Report: Are the Subaru Outback and Legacy the first proactively politically correct cars?

Let’s say you’re about the drop the kids or little cousins off to school, but you accidentally left SiriusXM’s adult stand-up comedy channel on from the last time you drove. Then, when you go to start the car, the radio starts blaring the epic foul-mouthed humor of George Carlin or Louis CK–not exactly the best thing for the little youngens to hear at that age, and worse if you’re babysitting and all of a sudden, the kids you’re watching start repeating the profanity they just heard without knowing the meanings of those words.

You can guarantee you won’t be babysitting those kids again. Unless of course, you have a new Subaru Outback or Legacy…

According to Automotive IT News, Subaru’s built a new feature built into the new Outback’s infotainment system, to prevent occupants from from hearing mature SiriusXM content upon startup. So you can be rest assured that this (link has NSFW language) won’t be your next start-up experience in the car.

This wasn’t officially detailed by Subaru and the feature wasn’t really popularized by the company. It was rather highlighted by Vince Patton at Automotive IT News, who discovered the feature on his 2016 Outback, when the radio would change to a generic SiriusXM preview channel every time he started his car. Patton reached out to Subaru about this feature, who later confirmed that it was integrated into the infotainment system and the setting cannot be changed.

Patton also noted such a feature could frustrate drivers, but Subaru, being the “family-geared” company they’re marketing themselves as, hold their belief that it’s to prevent young passengers from hearing offensive content.

Ok, political correctness can be somewhat acceptable.

– By: Chris Chin

Source: Automotive IT News

Chris Chin

Chris Chin is the Editor-In-Chief of egmCarTech and is a regular contributor to Automobile Magazine.

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