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Please make a dumb car

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Re: Please make a dumb car

#371

Post by codyogden »

tobyjsullivan wrote: post #199
breakpointalpha wrote: post #193

Bought a Mazda CX5 a few months ago. Thank god Mazda currently has the "driver first" mentality. NO Touchscreen! Main input is through a comfortable knob in front of the arm rest, where your hand naturally lands when resting. Gauge cluster is digital, but analog type dials for spedo, etc. AC, Power Cool/heated seats, driver assists, auto-park, all controlled via BUTTONS! It's a modern miracle and one of the big reaso…

Bought a 2016 mazda this year for exactly the same reason. Perfect combination of nice, big, well positioned LED display but no touch screen. (Maybe you can use touch screen when parked? Never tried.) It's a little slow and the media units can fail, but I'd say all the tradeoffs are very well balanced.

I have a 2019 CX-3 (dealer's loaner bought in 2020). Prior to the 2021 models, you can use Touch Screen when stopped or parked. 2021+ they disabled touchscreen completely on all models stopped or moving. I really agree with this decision.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#372

Post by zepto »

loudthing wrote: post #282
stillsut wrote: post #179

I went car shopping this year in the new market and found that that if you want more a "dumb" car (UX occurs primarily outside of a touchscreen, no internet, no geolocation) you lose all potential for any nice non-smart features. So no heated/powered seats, no power windows, the material of the interior is refurbished from a spirit airlines airplane, etc. I think manufacturers are hoping that certain aspects of the m…

In the US in May of 2018, a federal law went into effect saying all new cars require a backup camera. This means that there needs to be an LCD screen visible to the driver for the camera. This is sort of a slippery slope as far as feature creep. Now that you have this screen, aren't drivers going to expect to see something on it 99% of the time when they aren't backing up? Actually this leads me to realize why some a…

My 2012 volvo has a reasonably large LCD that is used for the backup camera, and infotainment etc.

However, I have it set to screen saver mode, and it is completely powered down until I put the car in reverse. It also wakes for certain things like displaying the temperature if I change it with the real knobs.

The Speedometer and Rev counter are physical needles. Newer models have replaced these with a central LCD, which means I will hang onto this one as long as I can.

There is no reason a car can’t have a display and be humane, other than stupid corporate design sensibilities.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#373

Post by Grazester »

roland35 wrote: post #243

If you want a dumb car, you should really consider the Nissan Frontier. The truck hasn't changed very much since the mid 2000s. I drove one as a rental for a while and it feels like a blast from the past.

The Frontier just got a completely new remake.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#374

Post by Grustaf »

100% agree, I hate smart cars, touchscreens, beeping all the time for inscrutable reasons and taking over the steering wheel when you cross a line on the highway without using the indicators.

As soon as I can afford it, I'm getting one of these. Electric and no-nonsense:

https://bollingermotors.com

EDIT: Oh no, they are changing directions and will focus on trucks instead!

Re: Please make a dumb car

#375

Post by shawn-butler »

Johnny555 wrote: post #256

I don't mind having a smart car, in fact, I like most of the "smart" features - lane centering, adaptive cruise, emergency braking, TPMS, lane change cameras, auto headlights, auto wipers, etc. But I want buttons and knobs for everything I use while driving. I probably wouldn't pay extra for built-in navigation (it generally comes with other options that I do want), but I've found it useful a few times when I was out…

Smart cars will most likely go the way of intrusive surveillance smart TVs.

Are the features worth it?

Re: Please make a dumb car

#376

Post by throwawayboise »

olyjohn wrote: post #364
waynesonfire wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My subaru has a tiny screen built in to the rear view. Its great. Anything else would be a downgrade.

Actual rear visibility would be an upgrade. Cars don't seem to come with that anymore.

Wind tunnel engineering.

Cars do not have large upright rear windows anymore because a sloping "fastback" design with a higher rear deck is more aerodynamic and gets an extra fraction of an MPG on the fuel economy rating.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#377

Post by godot »

There are things I agree and things I disagree, which leads me to think this is a pretty opinionated topic.

For example with navigation, I thought the phone does it the same but having experienced a Tesla I honestly vastly prefer the Tesla navigation. The bigger screen makes it much easier to glance where on the map I am. You can mount a phone anywhere and it won't be nearly as easily visible. (The GPS screens on my older cars are definitely worse than the phone though)

For climate control I agree fully that the older dials and buttons work better. The problem with temperature control is your body is human and you don't always want a constant temperature. I remember in my very old cars from the 90s and early 00s there's way less I have to adjust for temperature. There's a position on the dial that is pretty much always right to use for the entire season. Nowadays if I set it at 68 it's too cold on some days and too hot on some days, depending on what I'm wearing, how I'm feeling that day, etc. I have to adjust it up or down, and then next time I drive I have to adjust it again.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#378

Post by izolate »

laputan_machine wrote: post #92
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…

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

They can be done well, think about the Haptic Touch home button in the iPhone 7/8. I'd be happy with something like that on the steering wheel.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#379

Post by wolverine876 »

dntrkv wrote: post #274
stillsut wrote: post #179

I went car shopping this year in the new market and found that that if you want more a "dumb" car (UX occurs primarily outside of a touchscreen, no internet, no geolocation) you lose all potential for any nice non-smart features. So no heated/powered seats, no power windows, the material of the interior is refurbished from a spirit airlines airplane, etc. I think manufacturers are hoping that certain aspects of the m…

> these unwanted smart features Only within the niche HN-type tech crowd. Most people outside of this group want these features, even other techies, including myself. It's the same discussion on any thread involving smart devices. People want this stuff, that's why there have been over 200M standalone smart speakers sold. As far as why these things get bundled, that’s just how auto manufacturing works. Every unique c…

> Most people outside of this group want these features

Most people have little idea what features they have, besides the obvious ones. Read through some of the features listed for a car - some aren't even explained.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#380

Post by lobsterboix »

I agree with the sentiment, I recently bought a new 2021 prius prime XLE. It has this massive screen in the center dash that everything is on, and i bought it because it was supposed to support android auto. Turns out the lower end (and by lower end i mean the exact same car/engine/body but with a smaller screen and physical controls) was the one that support android auto! i love the car for the most part, but the screen is a huge miss. GPS system on it requires a perfect address and is so slow, its a Japanese car yet the software cant display Japanese on it via song titles. its really a death by 1000 cuts kind of issue.
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