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Please make a dumb car

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Re: Please make a dumb car

#611

Post by ivan1783 »

causi wrote: post #466
vel0city wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your car's automatic climate control system seems terribly designed and not like any one I've ever experienced. The climate control system on my Accord came out in 1996 and it behaved far superior to that. It doesn't just blow max heat/cold until the target temperature, it does a reasonable gradient of temperature differences until its the target temp keeping in mind some kind of comfort profile. This has been the wa…

I'm glad to hear they're improving. Maybe by the time I have to replace my car I won't have any complaints.

I'm with the other guy - I've owned my car for 8 years and never touched the climate control except to set it to 24 in the winter and 22 in the summer. Otherwise I just let it do its thing, which works great. 2013 Audi A4, btw.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#612

Post by throw1234651234 »

andrei_says_ wrote: post #598
ctf1er wrote: post #590

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a Kingslim DL12 and is powered through the cigarette lighter or directly connected.

Does this mean you have a wire hanging from your mirror at all times? Also how is the back one connected?

Not him, but the wire goes up into the ceiling plastic and around the side, under the plastic, and only comes out around the cigarette lighter. The "back" camera is usually built into the same unit. The advantage over what he is describing is that people often break into cars to steal the more visible (non-mirror) cameras.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#613

Post by obloid »

My 2012 Volkswagen is getting up in years, but I love it. Manual transmission, no screens, everything is easily adjusted by the driver via tactile controls. I'm loathe to get a new car because it's nearly impossible to find a recent model car without large screens. As for electric cars forget about it. I would love a "dumb" electric car. No screens, no driver assist, no GPS navigation; just a simple vehicle with an electric drive train. But short of doing an electric conversion on an old car I'm probably out of luck.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#614

Post by flibberbit »

obloid wrote: post #613

My 2012 Volkswagen is getting up in years, but I love it. Manual transmission, no screens, everything is easily adjusted by the driver via tactile controls. I'm loathe to get a new car because it's nearly impossible to find a recent model car without large screens. As for electric cars forget about it. I would love a "dumb" electric car. No screens, no driver assist, no GPS navigation; just a simple vehicle with an e…

Those were excellent Vws, I worked at a VW dealership around that time and loved driving them. Personally my 2000 Jetta is still going strong, if you're able to afford the maintenance I'm pretty sure you could get many more years out of it (at least until the rings wear out).

I'm in the same boat, I've got lovely heated leather seats, nice strong engine, good handling, and a traction control that doesn't piss me off in winter. That's all I need and as "cool" as Tesla's are, I don't expect it'll be nearly as usable after 22 years as my Jetta is. Even VW has now gone down the dark side of EVs, when all I want is an electric 2000 Jetta. It's sad how wasteful these new EVs are.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#615

Post by flibberbit »

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.

That would be amazing. The only reason I'm not out buying vintage 60's cars is because I don't want to be in one if there's a crash. But the visibility from back then was great, they were basically greenhouses with wheels.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#616

Post by QuarterReptile »

chakintosh wrote: post #602
jbl wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re the odometers, in my 2018 Volvo and my Wife's 2019 XC40. They are all accurate, but for different purposes. 1. The standard "life of the car" odometer is permanently on the left gauge, top reading 2. There is one (two?) manually resettable trip odometers 3. There is an auto-resetting trip odometer - it resets when the car has been off for four hours. You can configure which of the second two are displayed by going…

It's quite telling the fact I needed a 3 paragraph reply from a user on HN to explain to me how to use the odometers and lights in my car. I had a Tucson before this Volvo and it was just so intuitive and easy to use. It's something that needs to be standardized, they are tools that no car would be street legal without and thus, should have identical interactions no matter the manufacturer.

OTOH, maybe the other problem is that you're buying cars too frequently to be willing to study the manual.

There are plenty of times when ergonomics and feature discoverability are at odds, and I heavily prioritize ergonomics when I'm driving a large, lethal object at super-human speeds.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#617

Post by flibberbit »

krnlpnc wrote: post #289
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…

There are many cases where aftermarket versions of these features will perform as good or better than the OEM version. Granted, it's extra work to research and install them, but the end result can be great. Personally, I will research used cars with top end factory trim packages, looking for models with either a DIN sized radio slot or readily available aftermarket upgrades. By double checking for compatibility ahead…

Nice, thanks for sharing Vline!

I wish modern cars still followed that philosophy, but it's hard to find cars with DIN radio slots these days since all the electronics are so integrated into them. It feels like you'll be stuck in pre-2015 cars if you choose that. Not that pre-2015 cars are terrible, but it makes it harder to find low millage ones.

I also think about the environmental impact of buying a new car. Manufacturers try to sell you on the idea that getting a new car is better for the environment but I really wonder how much fuel you need to save over the lifetime of a car to make it worth the cost of building a new one, in comparison to just fixing and older one. Who knows, maybe it's better to keep driving a '80 olds than to buy the latest ford electric truck.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#618

Post by flibberbit »

ohgodplsno wrote: post #118
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…

Just like everything done by Tesla: they have absolutely no experience in making cars, and it shows really badly. Terrible construction quality that I don't even experience on a 10k € Dacia, touch screens everywhere (it's already bad enough when it's just the radio or Android Auto, but a bunch of critical features are on the touch screen), the yoke having no physical feedback and clearly no thought other than "wow fu…

Totally agree. I have a decent German-made car and it BLOWS Tesla out of the water in build quality. I remember getting into the model S in a showroom and just feeling like I was in a budget auto. For 100k it doesn't compare at all to a 50k Audi, it's just plasticy and flimsy. It felt like the McMansion of cars, all show.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#619

Post by frosted-flakes »

pja wrote: post #606
da_chicken wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only outstanding problem, however, is that American infrastructure has been deliberately designed solely around the car. The problem is that "infrastructure" doesn't just mean roads. It's where houses are. Where schools are. Where food is transported. It's where water and electrical service runs. It's how property is zoned. It's how police, fire, and hospitals are located. It's how municipalities design snow re…

This is pretty much what the US did to itself in the first place - bulldozed half the cities in the country to make them car centric. There’s no reason you can’t do the same thing in reverse. Buildings are not actually all that permanent (especially in the US where in most of the country they appear to be made out of wood & plaster).

Very few houses in the US have plaster, unless they're over 70 years old.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#620

Post by QuarterReptile »

pxmpxm wrote: post #588
hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Points like the above is pretty much why these sorts of ideas are a dead end in a place with disposable income. If you objectively think that riding a bicycle with two sets of clothes on your back in the dead of winter is as convenient as driving, you've are either delusional or have never actually been inside of an automobile.

They're also dead ends where you already assume one car per adult. Dropping below that number is intimidating in most American settings, but changes the whole mindset.

If you objectively see convenience in spending 50k on a car, 30k on a parking spot, and 100/mo for insurance just to be able to pay other marginal costs to be able to go to a store and avoid exercise in the morning, you're either delusional or have never considered how that money could buy you better conveniences.

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