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Please make a dumb car

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Re: Please make a dumb car

#571

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.

Not being hungry and getting out of the elements are the most ancient goals throughout the history of humans. I think most people would want to avoid biking in 0C.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes. totally agree. I LOVE adaptive cruise control, but also love/need the ability to work the music and environment selection buttons - switch stations, switch cds, change sources, turn heat up down etc - with just an instantaneous glance followed by touch only.

yeah, touch controls are wildly underrated right now. there'll be a comeback sooner or later.

I don't think they're underrated, they're much more expensive than drawing pixels on a screen, especially now that screens are required, by federal law (back up cameras). I imagine we'll first see them reappear in luxury cars.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#573

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…

I looked at new Audi’s last year, and my main thing was I want physical gauges on the dashboard. The sales guy looked at me like I was from Mars and then showed me the stripped versions (which were, I gotta say, pretty nice) I wonder how much all the screens have contributed to the increase in accidents in the last couple years

I went to buy a TV a couple of years ago, and I think I got that same look from the sales guy when I said I didnt want a "smart TV".

Re: Please make a dumb car

#574
post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I bought an aftermarket camera that's like ford's, but it just slips over the old mirror. Thing is great, shoots 4k and is not integrated to the car's system. Also has voice commands, so its super easy to use the real mirror or any other functions. Screen in the mirror is the way.

Can you show me the camera and how it's integrated in the car?

Re: Please make a dumb car

#575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I’m not so sure this is entirely due to fuel. A Volkswagen Golf with great fuel economy still has a big rear window and an FJ Cruiser has a tiny one and chugs gasoline. Many of the cars don’t actually have dramatic tapering roof lines, what they have is rising belt lines which cut into the window space.

Completely different car,. I have no idea where to begin... Maybe the wheels?

Re: Please make a dumb car

#576

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…

> I wonder how well my car will age when miscellaneous sensor all over the car start failing. That's just it, the tech is making the cars less reliable. Will all of these bespoke parts be available in 10, 15, 20 years? I would hate to have to dispose of a working car because the dead now obsolete chip on the bespoke LCD dash module shaped like the cars dashboard is no longer in production. I had cars who's odometers…

> Opinion: Mandated lane keeping and other lane keeping/self driving safety garbage is papering over the failure of the human race to govern itself.

When you're done riding that high horse, could you come up with a plan to actually make it stop? Preferably one that can't be dismissed as papering over the failure of the human race to govern itself like self-driving features, or dismissed as an authoritarian power-grab like putting fifty times as many traffic cops on the road, or dismissed as a dream like leveling LA and starting over from scratch with a bike-friendly layout.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#577
post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought an aftermarket camera that's like ford's, but it just slips over the old mirror. Thing is great, shoots 4k and is not integrated to the car's system. Also has voice commands, so its super easy to use the real mirror or any other functions. Screen in the mirror is the way.

Are you saying that you’re watching 4K video from your rear view camera in a 1.5in screen or it’s a dash cam?

I’d rather have a nice bright (in the dark) camera with a wide field of view that’s only 480p.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#578

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…

I'm hoping Mazda can catch up with an electric drive train. They have pushed ICE exceptionally far, but without an electric drive train with an ICE power plant or an entirely electric offering, I don't know if they'll up for my next consideration. I say that as a happy owner of both a Mazda CX-5 and Mazda 3. The MX-30 might be interesting, but the maturity of Toyota, Tesla, Chevy in the EV space is hard to compete with.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#579
post #252

Power seats are not a pointless luxury. I’m pretty sure they are continuously adjustable which is much better than trying to pull on some lever and get the seat to pop into approximately the right place. To say nothing of mulitple drivers with memorized positions etc.

Until the motor fails, or the tracks became "crusted", and you have no ability to adjust it anymore.

My car is nearing 20 so I live in fear of all of the motors failing, but none has so far.

Re: Please make a dumb car

#580
post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm always surprised how defeatist and negative the tech community's attitude towards computerized UX in cars is. Often the opinions are simplistic and dismissive instead of zooming into the details. It's similar to when onscreen keyboards in phones where "obviously never going to work" when now, most people probably wouldn't want to give up the screen real estate for a hardware keyboard, except even more one-note. I…

> It's similar to when onscreen keyboards in phones where "obviously never going to work" when now, most people probably wouldn't want to give up the screen real estate for a hardware keyboard, except even more one-note. I absolutely hate my screens keyboard, and wish I could just buy a phone with a real physical keyboard. I get so angry trying to use this thing. It’s far less useful than a regular keyboard.

A keyboard that can snitch on you is a privacy invader's wet dream.
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