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Agreed. I'm completely baffled by the level of angst created by having to push a single extra button in addition to the start button.
You have the gift of zen. If you enjoy pushing that extra button or like having the car shut down at stop signs then I am in envy, but for myself it is an annoyance that takes away from the experience of a $100K vehicle. My daily driver for the last eleven years is a Tesla, which doesn't require a key or a start button or an annoying "A" button. You just walk-up, get in, and go. So I think it is about what you get used to. I am used to a frictionless experience, so I anything less feels like the car designers were slacking. Like if I had to get in every time and adjust my seat unnecessarily. Or if I had to go back to using a Blackberry after using an iPhone for years.
I liken this "auto stop" feature to website cookies. Somebody was well intentioned and it does do a tiny bit of good, but having to click "accept cookies" on every web page on the planet before you start is annoying and a poorly thought out implementation. But, for some, they might like getting in their car and flipping a bunch of switches like they are an airline pilot. To each their own. For the rest of us we are left wandering in the desert looking for a solution.
BTW -- This "feature" has spawned a huge industry. One company alone (below) sells custom solutions for over 85 vehicles at a $100/pop. So, it is a thing. We "button haters" are not all crazy.
@Mojave Getting in and driving off in a Tesla (also my daily) is easy. Agreed (though it often shifts into drive much more slowly than I'd like...). But: all the friggen warnings (VFL warnings - VERY LOUD) are a royal PITA. And they need to be turned off every time too.
I live in a rural area and I drive quite aggr quickly most of the time. I cross solid lines when setting up for a corner or when cornering. And after 3 years of Tesla ownership I still get heart attacks from the friggen VFL lane assist warnings which require navigating through 2 menus and hitting yes in a "are you sure?" pop-up to deactivate (all while avoiding pets, children and navigating winding roads). And don't get me started on the emergency braking. Not to mention the non functioning auto-high-beams (despite having LED matrix lights which offer zero advantage except for being able to project "TESLA" on a wall during an easter egg light show) or the auto wipers. If they get the lights and wipers working properly sometime soon I might be inclined to believe now-fruitcake-Elon in that FSD is coming. But not next quarter and not in this decade. Maybe in my lifetime.
Sorry. Completely off topic. I'm getting back off my soapbox now. But I completely and unequivocally understand your desire to have the auto start/stop off permanently.
You have the gift of zen. If you enjoy pushing that extra button or like having the car shut down at stop signs then I am in envy, but for myself it is an annoyance that takes away from the experience of a $100K vehicle. My daily driver for the last eleven years is a Tesla, which doesn't require a key or a start button or an annoying "A" button. You just walk-up, get in, and go. So I think it is about what you get used to. I am used to a frictionless experience, so I anything less feels like the car designers were slacking. Like if I had to get in every time and adjust my seat unnecessarily. Or if I had to go back to using a Blackberry after using an iPhone for years.
I liken this "auto stop" feature to website cookies. Somebody was well intentioned and it does do a tiny bit of good, but having to click "accept cookies" on every web page on the planet before you start is annoying and a poorly thought out implementation. But, for some, they might like getting in their car and flipping a bunch of switches like they are an airline pilot. To each their own. For the rest of us we are left wandering in the desert looking for a solution.
BTW -- This "feature" has spawned a huge industry. One company alone (below) sells custom solutions for over 85 vehicles at a $100/pop. So, it is a thing. We "button haters" are not all crazy.
I neither enjoy nor object to pushing the button. And since there are some driving environments where the feature is useful, I like the option. When I don't want it then I push the button. If there were no way to disable it then I would be annoyed.
I drove a rental Kia in Australia recently that had all kinds of awful "driver aids" that had to be manually disabled via multiple menu levels every time the car was started. That was annoying. The Land Rover implementation seems wonderful, by comparison.
This issue is a caricature of first world problems.
I'd disagree with that last statement. We are discussing improving the user experience on a very expensive product. For some it's trivial. For others more important. Being able to afford a product as expensive as the Defender is a first world privilege. Discussing the ins and outs of the user experience with this product is an extension of this privilege.
I do agree that it is not huge problem as it is easily turned off. I find the Tesla vastly more annoying - see above.
All right, I conquered this annoying feature with a brute force hack. After researching 4-5 different ways to disable the auto-stop, I decided that a small custom circuit embedded in the console was the least intrusive to the vehicle. I made a tiny PCB that waits 30 seconds after the car turns on then presses the button once for 500ms using an opto-isolated relay. I'd prefer not to piggy-back a circuit to the console PCB, but other options including changing the CCF files, doing a CAN command injection, or disabling battery health monitoring cable all seemed equally problematic. This fix only cost me $25 in parts, but unfortunately it is not a fix I can share easily, because the PCB, components, and connections are all custom designed/ordered. I also wouldn't want to be responsible for anyone hacking into their console and bricking something (it is very delicate work under a scope). So, I'll be watching this space for a better solution, but for now I am living the button-free stop-free good life.
For all the haters above, it is perplexing that this is one of the only threads where you need to weigh in and say "oh that is a totally unnecessary modification". Have you read the other threads on this forum? The lengths we go to for one more inch of clearance, better lighting, window tinting, roof racks, and more? They are all first world luxury mods to improve our experience. So move along and let us figure out solutions in this thread instead of scaring everyone off. And every time your engine stops at a stop sign this summer or you have to press that button you can think of me enjoying the good life and living rent-free in your head
Funny thing is I only press the button once each time I start my Defender, the same with my start button. I have no idea how many times I push the buttons on my sound system during each drive.
Now if there were a button hack to clean my Defender after each time I drive off road...
