Living with the Mazda3 long-term tester: Avoiding dangers with radar

Last month I drove down to the Castle Air museum in Atwater, Calif., with the Mazda3, our one-year, long-term tester. Amidst the collection of Cold War and World-War II planes was the sleek SR-71A Blackbird, a technological marvel for its time. Using brute speed and radar avoidance technology, it was never shot down—but advancements in drone technology ultimately made the black beast obsolete.

Similarly, radar and tech advancements push us towards self-driving cars—like from Google—which threaten to make drivers obsolete. But for now we reap much of the technological strides, as seen in our Mazda3. It benefits from front, side, and rear radar to enable a suite of safety and convenience features: radar cruise control, blind spot monitoring, pre-collision braking, backup alerts, and more. Although I’ve driven cars with these features previously, I’d never spent enough time with one to test and trust the sensors. I felt these options were unnecessary and over-priced, but this all changed after a month with the Mazda3; I now not only trust the sensors, I’ve become addicted. Going back to a radar-less car will feel like trading in my iPhone for a flip phone, it’s that good.