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Nobody wants touch-screen glove box latches

theautopian.com

251–260 of 392 posts

Re: Nobody wants touch-screen glove box latches

#251
post #33

I don't want touch screens in cars period and I can't stand this trend of using them. I'm finally starting to understand the feelings my grandfather had for anything thing he considered superfluous or inconvenient in a car.

Same could have been said for smartphone physical keyboard yet here we are. Touch screen is a better interface because the UI can adapt to the context. I get that when you are driving you don’t want to have to look at the screen but honestly the benefits far outweigh the perceived cons.

Nope. I bought phones with physical keyboards for as long as I could, because they work better for me. But I'm not in the majority, and manufacturers didn't want to keep selling phones with moving parts, so here we are.

And no way does a touch screen have benefits that outweigh the benefits of dedicated tactile controls for the driver.

Re: Nobody wants touch-screen glove box latches

#252
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whisker controls are even better. No need to take hands off the wheel.

Not sure if you're native (disclaimer: I'm certainly not) but I believe the word is (steering wheel) stalk.

Well now there is a better word. :)

Searching for ”steering wheel stalk” seems to bring up entire center shaft assemblies though, while ”whisker” is only referring to the controls.

Re: Nobody wants touch-screen glove box latches

#253
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember curved TVs? Remember 3D for TVs? That was essentially technology bullet-point features, but since they flopped hard you can no longer buy curved TVs or 3D TVs. Turns out if people really don't want shit, it disappears again, no matter how hard various corporations push the shit.

Except that you can't "not buy" a vehicle you need for transport just because the manufacturers decided to remove the latch from the glove compartment. Your logic only works in healthy markets like TVs where you could buy _EQUIVALENT_ device without the curvature or 3D. Meanwhile with cars this isn't true - the touchscreen crap trend is being implemented across the market (since its cheaper) and many people can't fre…

And yet somehow I own and drive a vehicle that has no touchscreens in it!

Re: Nobody wants touch-screen glove box latches

#255
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am very surprised the regulations are not more stringent than that. Requiring a manual door release on every door should be the bare minimum.

Current regulations weren't written when this was feasible. Regulators are always playing catch-up game.

Sounds risky by manufacturers to be caught out by this

Re: Nobody wants touch-screen glove box latches

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember curved TVs? Remember 3D for TVs? That was essentially technology bullet-point features, but since they flopped hard you can no longer buy curved TVs or 3D TVs. Turns out if people really don't want shit, it disappears again, no matter how hard various corporations push the shit.

Curiously, I can still buy a TV that puts ads in its UI. Nobody wanted that…

A TV with ads on its UI can be cheaper that the ad-free equivalent and a lot of people want cheaper stuff

Re: Nobody wants touch-screen glove box latches

#258
post #199

From (the) experience(s of many, many people), I've learned that GM makes mechanically terrible cars. Digitizing a handle that doesn't even require a lock tells me that they're simply bad at design and build across many domains. So my misunderstanding is, why does anyone with enough money to finance a new car, ever, buy GM? What do people see in their cars?

The plural of anecdote is not data. And GM sells a great many vehicles.

Some are just fine. Some are "mechanically terrible". You'd have to look at big picture stats to see how often it's the case. Most people that buy GM do not end up with mechanically terrible cars, but because so many are bought, a large number are.

Beyond that, there are nationalists (will only buy American) or otherwise brand loyal, often taking up the same preferences as parents.

Re: Nobody wants touch-screen glove box latches

#259

It's worth watching the other few dozen seconds of the Cadillac video; not only is the glovebox overengineered, but so are the other doors on that car. Then again, it is a Cadillac, so "luxurious excess" is not surprising, but I'm not sure how having to go through that awkward indirection could be considered a luxury.

Excellent point. There are a lot of people for whom the #1 goal when purchasing a car is to stake out as high a spot in the "Who's Got More Bling?" pecking order as possible. If a car company CEO developed some weird obsession with maximizing profit, it wouldn't take much genius to start ignoring the practical & thrifty car buyers in favor of the bling maximizers...

It wouldn't take a genius because that would be a terrible business decision when you consider number of units sold. And profit-maximizing wouldn't be a particularly weird obsession for a CEO to have, in fact, it's exactly the obsession you'd want him to have.

Re: Nobody wants touch-screen glove box latches

#260

This is a gem (emphasis mine): "The touch-screen-actuated glove box is terrible because it’s one of those examples where carmakers have found that they have the technology to do something, so they do it, without considering literally anything about what they’ve done . Did anybody want this? At all? It takes something that has never been a problem, opening a glove box, and added cost and complexity to the construction…

It's much more secure. Electric locks can be stronger and you can't jimmy them like you can mechanical locks. Plus it makes the dash look better and it's kind of cool.

People are coming up with all sorts of ridiculously contrived scenarios to make this look bad. But I haven't seen anything that's more than a 1 in a million type problem with an obvious solution.

Is it kind of dumb? IMHO yes. Are there people who like this sort of whiz bang gadgetry in their luxury cars? Absolutely.

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