Electrically assisted power steering often comes in for criticism for killing steering feel, and some of that criticism is warranted. Electric steering can often feel dead and overdamped. But in conjunction with modern lane-keeping systems, it can also make your steering feel fully alive and kicking in the worst possible way.

But before we get into that, let’s quickly recap why carmakers use electric steering. One reason is it helps save fuel because it’s not run directly from the engine, and with no fluid and accompanying hydraulic lines, it’s lighter. And though the amount of fuel saved per car may be small, when you’re making, say, two million cars per year it all adds up and helps keep the fleet average CO2 figures down.

Electric steering is also more tuneable, so it gives engineers greater flexibility to change the steering characteristics depending on speed and driving mode. And it enables systems like park assist, where the car slots itself into a parking a space with you behind the wheel, and more future-focused tech like the fully-automatic parking system on the latest Mercedes S-Class that can be operated from outside the car.

Related: Engineering Explained And A McLaren 620R Reveal The Science Behind Electric Steering’s Bad Rep

Moreover, autonomous freeway driving, or the semi-autonomous systems we have now, including simple lane-keeping assistance, is only possible because the steering gear can be electronically controlled to keep you in your lane.

It’s an admirable cause. Drivers get distracted all the time and most of us have at one time or another narrowly escaped running off the road or veering out of our lane, only to be saved by the good grace of snapping back to attention at the right time, getting a wake-up blast of another driver’s horn, or by lane-keeping assistance systems.

But I often find myself turning these lane-keeping systems off because I find them so intrusive. In motorway driving they doggedly resist you leaving your lane to overtake another car unless you’ve used the turn signal, which we know we should do even if there isn’t another car for miles, but many of us don’t do because real people don’t drive like they’re on a driving test.

And on narrower country roads I often find them objecting to my chosen line through corners, even when I’m staying well within my side of the road. They tug away like crazy at the wheel, injecting a load of unwanted steering kickback that gets in the way of the useful information about the road surface, and make driving even the most un-sporty crossover feel like you’re wrestling a 600 hp rally car with the mother of all limited slip diffs on the front axle.

It’s as if you’re trying to have a polite conversation with a friend, in this case, the front tires, and some nut job keeps randomly butting in and shouting obscenities in your face. Hopefully, these systems will become more sophisticated over time, much like stability control systems went from panicky all-or nothing fun killers 20 years ago to subtly enhancing your enjoyment and control of a fast car on the latest models. Because I’d rather leave LKAS on, but for now I’ll continue to switch it off.