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European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

arstechnica.com

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Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#401
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to be a US Navy thing ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655#Potential_... ). On a more serious note, there's a big difference between a vehicle like a car that is operated by one person, and a ship with a large crew with dedicated tasks.

Each crew member should have been assigned the management and activation of a given portion of the touchscreen. Morning briefing by the Captain: “John, you’ll supervise and operate the bottom left corner of the Touchscreen. Adam, as a left handed sailor, you’ll stand right to John and operate the bottom right corner of the Touchscreen with your left hand so there are no collisions in case of emergency” Aye, captain

The control interface you know is the touchscreen of your smartphone, isn't it?

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#402

> Now, Euro NCAP is not insisting on everything being its own button or switch. But the organization wants to see physical controls for turn signals, hazard lights, windshield wipers, the horn, and any SOS features This is much more reasonable than I assumed. Unlike seemingly most people here I have no problem whatsoever with fan controls or audio controls or whatever on the touchscreen, as long as it is responsive (…

Even if I wouldn't be hating Musk for his position re actual freedom and his apparent respect for murderous dictators, these moves would solidly cement Tesla as a company I wouldn't buy a car from.

Stupid, arrogant moves nobody asked for pushed down the throats of unsuspecting users. A colleague's model 3 died during rain (apparently its such a solidly built car that a bit more than normal amount of rain can kill it for good, got replaced without questions which indicates this is a well known issue). Newer version didn't have physical turn signals. He was almost crying, an early adopter with a lot of love for the company that evaporated in an instance. Its not every day that car manufacturer actively tries to increase chances of people getting killed and acts like all is fine.

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roundabouts..

Correct. But then maybe OP lives somewhere where roundabouts aren't very common so they never ran into that usecase.

I do, but I’m also an idiot. Worse, I’m an idiot that does not even own a Tesla. Maybe my temper in traffic got the better of me in that comment.

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention that on cars like Tesla, UI updates will change the location of these buttons . This drives me INSANE. The other one: some of the Tesla UIs feel like they were made with "minimalism" in mind. For instance the rear defroster vs the windshield defroster. I still, 3 years into my model Y, have no idea which is which, and every time I need to defrost the front windshield it's like a fight against the HVAC…

How is it possible to love a car that does things you hate when there are other cars at the same price that does everything the object of your love does, and doesn't do the things you hate? It sounds like an irrational love for the car.

It is legally required for all complaints about Tesla to start with "I love my car, but..."

(This is so near-universal that I vaguely suspect that there's a non-disparagement agreement you have to sign when you buy one).

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#405
post #360

I have a VW (ID.4) and they took the touch craziness to another level. There are things that don't look like buttons, but are touch-sensitive, and there are also buttons, that apart from being pressure-sensitive, are also touch sensitive. Like volume buttons on the steering wheel, where if you try to feel for them without looking, you end up accidentally "swiping" and turning your volume up to the max. The whole touc…

> The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive--you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program.

By Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#406
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turning my car at low speed with the engine off feels much harder than 1.5 times the turning of an old times car of similar weight. I could hardly make it turn at all when it happened. I don't think I'd be able to make it through a real turn on a road. And I have a small car of about 1000 kg.

You also have to overcome the little but non zero friction of the power steering and your steering wheel is considerably smaller than they used to be.

Yup, cars designed for power steering don't work as well without it as cars specifically designed to operate without power steering. Not just the steering wheel size, the whole steering geometry is probably different.

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ultimately decided against an MEB based model because the (steering wheel) UX felt almost unusable during my test drive. I partcularily struggeled with the cruise control swipe-click and hilariously the window switch. The car i ultimately settled on has worse overall infotainment software but physical controls which can be operated blindely and reliably. No wonder VW is already in the process of correcting this dis…

And how much cheaper can this stuff really be than real buttons?

Can the buttons show you ads and upsell you on features?

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's legitimately insane to me. Plus you don't even get that satisfying clunk of turning the blinkers on. God the future is turning out so lame...

Some parts of the future are always lame! But luckily, they can get better if at least one person cares enough to make facilitate the change :)

[deleted]

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#410
post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re supposed to signal before you turn the wheel. Way too often I see people signaling as they turn, not because they are trying to communicate with other road users but because it’s the law. Indicate your intent first and then take the indicated action.

Yeah, that might actually be an advantage of that new Tesla layout (never seen a Tesla from the inside): small fiddly sensor surfaces on the wheel are best operated while going straight, whereas the stalk keeps tempting the driver to leave operation to the hand movement that happens anyways when starting the turn. Guilty as charged, deeply sorry about that (I don't think it's a regular habit of mine, but we've all se…

> Yeah, that might actually be an advantage of that new Tesla layout

Seems annoying if you want to do a turn when in a turn?

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