This. Although I'm not sure I agree with your comment that it is bad for fuel economy. I believe multiple studies have shown that it does improve fuel economy slightly, especially in stop and go traffic.
We had this feature on a rental not too long ago and we did get a little used to it after a week. We also figured how to game the system. On the RAV4, it only kicks in if you hold the brake pedal down hard. If you feather it just enough to come to a stop, it won't kick on. Also, if you turn on Sport mode, it will disable stop-start outright. There is no other way to permanently disable it that we could find.
I'm skeptical of any alleged fuel saving or pollution reduction of start stop. It seems once again the bean counters only focus on the tailpipe, but forget the entire ecosystem involved. Maybe you save a teaspoon of gas on a daily commute with start/stop. Compare that savings against the added fuel/oil/energy used in:
* Production of the extra components.
* The highly complex system is inherently more parts, and therefore inherently more prone to fail. Failure means an extra trip to the auto mechanic, which for most people means getting the car there, sometimes a tow truck, then sometimes a taxi home, then another taxi to the shop when the repairs are made, and a final trip home. Let's say the mechanic is 5 miles away. That's 4 extra 5 mile trips, or 20 more miles.
* The mechanic needs to buy more parts, manufactured and transported with energy.
* The car owner perhaps has to work an extra shift at work to pay for the expensive repairs, so another drive to and from work that was otherwise unnecessary.
* How about the auto mechanic who has to buy more specialty tools, manufactured with energy and resources, to work on this new system? And has to attend a new training seminar to get certified to work on this system, and that requires traveling to a nearby town to get the certification. Is that factored?
This also applies to other parts designed around auto stop/start including the brakes, the transmission, the engine, etc. So it impacts much of the expensive mechanical and electrical car parts. This all sounds like many very expensive complicated additional points of failure. No thanks.
Has the teaspoon of fuel saved before balanced out this?
And, in my understanding, starters have a finite life. Starting a car an extra 50 times daily is going to wear it out faster. If the solution is just a more robust starter, then I'd suggest those more robust starters should be on all cars. And you need a starter 50x more robust, for instance, on one start/stop 50 extra times daily.
And engine wear also, in my understanding, comes at startup. Perhaps not as much if it's already warm and lubricated. But let's imagine the engine wears out twice as fast. What is the environmental impact of engines wearing out prematurely?