A couple who recently bought a new Subaru Outback have slammed one of the features on the car, claiming it is one of the ‘dumbest’ that new cars now have in a TikTok video that, at the time of writing, had amassed more than 722,000 views in total. Alex Dodd (@adodd10) vented his frustrations to his followers while discussing his wife’s Outback.
Dodd criticizes some of the driver assists and aids in the 2026 Subaru, which include a driver monitoring camera that watches the driver’s face and eyes while you are on the move. A lot of modern cars have similar systems, aimed at looking after those in the cars and those around us.
But they can be frustrating to some, and it appears that they got to Dodd and his wife while they were both driving the Subaru. Dodd claimed that the eye monitoring software is far too sensitive, meaning it can jump in even if he happens to just glance in a different direction.
That also appeared to apply if he used the infotainment system in the car. When watching the video and hearing what the system was doing, it makes a lot of sense as to why Dodd was finding the whole experience so annoying.
What Was the Subaru Outback Driver Assist System Doing?
@adodd10 Someone please help me turn this thing off.. it’s annoying 😅 #fyp #newcar ♬ original sound – Alex Dodd
The Outback has Subaru’s EyeSight driver assist system. This watches the driver via the face and eyes while you are driving, and checks to make sure you aren’t distracted and that your focus is fully on the road. According to Dodd, however, this system is far too sensitive. It appears to activate even if the driver just glances away for a moment, according to the TikTok user.
“If you veer off for two seconds, like if you look away like this, or if you’re looking outside, I got mountains around us, right, I’m looking at the mountains, it’ll flash and beep and say ‘keep eyes on road,'” he said in the video. Dodd also said that if he tried to change music on Spotify on the infotainment system, the EyeSight flashed another warning. That really annoyed the Subaru driver, which is understandable.
This Is What the Subaru Driver Assist System Does
EyeSight works alongside the Subaru DriverFocus distraction mitigation system on various models of the Outback. Infrared cameras monitor the position of the driver’s head and eyes in the car, aiming to detect fatigue or distraction. The car will then send an audio and visual alert to get the driver’s focus back on the road.
While that sounds like a good safety feature, it would appear that a lot of drivers have found it annoying. A glance at the Subaru Outback Forums shows a huge number of owners frustrated by the system, and it feels like a ‘backseat driver’ rather than a safety aid. The fact that glancing at the car’s infotainment screen can trigger it is very counterproductive. Users on the forum let their feelings be heard loud and clear.
“I have gone through the menu, and you can turn off the feature that remembers seat position, but not the driver alertness ‘eyes on the road’ part. I want to stick an ice pick in the stupid camera!” said one. However, while Subaru drivers are clearly frustrated, they aren’t the only ones to be annoyed by driver aids, as other cars have similar issues.
Driver Assist Systems Are Incredibly Annoying
A survey from J.D. Power found that driver assist systems are the biggest complaint category among new car owners. In fact, they account for nine percent of problems overall, with the number seemingly growing every year. The biggest issue consumers have with advanced driver assistance systems is that the alerts are annoying and bothersome,” said Ashley Edgar, J.D. Power’s senior director of global automotive supplier benchmarking. It seems like the problem isn’t going away anytime soon.