I bought a 2021 Touring XT in June and have 3,600 miles on it. I hate that driver monitoring system. I'm the only driver so the seat setting is never changed. I don't like the electronic backseat driver telling me to keep my eyes on the road or pay attention. It constantly gives false positives and the service department says its working as intended. I tried a bit of tape over it to see what it would do. It lets out a beep after a quarter mile as it disables itself and does it every time I start the car. I'm trying to get way from unnecessary beeps, not cause them. Its also so intermittent about enabling itself. It will stay off up to a half dozen times, then out of the blue enable itself. Or it will enable itself ever single time I start the car for a day or two. Then I find myself digging through three menus to shut it off again. Its infuriating.
I don't use or like the lane keep assist and once I turn it off it has stayed off for three months now. The blind spot monitoring is perfect. The rear cross traffic alert and braking are perfect. The auto emergency braking has only had one false positive cresting a hill. But that damned DriverFocus nanny won't stay off.
Is there any way to permanently disable just that module? Is there any way to flash the software to a lower trim level's that doesn't have that system? I'm am seriously considering getting rid of the car. Its pissing me off that much. Yes, I'm kind of manic about little irritations when they're constant. I focus on them and it bugs me to death. This is one of them in a big way and I've never had an issue with any car in 30+ years of buying new ones that's bothered me so much. I called Subaru NA and the representative logged the complaint and did say they are scheduled to have a software update in October. I doubt it will do anything with this specific thing. A least he did agree with me that when you turn it off it should stay off.