"Take the lane departure system that yanks the wheel any time you get close to a yellow line on a winding road. At no point was I on track to cross that line--I'm not that reckless--yet left to its own devices the Golf R will grab at the wheel while you're midway through a switchback. Disable it in an annoying and slow process on the touch screen and the ESC will still occasionally try to tidy your line by pulling power, even when your wheel isn't touching the centerline. Your only option to defeat that is disabling or limiting stability control entirely, an intentionally obtuse process that involves pulling up a 3D model of the car, rotating it, tapping on the brakes, and then selecting from a drop-down menu.
That also resets every time the car turns off. When you get back in you have to once again cycle through the world's worst infotainment system to get back into Race mode. Drop the windows to hear it bounce off the trees and the car will nag you that, really, for aerodynamics, you ought to put those windows up. Then, as you hold 4000 revs through a corner in race mode, it will tell you that you could be in a more efficient gear. When you ignore that, it will display a separate prompt telling you that you should pay attention to the gear suggestion. When you give up and take it out of gear entirely, it will tell you that you shouldn't declutch until you're below 1300 rpm."
That also resets every time the car turns off. When you get back in you have to once again cycle through the world's worst infotainment system to get back into Race mode. Drop the windows to hear it bounce off the trees and the car will nag you that, really, for aerodynamics, you ought to put those windows up. Then, as you hold 4000 revs through a corner in race mode, it will tell you that you could be in a more efficient gear. When you ignore that, it will display a separate prompt telling you that you should pay attention to the gear suggestion. When you give up and take it out of gear entirely, it will tell you that you shouldn't declutch until you're below 1300 rpm."
And by the by, this is coming from a publication which pushes this kind of drivel, where a radical rainbow person idealogue lectures you about how you need an "attitude adjustment" because your car is momentarily altering the composition of Earth's atmosphere by one zillionth of a percent.
My point being, today's Road and Track complaining about nanny assists must mean they are really bad.