The things I dislike about my car are all fancy "smart" features. A keyed ignition would have been fine, but they replaced it with a push button. I can stay in my lane just fine, but every time I turn on the car it turns on lane assist and I have to do a button sequence to turn it off.
Please make a dumb car
231–240 of 671 posts
Re: Please make a dumb car
#232"Carmakers have always struggled with user interfaces, but until recently the biggest problem we had was “too many knobs.”"
My 89 Caprice was awesome and didn't even have this problem. You could operate it by feel, even counting the clicks on the radio tuning dial to know how far you were tuning.
Re: Please make a dumb car
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm interested to know how he's going to get away with that truck that looks like its designed to cut pedestrians in half.
I don't understand why this is an argument against Tesla - how is it different than any other large truck?
Front bumpers of most cars/truck are generally plastic and can at least absorb energy of an impact with a pedestrian (albeit the hood is often near neck high and can snap their neck)
Tesla paraded their new truck with 'stainless steel body panels all around'. I don't know about you, but I've banged my shin into a steel tow hitch. I don't want anything remotely close to that on the road.
Re: Please make a dumb car
#234Re: Please make a dumb car
#235Earlier 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…
> Those aren't actual buttons, they're no better than a touch screen.
Your comment fondly reminded me of my very first computer, which was a Sinclair ZX81.
Let's just say that it wasn't ideal for text processing.
About the same as this "steering console" doesn't look quite ideal for driving a fucking car.
I concur with your horrification.
Re: Please make a dumb car
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> 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 No you're right, it's change for the sake of change. It is now a status symbol to show off how well you drive a vehicle whose management is more challenging than other cars.
I feel like that is a cost decision. Instead of making the whole centre of the wheel a button you assign it to some capacitive button on the side.
But I agree, that second video is insane.
Re: Please make a dumb car
#237"No screens" is too harsh. My 2012 Civic EX has a colour screen. It supplements the traditional controls in just the right way, for example, with hierarchical menus for things like bluetooth pairing, rarely used configuration items (autolock) and maintenance reminders. It also puts all the visual information - trip computer, radio display and such - in one place. Speedo and tach are still where they belong. Perfect.
Re: Please make a dumb car
#238One 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…
I am stunned. I am never buying a car that decides for me if I should be going forwards or in reverse. How did this anti-feature go through so many supposedly smart people? Does PHB work there also?
Re: Please make a dumb car
#239I love having a dumb car. My wife has a modern car and my experience is superior in almost every way. She has to select a temperature and then her AC system blasts her with freezing or burning air until it decides the car is at the desired temperature. Since the selector only goes down to 65, it's impossible to get medium-temperature air on a nippy day. My dash, on the other hand, has a dial that goes from cold to ho…
My top gripe about my wife's smart car: She sometimes leaves it with the radio on. A few seconds after bootup (starting the car), the radio starts playing. But it won't listen to the on/off button yet, not for several more seconds. So if I don't want the radio on, I have no way to shut it off until it will let me.
Re: Please make a dumb car
#240I have 2018 Chevy, and it's sufficiently dumb :)
I have physical controls for climate, and even a dedicated defroster button. The car supports Android Auto / CarPlay, so I don't have to interact with its horrendous navigation (my favorite part is that it announces route changes in backwards manner, e.g. "Turn left ... in half a mile").
The card was cheap, and has been running without issues. It's not a luxury car for sure, but it does its job.