I had the misfortunate of needing to hire a car in the UK last year. Ended up with an entry level 2025 Kia (Ceed Estate). Compared with the 2012 Audi A4 I'm used to driving it was a nightmare.

Similar experience, lots of flashing and beeping which is just distracting whilst also being wrong often enough to be really annoying (this is a known problem with speed limits).

Exceeding the speed limit, needing to change gear and by far the worst, active lane assist which pushes you back into your lane if you cross the white line without indicating (I only found this out afterwards as the hire place didn't mention it or leave a manual) and something which can happen frequently if you're driving down narrow country roads where indicating wouldn't have seemed appropriate and may just confuse others.

I spoke to one of the mechanics at my local garage who said you can't permanently turn these features off as they turn back on when you start the car.

I wonder if anyone has who's had an accident caused by being distracted by all these alarms has successfully sued?

> you can't permanently turn these features off

You most likely can if you have the factory diagnostics tool or a good aftermarket reimplementation.

These features are often mandated on a per-region basis, so the configuration bits are definitely there.