I love technology, but I hate electronic parking brakes – aka the emergency brake or e-brake. I first started seeing the feature on a few European luxury cars. Then I noticed it on a new Subaru Outback. And there was one on a 2012 Volkswagen Tiguan I recently drove.

Maybe if you live in a flat area, it doesn’t matter. But I don’t. I’ve lived on hilly streets in two states for the past 15 years. So I’ve gotten good at “manual” hill assist with vehicles with a stick: simultaneously easing off the engaged e-brake while releasing the clutch and pressing the accelerator, which effectively holds the car in place on a hill.

If you’re good at it, not only do you avoid the dreaded rollback, but I also like to think that I'm saving wear and tear on the clutch. I also don’t have to over-rev the engine to compensate for potentially rolling backwards on a hill, so maybe I save a little fuel, too.

It even works in cars in which the e-brake is the pedal type under the dash instead of the hand brake on the center console, although it’s a little trickier. But it doesn’t work at all with an electronic brake.

That’s because there’s only on and off, without the degree of adjustment that you can get and the tension you can feel with a manual e-brake. It’s not as big a deal in a vehicle with an automatic transmission, like in the Tiguan. But I do like the feel of a manual e-brake since I don’t have to look for an indicator lighter on the electronic e-brake, as on the Tiguan, or in the instrument panel to know it’s set.

It makes me wonder why more automakers are using them. Perhaps it has something to do with people becoming more detached from the mechanics of their vehicles. Maybe it's yet another sign that cars are becoming more technically complex for the sake of technical complexity -- that people think something controlled electronically is inherently better than something controlled mechanically.

Or maybe market research shows that people prefer them. In which case I'll do a little demographic research of my own by asking: Does your car have an electronic parking brake? If so, do you hate it, too?