, and the rearview mirror is a prime example. But when electric side mirrors became a thing, carmakers thought it a good idea to give the rearview mirror the same treatment as well. However, sideview mirrors are outside the car and they can be tricky to adjust when you’re speeding down the highway. Rearview mirrors, on the other hand, are within easy reach, and it makes more sense to correct the angle with your right hand than to fidget with buttons.

4. Gullwing doors

Many concept cars have this feature, but come production time, carmakers opt to replace them with more traditional counterparts 100% of the time. Though more than a handful of sports cars come equipped with this feature, it’s difficult to pinpoint why these doors failed to really catch on. One would suppose that the reason has to do with potential safety issues such as exiting from a tight space, as well as the added cost of build and possibility of malfunction.

5. Three-wheeled cars

The Reliant Robin, a three-wheeled car, was a very popular car in 1970s Britain. Despite its affordability, it had the propensity for rolling over when making a sharp turn too fast. Despite how dangerous it was to drive, the model was a huge seller until its demise in 2002.

6. Touch-sensitive climate controls

From Buick to Lincoln, many American automakers fiddled with this idea. Unfortunately, touch-sensitive climate controls just can’t beat the familiar knob. Delayed reaction and in some cases, not working at all, are just some of the system’s oft-mentioned problems. Though many cars today still possess this feature, it looks like it’s on its way out, and that can only be a good thing.

7. Swing gates

Like touch-sensitive climate controls, here’s another entry that enjoyed a fair amount of acceptability before the car-buying public went ‘meh.’ A swing gate hinged at the sides in lieu of the more traditional hatchback-style lift gate may look more advantageous at first glance, but it makes parking on a city street a huge headache. In tight parking situations, you may not have enough space to open it, not to mention it can block access to the sidewalk. With these realizations, most SUVs today reverted back to liftgates after a brief swing gate experiment.

8. Motorized seatbelts

Here’s another one of those seatbelt innovation booboos we were talking about. While motorized seatbelts looked cool when first introduced, people eventually realized they were more trouble than they’re worth. Slow and cumbersome, they can be quite the annoyance if you’re in a hurry. Since it’s more convenient for drivers to just fasten their seatbelts themselves, car manufacturers learned it was better to do away with this piece of technology.

9. Water-filled bumpers

Before the introduction of crumple zones, carmakers tried to diffuse kinetic energy produced in a vehicle collision by filling bumpers with water. In theory, these bumpers should explode upward in the event of a motor vehicle accident, but with the development of crumple zones and better crash technology, water-filled bumpers have all but disappeared. Remnants of this technology is found in today's energy absorbing crash attenuators.

10. Rocket brakes

A shame this little piece of automotive tech never caught on, because if it were up to us, rocket brakes deserve to be in the road just by name alone. Because who wouldn’t want to have rocket brakes?! Here’s a description of the device, which appeared in the July 1946 edition of Popular Science:

“Rocket propellants, cased in special jet housings under the hood, may be used on future passenger cars and trucks as spectacularly efficient emergency brakes.”

They had us at rocket propellants. Though it’s a shame these brakes never made it big, it's probably for the best, considering the high flammability of the propellant used, which presented a serious safety hazard not only to vehicle occupants, but everyone else within a 50-meter radius.