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Please make a dumb car

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511–520 of 671 posts

Re: Please make a dumb car

#511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'd rather have an actual button. The haptic touch doesn't always trigger e.g. if your finger is sweaty or wet. The button on the other hand always works. I've broken just about everything on old iphones but never that home button. When it comes to driving a car the buttons should always work, not just under ideal situations.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is basically the 2000s prius. It is cool now, but in near future won't be anymore.

You've got that backwards. Prius weren't cool all the way until 2014, around the time environmental status symbol transferred to EV's and the used Prius started becoming very economical. Certain half of the political spectrum wouldn't be caught dead in them before hand and every other Hollywood movie had a cringy joke lambasting or praising them. Now they're just seen as a reliable financially savvy vehicles, not ver…

I am referring to the early 2000s when half the Hollywood celebs were driving Prius [1]. Prius carried the hype about hybrid cars back then the same way Tesla is doing now for EVs.

[1] https://www.autoweek.com/news/a2082556/starring-role-hollywo...

Re: Please make a dumb car

#513
post #440

What I hate about "car discourse" like this is the apparent blindness to public transportation. Trains, bikes, buses, and street cars solve almost every problem that the author complains about. The only outstanding problem, however, is that American infrastructure has been deliberately designed solely around the car. Those who suggest alternative modes of public transportation are immediately written off as "impracti…

I live on London where we have "good" public transport.

Yes a bus or the tube "solves" these problems of not having a crap UI, but they also introduce so many more and worse problems that don't make up for it. Expensive, inconvenient, dirty, late and/or slow, uncomfortable. And at least a car with crap Aircon controls actually has Aircon at all!

Re: Please make a dumb car

#514
post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large pillars to hold airbags are also a big consumer of window space.

Not all cars have such high beltlines that make you feel like you are driving a sherman tank. American cars seem to have these issues more than imports. Maybe its a way to shirk around some crash testing metrics by deferring to less visibility than to offer more visibility and potentially spend more engineering something just as strong?

My theory with the XC60 refresh with its huge, high, flat-top, snub-nosed bonnet compared to the old sloping one is that all that extra volume is for the fancy double/hybrid engines and so on.

Or maybe people just like to feel like their car is a rhino, but the same refresh also slightly lowered the roofline and the driving position feels lower too.

The other down side is that my wife always shouts that I'm going to crash when parking nose-in because the bonnet feels twice as long as it really is.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not like to ride a bike at 0 °C. Buses are fine, waiting for the bus at 0 °C not so. But yeah, owning a car which is only used 1% of it's lifetime is pretty laughable and actually prohibitive.

What's wrong with riding a bike in 0 °C weather? When dressed for the weather riding in the cold weather can be quite enjoyable as long as the roads are clear or your bike has appropriate tires.

> When dressed for the weather riding in the cold weather can be quite enjoyable

Not as enjoyable as sitting on my heated leather seat, sipping coffee, listning to an audiobook and moving my right foot back and forth between the the accelerator and brake while my wipers and heater keep the sleet off the windshield.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is basically the 2000s prius. It is cool now, but in near future won't be anymore.

You've got that backwards. Prius weren't cool all the way until 2014, around the time environmental status symbol transferred to EV's and the used Prius started becoming very economical. Certain half of the political spectrum wouldn't be caught dead in them before hand and every other Hollywood movie had a cringy joke lambasting or praising them. Now they're just seen as a reliable financially savvy vehicles, not ver…

2000s priuses were very cool amongst the aging boomer-hippy population. When they first came out it was a big deal to be in the school pickup line with your prius. You probably also shopped at organic grocery stores like whole foods (before the AMZN purchase), and just transitioned from pilates to yoga. Southpark even made an episode about the phenomenon.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is basically the 2000s prius. It is cool now, but in near future won't be anymore.

Pretty much everyone who clogged up the left lane in the '00s in their Prius is still doing the same thing today but in a Tacoma or 4Runner. The specific model of blind adoration may have changed but the fanboys still line the same pockets. If that is any indication Tesla will do just fine.

Toyota are doing fine because of their reliability. Can the same be said about Tesla?

Re: Please make a dumb car

#520
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…

how is that Tesla even legal?
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