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Please make a dumb car

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Re: Please make a dumb car

#91

Post by swiftcoder »

furyg3 wrote: post #87

Hear hear. I sold my old 2004 Skoda Fabia (which for Americans has the technology of a 2000 VW golf), since repairs were costing more and the car sharing here in Amsterdam is really becoming reliable for the few times I need a car. Recently I rented a car for a ski trip, a recent Jeep Renegade, oh my lord. It was constantly trying to take the controls from me (god forbid you change lanes without signaling on a totall…

> dynamically listed the speed limit in two places, but often it was completely wrong and sometimes it didn't even agree with itself

I had a rental car last year that did this. One speed limit is the (often outdated) speed limit it picks up from the navigation system's maps, and the second in the most recent speed limit sign the cameras OCR'd.

The speed limit from the maps is invariably wrong as soon as you turn off a major road, and the cameras seem to miss about every 3rd speed limit sign...

Re: Please make a dumb car

#92

Post by laputan_machine »

viburnum wrote: post #68
tsujp wrote: post #41

One thing I was flabbergasted at recently was Tesla offering, and the government allowing, regular drivers to use a yoke steering wheel like F1 drivers. Not only is it harder for the average person to handle but their firmware hadn't accounted for the fact that if you steer fully left or right the yoke is upside down and if you try and indicate it ends up indicating on the wrong side. What is wrong with a wheel and f…

The steering wheel in an F1 car only goes about 220 degrees in either direction (drivers have to keep their hands on the wheel and their arms aren't made of rubber). The steering in a regular car goes about 540 degrees in either direction (one and a half times around). When parallel parking you often have to turn the wheel three whole revolutions. F1 steering https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVz6IW_wegs&t=45s Tesla st…

Touch-based buttons feels like a huge step backwards. Have we learned nothing from having to use touch phones for the last 12 years, either that or everyone is much better than me at not missing touch inputs

Re: Please make a dumb car

#93

Post by strzibny »

noduerme wrote: post #88
furyg3 wrote: post #87

Hear hear. I sold my old 2004 Skoda Fabia (which for Americans has the technology of a 2000 VW golf), since repairs were costing more and the car sharing here in Amsterdam is really becoming reliable for the few times I need a car. Recently I rented a car for a ski trip, a recent Jeep Renegade, oh my lord. It was constantly trying to take the controls from me (god forbid you change lanes without signaling on a totall…

I've had this experience with rental cars recently. It's terrifying! I usually spend half an hour in the parking lot sifting through menus turning off all the warnings I can find. I like Skodas. Although a Czech friend told me that Skoda in Czech is a car name, a common surname, and a casual term for "idiot".

The translation is not idiot, but misfortune, damage or pity (Schade for German friends). Funny name for sure.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#94

Post by jve »

random_savv wrote: post #67

> For media, an aux input does it all. Doubles as a charging cable, and you could easily swap it out for different and new devices I thought aux only carries analog sound, is charging a new feature? Did I miss Aux-C? What does the author mean?

Some more:

> Not to mention the privacy and security concerns. I was dubious the first time I saw a GPS in a car, my mom’s old RX300, about 20 years ago. “Yeah… that’s how they get you,” I thought

Well, that reasoning was flawed 20 years ago - GPS means YOU know where you are, not the other way around. There has to be other communication channel for that data to "escape". If your car is data-enabled with SIM card, only then it is a concern.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#95

Post by Eji1700 »

function_seven wrote: post #80
viburnum wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The steering wheel in an F1 car only goes about 220 degrees in either direction (drivers have to keep their hands on the wheel and their arms aren't made of rubber). The steering in a regular car goes about 540 degrees in either direction (one and a half times around). When parallel parking you often have to turn the wheel three whole revolutions. F1 steering https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVz6IW_wegs&t=45s Tesla st…

Your second video horrified me. What the hell are they thinking with the touch-sensitive inputs on the steering wheel? Nevermind the weird shape and the issues with orientation when signaling during a steering maneuver. Those aren't actual buttons, they're no better than a touch screen. When I drive, my hands aren't always in the exact same position on the wheel. Muscle-memory won't reliably have my thumb landing on…

Glad i'm not the only one who thinks this is insane. I could maybe see a yolk, but dear god get me AWAY from touch screen style buttons in any serious process, let alone ones that can wind up in different orientations.

And why in the hell does a yolk need to have the horn on a button rather than the center of the yolk as anyone would expect? Maybe there's some technical reason i'm unaware of, but this seems actively dangerous for no gain. I can think of several better ways to do this that aren't actively confusing and hostile to the driver.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#96

Post by swiftcoder »

otherme123 wrote: post #60
mab122 wrote: post #40

I would recommend checking out Dacia and Lada (coincidentally now both are now under Renault group) https://www.renaultgroup.com/en/our-company/our-brands/dacia... https://www.renaultgroup.com/en/our-company/our-brands/lada/

Lada is known for its low reliability. Dacia seems to be in a more gray area, sometimes scoring well above average, sometimes below. I know someone who had a Lada Niva, and he got stranded because a low quality pipe joint blew. True, the repair was extremely cheap, and it could probably be temporarily repaired with a hose and two zippers. Are you a mechanic that can locate and fix those kind of failures? Then Ladas a…

I picked up a Dacia Sandero a year back, seems pretty well-made. Very low-tech too, even has crank windows in back.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#97

Post by jaclaz »

linux-user wrote: post #76
porknubbins wrote: post #23

Power seats are not a pointless luxury. I’m pretty sure they are continuously adjustable which is much better than trying to pull on some lever and get the seat to pop into approximately the right place. To say nothing of mulitple drivers with memorized positions etc.

Are all your chairs at home and office also powered?

... and at the restaurant, cinema, etc.?

Re: Please make a dumb car

#98

Post by stonepresto »

jacknews wrote: post #75

Haha, the 'smart' cat is well and truly out of the bag now, and the sad thing is we kind of did it to ourselves by demanding, or at least, buying, these features. 'Smart' means manufacturers can put ads on everything, sell your usage data, and of course all the smarts become obsolete or break easily after just a couple of years, often turning otherwise perfectly good hardware into a doorstop. As part of 'right to rep…

> the sad thing is we kind of did it to ourselves by demanding, or at least, buying, these features.

Even more sad is it’s not like people looking for a new car have much of a choice.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#99

Post by komadori »

furyg3 wrote: post #87

Hear hear. I sold my old 2004 Skoda Fabia (which for Americans has the technology of a 2000 VW golf), since repairs were costing more and the car sharing here in Amsterdam is really becoming reliable for the few times I need a car. Recently I rented a car for a ski trip, a recent Jeep Renegade, oh my lord. It was constantly trying to take the controls from me (god forbid you change lanes without signaling on a totall…

I can see why you might feel silly indicating on an empty road, but personally I find indicating to be such an integral and effortless part of turning or changing lane that I always indicate even if I can't see anyone about. By comparison, when drivers are making judgement calls about whether it's necessary to indicate, I'm often suprised by their unexpected movements. This is particularly true as a pedestrian as some drivers seem prone to not indicating if there isn't another vehicle behind them.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#100

Post by Zababa »

linux-user wrote: post #76
porknubbins wrote: post #23

Power seats are not a pointless luxury. I’m pretty sure they are continuously adjustable which is much better than trying to pull on some lever and get the seat to pop into approximately the right place. To say nothing of mulitple drivers with memorized positions etc.

Are all your chairs at home and office also powered?

Chairs at home and office aren't fixed in place to a vehicle that has a battery.
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