Physical Controls Are Back.
Carscoops:
It seems that the world of technology—including the automotive industry—is undergoing a “re-buttoning” phase. While touchscreens remain a dominant feature in vehicle interiors, automakers are revisiting the value of physical controls as drivers rediscover their importance. Driving, after all, is one area where practicality and safety demand simplicity. But what’s driving this shift in design philosophy?” more
Elephant in the room.
Distraction causes accidents.
Insurance companies are a heavy lobby.
The Vehicle Industry listened and compromised, fewer, endless screens, smaller computer screens, decreasing distractions, accidents and highway deaths. Common sense to me. Rarely do I drive my Wife’s vehicle, way to many screens and Buttons. I never read the Owner’s Manual to find out what all the Icons were for.
But hey, I’m not an Associate Professor or a “button” guru either.
And I think my 1996 Chevy Caprice (my dad’s car with less than 100k miles) is modern because it has a digital speedometer / odometer. The “climate control” is knobs (some of which I’ve had to replace). Still has the “stalk” turn signal / wiper / dimmer switch too along with knobs and buttons on the radio (the CD player quit working 20 years ago). I plan to run it until one of us dies.
I need to get something else to have as a backup, but I hesitate to do so because of what “cars” have become these days. The mechanic that works on my car when I can’t physically do some things told me that today’s cars are basically a Windows 3.1 computer on wheels. When I asked him about cars to avoid, he told me to stay away from anything made since about 2010 because they are garbage because of all the electronic controls – sometimes you have to replace whole “modules” that can cost him thousands of dollars at wholesale prices instead of the specific part that doesn’t work any more.
New is not better. My year model cutoff is 2000. If people weren’t such followers they wouldn’t be in this mess. When I hear that a car today has to be taken into a dealer shop just to change the battery I can’t understand people.
Distraction is the major problem. My friend has taken her car back to the shop many times just to set the clock and driven hundreds of miles without heat because she doesn’t know how to get the screen back to the heater controls.
taken her car back to the shop many times just to set the clock and driven hundreds of miles without heat because she doesn’t know how to get the screen back to the heater controls.
Perfect example of American progress right there.
Buttons you can feel in the dark of night at 60 mph are best.
We got rid of our 2023 Tucson for this very reason.
Learned to drive in a 72 MGB. Manual choke, no a/c, wind-up windows. So many controls now don’t need a screen OR a button.
Learned to drive in a 72 MGB. Manual choke, no a/c, wind-up windows. So many controls now don’t need a screen OR a button.
Learned to drive in a 72 MGB. Manual choke, no a/c, wind-up windows. So many controls now don’t need a screen OR a button.
We used to be able to crank down the windows and crank up the volume.
Now we just want to be able to crank up the heat.
I saw inside a new Hyundai the other night. The screen is huge and rotates views from behind, out front and all around.
How that can’t be dangerous is beyond me.
I still have my ’08 Jeep Gr. Cherokee but we do have a ’22 Maverick. The old truck was rusting, (ME uses calcium chloride in winter) and got hit. It was cheaper to buy the Maverick (not hybrid)than a 15 yr old used truck.
Small screen that pretty much only shows the radio.
Another issue is screens require to be touched just right. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 tries.
Not good.
designers, like pedocrats – they know what’s best for you peons
After 50 years of driving finding the radio buttons without looking is ingrained, for old style buttons like my 21 year old truck. My wife’s 3 year old Lexus has the distracting screen for that… but I am getting used to the steering wheel Buttons to change radio volume or presets.
I have a new Genesis, and it has ALL of the bells and whistles. And I haven’t learned many of them, just the adaptive cruise control (which is wonderful!) and turning the radio on and off. Oh and disabling the thing that refuses to allow me to back up when I have the bike rack on the trailer hitch.
That said, I was in a bad accident 11 years ago, took an F150 to the drivers side door of my Infiniti G35. And I am so grateful that it was a newer model, 2007, had the side airbags go off and the B-pillar held up well. I went to the ER but was released a few hours later. Had that happened in a 1990’s-era car I would have been in the hospital for a few days, likely permanent damage to my body. And an earlier model, well the iotw crowd would have been left wondering whatever happened to Left Coast Dan, he used to post all the time.
The touchscreen replaced that other horrible innovation, one-button control.
I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.
I could do without chipped keys too, who wants to drop $50+ bucks for spare keys?
“Small screen that pretty much only shows the radio.”
That’s my 2018 Wrangler, too. Everything else is buttons and dials, and I don’t listen to the radio, so it’s just a black screen, unless my wife is riding, or I want to see what time it is, which is not very often, since the clock is usually wrong and hard to reset. The only problems I have with the buttons are the ons on the steering wheel, which cause me to inadvertently change the radio station sometimes, much to my wife’s annoyance. And sometimes I turn on the emergency flashers when I shift gears, and then everybody driving behind me thinks I’m black. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
When they took the headlight dimmer switch off the floor, I knew we were screwed.
I was looking over an actual roadmap when my daughter programmed in the destination into my Sync 4. Damn thing kept telling me to go a different direction which was actually impossible. When we got there, I shut off the truck thinking that would clear the program but no, the damn think kept telling me to go back. I finally pulled over to the side of the road, pulled out the manual and spent almost a half hour trying to find an off switch. It does not have an off switch. When I got home, I disconnected the battery and put an old fashioned toggle switch on the speaker. Don’t know if it’s still trying to give me directions
@Say what? – a friend had a 1968 Lincoln Continental. Suicide doors, electric headrests,… and the button on the floor was to change the radio station! It was also Nixon’s campaign car, gifted to him by Ford and returned after the campaign. Unfortunately he was never able to get a letter confirming that from the Secret Service.
He was my high school math teacher, we occasionally went to math meets (yes sirree!!!), and would mess with any new kids riding in the car for their first time about the electric headrests.
Please explain how this is better than just being on tour phone.
Just sync your car controls with Alexa. That way you can talk to your car and not take your eyes off the road. Works for me.
I drove down to Texas from the Great White North in a 2010 Nissan which is now Mrs. RMM’s car. We bought a 2009 Suburban down here. The radio unit is a screen that also has buttons. the clock is an hour ahead during Standard Time because it won’t stay reset. The navigation system always shows us in Washington DC when we start up. And the map always defaults to Always North which is always confusing. And even when it finally shows me where I am, the system uses regions — and that doesn’t follow where I am. If I do try programming it, I have to change the region. I don’t even bother with it.
We do use GPS often because they can help yo avoid surprises if you have one that gets traffic updates. When we lived up North, we would go to vist my son and his family in Central Washington. We would stay around Seattle on Friday night and drive the rest of the way on Saturday morning. One time the GPS told us to take Highway 2. We said OK and did it. We later found out that there was a fatal accident on I90 that had it closed for 4 or 5 hours.
disable all ebonics/****** bullshit features
If you’re having a party using LSD or mushrooms -or other psychedelics- you want to have two areas of congregation. The people who are high will get tired of one location and want to move to the other, and back and forth they go over the time they’re high. They might go back and forth ten times or more, just because they want to.
Style, just want something different. Meaningless but important.
meh, the car companies are all putting in “autopilots” anyway- we can watch tik tok videos while all the other robot cars network and plot the demise of humanity.
Planes and cars have a similar problem: lack of standardized interfaces for critical items. GPS can now be considered a critical item. Too many “features” can be a horrible distraction. Ironically, it’s much easier to fly a plane distracted than a car, since the nearest other plane or obstacle is often miles away while the nearest other car is often feet away. And there are no pedestrians in the sky (except birds).
I learned how to drive in a ’63 VW Beetle. Speedometer, gas gauge, headlight and wiper switches. Dad put me in the driver’s seat when my feet reached the pedals.
fk that alexa/****** bullshit
we consumers will tell you what we want, you will make it. or gtfo & stfu.
207: especially you software *******
After my husband passed away we did some serious cleaning. Had a box of Rand McNally road maps. My son helping me said to keep the road maps even if they are out of date. When GPS goes out or an EMP takes down cell towers we will at least know where the roads used to exist.
Trying to navigate a touch screen isn’t that much different than texting while driving.