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Why not have both
love how looking at phone screens is (rightfully) considered bad while driving, but then they just put a big fucking tablet on cars.
I hate how they don’t give you a choice in the matter… Just give me basic controls, then sell a bespoke android tablet that mounts in the car. I thought car companies love to push extras?
But if it just mounts in the car they can’t tell you that you will need a new car because your built-in tablet doesn’t get updates anymore.
Nah push it as the “hi-tech” package or some such nonsense, “way better than our base model with the old world knobs.” Comes just like in the pic, but have both models.
Then you can sell it for more money to the dumb dumbs and let the people who know what is good in life have that sweet knob action.
No no no, they only push “extras” that are already included in the car so they can charge more for doing nothing. This requires doing something.
If you’re pulled over for using an iPad while you’re driving you’ll get a ticket. But if you build the iPad into the car it’s somehow okay.
Nah, see, when you turn on the car’s iPad, it shows a pop-up telling you not to use it while driving, so it’s totally different.
You mean if you drive hands free as opposed to having a tablet being held by your car so you can use your hands on the wheel? You can mount an iPad in your car. Lol.
The crazy thing for me is that apart from physical buttons, if car manufacturers actually just released models of 20-30 years ago as new launches, complete exterior and interior, they’d so well!
Edit - with just Bluetooth added but I’m cool with using a cassette adaptor of some sort. Also assuming the engines would be up to today’s emission standards. I mean just the shape and looks.
Yup, just give me fuel efficiency upgrades and I’m happy. I don’t need anything fancy, I’m even happy to have roll windows.
1989 Honda acty pickup 🙏🙏
The old classic well-designed cars just had better taste. I agree with you, I’ve been saying the same thing for years! Design some of these hybrids or electric cars with the same good classic taste - they’d be great! Unfortunately the trend of today (not just with cars but with many objects) is poor taste.
My major problems with this design trend, in my own (biased) experience:
- Center console entertainment UI is usually the slowest thing ever made, making it an even bigger distraction than needed. I could develop muscle memory for blindly pushing the right virtual buttons, but the slowness makes this impossible. It’s usually wildly under-specced, but what’s stranger is that there’s never an upgrade option you can buy from the manufacturer.
- Can’t use the panel blindly, creating a big honkin’ distraction within reach of the driver. Speed (see above), iffy capacitive touch with no haptic feedback, as well as multiplexing the UI through deep menus, are the chief culprits here. If there were standard controls that were always on screen in the same place, with a suitably responsive UI, this wouldn’t be as big a problem.
- For systems that are fully-integrated, it’s all or nothing. If the panel/CPU dies, you lose your stereo, navigation, and climate controls all at the same time. My car, fortunately, has the A/C physical controls. This creates a distinct point of failure which is nice - I’m pretty sure I will still have A/C if the panel craps out.
- It’s dirt cheap to manufacture and I think we all know it. We’re already paying historically high prices for cars, and cheaping-out on the bits we touch the most is just an extra kick to the junk at this point. To the manufacturers: we have remarkably better experiences on our freaking phones every day, so nobody but your grandma is impressed with the weak-sauce, crippled, bogus UX you bolt into your expensive vehicles. You’re not making cars cooler, you’re just making car ownership worse. Do better.
Is this what the new subscribe-to-drive cars look like inside? Just a straight up tablet where the music and heat controls are supposed to be?
My AC doesn’t need an OTA patch.
Have you seen the quality of code that gets shipped lately? I’m fairly sure your AC does need an OTA patch.
Well if you’re so smart, how are they going to track your location otherwise?
Leave me a phone sized screen for CarPlay and everything else can go back. I agree with the giant touch screen only stuff being nonsense, but CarPlay is life changing to my driving experience.
I don’t have first-hand experience, but from what I understand the way they make money off of those tablet screens they put in cars is by licensing proprietary software that other companies want you to have no choice but to use. That’s why models with no screens are disappearing from the major car makers
Reject smart cars because they’re collecting your data and it will be used to increase your insurance rates.
Like your phone carrier, maps application developer, Facebook, and any other app with location data, isn’t actively trying to sell that info to as many paying customers as possible…
Companies just use black boxes anyway lol
And my axe.
And my Bumper Jack!
I understand why people want minimalist design. I too like this. This is why my 2000 Audi TT has a door flap to cover up the radio when you don’t want to see the buttons.
I’ve got a MK8 Golf and boy are the interior ergonomics of that thing annoying. Capacitive EVERYTHING. Steering wheel controls. Climate controls. Overhead lights!! It still has a normal blinker stalk though. But I knew what I was getting into when I bought it…I mainly wanted one of the last manual hatchbacks before they die out completely. Good thing it is super fun to drive so I don’t really pay attention to the annoying lack of buttons.
Counterpoint:
I dont think that pioneer controls the ac I’m gonna be honest w u
It fuckin’ better not! The radio should be a module, and the AC should be part of the car. If they’re the same system, get it the fuck away from me.
Myself and the post agrees, but if the car only had the radio there would be no AC. You still need the ac knobs xD
Wish they’d have the option to just have an AUX input only… Not everyone wants or needs a dumb radio
In the US you legally have to put a radio on the car for emergency broadcast.
safety should cost extra.
No, we need a SMART radio. /s
… I’M JUST SAYING.
Pretty sure this was the exact control panel my mom’s 80s Ford Econoline van had.
For our younger audience: this is from when the show Cheers was popular, that’s why there’s a “Norm” setting.
Yup. You can move the levers to one extreme and blindly gauge where it’s supposed to be. Also: each of these things provide additional feedback (fan direction, speed, etc) so you don’t even need to memorize detents or positions for stuff.
I will say that the temp lever, over time, gets very sticky and hard to move. Other than that: it’s good design.
Admitely the better solution than the more modern featureless knob you have to look where it currently was.
That or a knob where you feel the position.
That seems so GM
I just got a Corsa D from 2006 and am so happy the interior is still original. I think it looks great, actual buttons for anything I would need and a tiny 3.5mm jack to hook my bluetooth receiver up to for Spotify. It’s perfect IMO.
