Technology! What can’t it do? With such modern marvels as smartphones and AI and egg sushi making our lives easier every day, we truly owe a massive debt to the wonders of tech. Except, of course, when technology is making things awful, which is what we’re Autopian-Asking you about today.
To be fair, it’s the people implementing technology who are making things awful, not technology itself. Tech doesn’t care. In cars, technology delivers our favorite features (“The seat and steering wheel automatically move from ‘tiny wife’ configuration to my preferred ‘sedentary fatass’ positions, bravo!”) just as easily as it delivers such stinkers as screen controls for the glovebox – only screen controls, no latch, as in the case of the Tesla Model 3.
Here, allow Doug Demuro to demonstrate:
Yuck, amirite? Why are we bringing microchips and high-res LED screens into this? A latch is fine! Better, even!
Here’s another tech-gone-awry example, the infuriating dipstick delete, as we’ve covered before. Most recently, Edd China vented on Twitter/X about it as “the dumbest thing on modern cars.” And while there’s nothing wrong with alerting drivers of oil level via an electronic warning – screen, idiot light, or otherwise – completely deleting the ability to dip a stick directly into the engine just sucks.
Please, just let me see how much oil is on the stick with my own eyes – and not just the oil’s level, but its color and smell as well. It’s important! And just think of what dipstick-deletion does to Sheriff Rosco Coltrane’s signature insult. “You know what you are, Cletus? You’re a graphic representation of a dipstick!” just doesn’t sing, you know what I mean?
Your turn: What Are The Best (As In Worst) Examples Of High-Tech Improvements No One Asked For?
Top graphic image via Doug DeMuro/YouTube
Touchscreens.
I KNOW where the various buttons to push in my car are to do whatever.
Making drivers look at a screen, and even worse, get into a sub-menu, to do ANYTHING is clearly a saftey hazard. But can’t let that stop profits and shareholder dividends, right?
Counterpoint: the SatNav those screens provide is a Godsend. I also like seeing the artist and title of the music that’s playing.
Screens are fine. Going to all touchscreens are the problem. I have a 2013 Lexus RX 350. It has a screen that displays nav and music info just fine. But it has pushbutton controls for HVAC, the audio controls, the sunroof, the 4 way flashers, the tailgate, and everything works just fine.
Some of the SatNav functions like zoom, and search are touchscreen based so its hard to have one without the other.
Mine is too old for that. Literally no touchscreens and I love it. The nav is controlled by a weird joystick, but I just use my phone, and listen for the directions rather than use the built in nav for local ‘new to me’ locations. I do use the built in nav for long trips to new locations (like driving to a vacation spot, etc) because its a bigger screen with more info and the phone can be put away.
That works too.
Something I’ll never understand – every so often when you get into my Wife’s Acadia, start it up and head out on to the road, a graphic will appear o the screen. It lo0oks like a friggin paragraph. Its probably 3 sentences, but way too much to read while the vehicle is in motion. The paragraph reads, in part “Paying attention to screens is dangerous. Driver should be keeping eyes on road”
Oh, good! Im glad they told me. Im also happy they prefaced it with a bright red all caps WARNING as if it is something that requires urgent attention.
In a world full of petty annoyances this is one of mine. I have plenty of actual annoyances, but this is one of the petty ones
I was just ranting about that screen the other day. “Hey, please take your eyes off the road and hand off the wheel to dismiss this message about focusing on driving”.
Last week I tried to see if it would go away by itself if I didn’t clear it, and it did not.
That does sound like a bug, because that’s the very first thing to appear on mine when the car starts up, which I think is intended, rather than once you’re moving.
Screen-based controls for things like vent aiming, seat adjustment, mirror adjustment, etc. Basically any screen-based control for anything other than infotainment functions annoys me.
Keyless ignition I do not enjoy. I never saw a key as a problem that needed to be solved.
One thing that annoys me is the delayed-off interior light. What is the point of having a illuminating an interior with no occupants? I often turn on my map light before I get out of the car to round up my stuff before exiting. Because of the delayed light, I’m usually standing there watching my car wondering if I left the map light on or if it’s just waiting to turn off the dome light.
Motorized exterior door handles are, IMHO, a silly item introducing potential failures where they don’t need to be.
You can probably set the interior light delay time deep in a submenu somewhere.
Probably, but I’ll still keep my jumpstart pack handy.
I agree with all of this except the keyless ignition. Clearly, your purse is not the cavernous abyss that mine is. I cannot imagine having to dig for keys every time I want to drive somewhere!
I do not have a purse, which is the problem.
For decades of driving, I never had to worry about where my keys were when I arrived at my destination. They were in the ignition. I just grabbed them in the process of turning the car off and went on my way.
Now I have to turn on my interior light to dig around for the keys in some center console bin where I tossed them. I have to deal with looking for my keys and also wondering if that interior light is from my key search or just delayed for no understandable reason.
Why do your keys ever leave your pocket?
That’s the best part of keyless ignition.
No fumbling in pockets or taking gloves on and off in cold weather.
Leave the car running with climate control but locked while picking up kids at day care or what have you.
Keyless ignition is one of the best inventions of the modern age.
The only thing I carry in my pocket is my leatherman skeletool. Keys, wallet and phone are in my hand unless I’m on my way to/from work and then the wallet and keys will be in my backpack.
My keys are too bulky for a pants pocket and I rarely wear a jacket. If I do bring a jacket somewhere, I leave it in the back seat of the car half the time.
Keeping keys in pocket is fine, for people who never change their pants.
But keyless ignition… I used to be against anything that would make getting a copy of the key cost more than $2.98. Kia is trying to change my mind on that, though I’d argue that in the old days they knew how to build a key lock that took more than a screwdriver and a USB plug to defeat. Forgotten knowledge, I guess.
re: the interior lights, my Prius v’s interior lights turn off as soon as I hit lock on the remote. Dunno if yours does the same?
I think it does, but I don’t lock the car at home.
I often want to get something from the car or run something out to put in there so I don’t forget it the next day. After many times finding the car locked and having to go back in for the keys I just started leaving it open.
My wife used to lock her car in the garage. Where all the tools are – most of which could easily smash window glass.
That makes sense. I’d be paranoid that that habit would make me forget to lock it when I should, so I always lock it just to keep the habit.
I do agree then–I also hate when cars keep their lights on after you turn it off for a bit, or at least, if that feature can’t be disabled.
Putting speakers in the tailgate of your pickup truck. Right where you can kick them as you use the tailgate as a step for the bed. Oh your truck battery died? Is it because you left your speakers on in your freakin’ tailgate!? Whoops!
Auto stop/start that you have to turn off every time you start the car; cars shifting into neutral at a stop so when you accelerate there’s a slight delay that makes a smooth takeoff nigh on impossible (my Volvo V60 does this); Bluetooth is good now but for the longest time connecting via Bluetooth was frustratingly hit and miss; infotainment systems that show their age but can’t be upgraded because they control too many of the car’s vital functions; single press automatic windows that are so sensitive you trigger them every time you go to crack a window; too bright LED taillights that leave you seeing spots at night; the parking sensors that throw you into a panic over what you’re about to hit when it’s only sensing the curb in front of you even though you’re backing up
At the first stop light of every drive, my husband hits that auto stop/start so hard I think he’s going to break his finger.
Technically politicians asked for Auto Start/Stop via legislation.
And even if they didn’t, automakers still would’ve made them eventually for CAFE standards because the tiny fuel savings per car multiplied by millions of cars still results in a better fleet average.
CAFE is legislation, passed in 1975…
I guess my point was, did they spell out auto stop/start legislatively or was it just a consequential development?
I think it’s safe to say that massive corporations that the Government has invested interest in keeping them happy will find the cheapest and usually shittiest way to comply with laws, and so laws restricting massive corporations should be constructed in such a way to account for that.
“a vested interest in”
A toggle switch would have been so much cheaper. Using a resetting switch teaches you to hit the button every time, or slowly stop caring.
Also, as such, your vehicle now no longer has Xmpg, it now has X-Ympg where Y is the time the engine is left idling at stop. X-Ympg made it possible to add the weight of the power seat motors (or whatever weighty macguffin) without a consumption hit.
Same with the slow acting autocruise. By making you actively select Sport mode any time you want aggressive automated car following, you’re more likely to use the default standard or Eco, and will use less fuel as a result.
If you could easily disable it, most people would, therefore defeating the miniscule MPG and emissions benefit.
I wish there was a forever toggle switch, there isn’t because they don’t want people to work around it, they just know if they didn’t offer the button to turn it off for that drive it would effect sales negatively.
I’ve only driven one vehicle with stop/start (a manual, diesel, hire van), and honestly I quite liked it. Maybe I’m weird because I almost always put the car in neutral and pull the handbrake at every traffic light, so it worked great for me. As soon as I put the clutch in again, it would start up quicker than I could get it into gear.
I can imagine that they’re really annoying if they don’t start up properly, but if a cheap Vauxhall hire van can manage it, it can’t be that hard.
So what is everyone’s problem with stop/start? Is it something to do with how it interacts with an automatic gearbox?
It’s a whole list up there but there’s a whole thread on auto stop/start. I wonder if it’s because it’s the first thing I listed and no one read passed that or if it’s the one thing in the list that evokes the strongest opinions. The thing on that list that bothers me the most are the over bright LED taillights, especially on Rav4s, one of the best selling vehicles in North America.
Yeah the issue is with automatics. In a manual it only shuts off in neutral and by the time you’re back in gear the engine has already started. In an automatic it kicks in when the car as at a complete stop with the break pressed down, so there’s perceptible delay if you quickly switch to the gas. You also won’t have power steering during that brief delay which can feel very weird. My mom actually liked auto stop start in a manual Civic she used to have, but usually shuts it off in her automatic Outback.
Freightliner put self canceling signals on the Cascadia, and no thanks, I don’t like it.
Semi tractors had non cancelling turn signals for a reason and forever.
And unlike most other drivers when you get in front of a truck driver and flash your signal a couple of times they know it means their signal is still on.
Some drivers anyway. It doesn’t take a mental giant to be a truck driver, but it seems to me the average has dropped pretty bad the past few years
I have to work with a lot of truck drivers and the impression I get is pretty much the same.
I love the new automatic transmissions in semis because of the massive improvement in fuel economy. Downside is, companies see this as a way to lower the bar in skill set, and hire guys that should never be driving. The true skill in truck driving is not the steering, shifting, and pushing pedals. It is in maneuvering, collision prevention, anticipation, and avoidance, and making sure the truck is in good condition to be safely operated. Can you belive there are truck drivers that hav3 no clue how to check brakes for functionality?
Isn’t checking air brakes part of the CDL test?
The government allows cdl “schools” to do their own testing, and don’t care to check if the tests are genuine or just rubber stamped for money
Saying you did, is. It’s one thing to memorize a script of a walk-around, it’s another altogether to know how the cams work, and how to blow out the water in your tanks, etc.
Yup. Ya know how many people can memorize and regurgitate info with no clue how to utilize it? Too many
That’s what 10 years of “autonomy’s just around the corner” does. Who trains for a job – at their own expense more often than not – if the robots are already coming for it…
Yup. That is why I’m working on learning as many specialized skills as possible. Robots can drive on road, but can they do the weird stuff I can?
Yup. And it is just one of many car like “improvements” freightliner made. The fact that the door locks stay locked as you close the door is another complaint. Keyless entry is highly uncommon in semis, so locking the door with the key and only the key, not the button inside, prevents lockouts. Ya know how many guys have locked themselves out of a Cascadia because of that?
And that reason was that the turn signal stalk was a bolt-on part that could be added to any steering column and easily replaced when it failed. Most trucks also used the exact same tilt/tele column for decades (which I actually prefer. It’s industrial, but very used friendly).
And available everywhere. I miss those days.
Nobody’s mentioned the VW window switches yet. Strange.
VW mirror heat switch is my peeve with that whole brand.
Everyone else uses a momentary switch, but VW is the only one who thinks someone will want to leave the heat in the on position forever.
I remember seeing on a forum that leaving the mirror heater on can damage the adhesive over time and cause them to fall off. I wish it would shut off when you turn off the car. The heated seats do.
I think all of these have already been said, but I hate the following:
-Electronic door handles, especially the ones that look like normal door handles but then just have a button on the inside of them
-Radar cruise control that cannot be disabled
-Turn signal buttons
-Turn signal stalks that don’t stay in the down/up position
-Digital buttons for essential things like headlights, shifting, and gear selection
Touchscreens have absolutely no business being a control interface in a car.
One that just feels unnecessary to me is electric door latches. Especially on something like the Lexus RX, where they kept the same physical shape on the exterior, but put a button inside the handle instead of it pulling and releasing the latch. The justification is safety, in that opening from the inside won’t happen when it senses a vehicle coming, but it just feels like they added it for the hell of it.
Of course, controls on the infotainment screen are a true blight. I wanted to go EV when I bought my current car, but most put their HVAC on a screen and several put things like drive mode (Sport/Normal/Eco) selectors on screens (and in menus). Chevy was so close. They had physical HVAC, but they put the drive mode selection on the screen, as well as heated/ventilated seats, and replaced Android Auto with Android Automotive. Kia’s shared HVAC/volume knob was even closer, since the drive modes and seat ventilation had dedicated controls (but then I’d still be fighting Kia’s service department, which is unpleasant).
No, deleting the dipstick does not suck. I have replaced FAR more dipsticks, dipstick tubes, and dipstick tube o-rings (at least 10) than I have BMW oil quantity/quality sensors (0). One fewer source of evaporative emissions too.
99% of all cars ever built kept the same dipstick/tube/seal throughout their entire lives.
BMW can’t build a friggin’ dipstick that lasts?
Sure they can, never had to replace one on a BMW. Fords, Volvos, Toyota, and a Jeep though. And now I never will have to, as my two don’t have one.
Dipsticks fail ALL the time. The plastic heads break off. The o-rings perish causing vacuum leaks. In the case of the aforementioned Ford, the dipstick tube RUSTED OFF THE ENGINE BLOCK. It was literally hanging in the breeze. How do you even manage to design something such that it can do that?
BMW’s sensor is incredibly simple, reliable, the computer backing it up is way smarter and pays way more attention than you ever will, and it’s just a better way than sticking a stick into the bowels of the engine. That in too many cases with reasonably fresh oil is damned near impossible to read on a modern engine anyway. A BMW literally will not crank if the oil level is too low.
This is news to me. I’ve owned over three dozen cars and never had a dipstick failure.
Now, it is true that some folks are ham-handed and might break one because of that. But the tube? Seriously?
Yeah, this is actually a thing. Some Toyota’s had a crappy weld or /something/ that causes the dipstick tube to corrode and eventually break right where the bracket is welded to the tube. I’ve had to replace one.
But they’re easy to replace and I had to do it once over the lifetime of an old rusty high mileage car. I don’t understand how this makes sensors better.
I already said why the sensor is better. It is *always* checking oil level constantly and will not allow the engine to crank if the oil level is insufficient. And not having a dipstick means one less place for an evaporative emissions or vacuum leak.
BMW has been doing this for 20+ years and failures are very, very rare things, despite all the whining online about it. It’s almost like BMW engineers know more than a bunch of randos on the Internet.
Yes, I saw your claim, but I am not at all convinced. Let’s agree to disagree – I prefer what my car has and am happy for your car to have something different.
I mostly just don’t CARE.The sensor system works fine, dipsticks work OK. The whining about it for 20 years has gotten exceedingly old.
Yup, crappy Ford pickup that was used for a LOT of snow plowing. Everything was rusty, my friend went to check the oil one day and found the tube had rusted completely through at the bottom, only the bracket at the top was keeping it in the truck. And having the dipstick in it, of course. Once he pulled the dipstick out, the tube was swaying in the breeze.
Easy fix, but a ridiculous failure.
Yeah, I have two in my garage right now that are over 60 years old and fine
I have a 51yo car in my garage and the disptick is also fine. But so are the oil quantity/quality sensors in my two 15yo BMWs. And as a bonus, those cars TELL me when I need to do anything with the oil. I don’t have to go grubbing around under the hood.
Yeah, popping the hood once in awhile is a real nightmare, to be sure
The original dipstick on my 40 year old, 510,000km Mercedes would like a word. Alright, I did replace the o-ring on it, but I think it deserved it after 40 years. The o-ring was also significantly cheaper than the low oil sensor I also replaced.
That is wild, I have never heard of anyone having this much trouble with dipsticks. Are you sure someone didn’t curse you to forever be vexed by this one part?
I have worked on a LOT of cars over the years, and owned more than 50. Stuff happens.
Self driving
As marketed now? Absolutely. But I hope engineers continue working on true level 5 autonomous driving for the further future.
Self driving is totally something that people want, as shown by how much they have paid Tesla for the promise of self driving.
Of course you can’t actually have self driving (unless maybe you can sway Waymo or Zoox to sell you a car) but if I could set my car toward a destination and go to sleep that’s absolutely a feature I’d pay for.
Yes, the self driving car I want is a room that takes me places.
That’s exactly what my wife wants. She’d like to enter the vehicle, recline on a divan, and arrive at the destination.
Exactly, this is what people want. It’s called a monorail, or something. What people really want is not to be bothered at all. What most people really want is good clean mass transit. The last thing I want is to pay thousands per year for the privilege of sitting in traffic, but the current mass transit system in my area would take me 3+ hours to get to work. Because (insert conspiracy theory here). when I think of how many more comic books I could read if I was on a train for 30-45 minutes, man!
I added 10-15 minutes to my commute so I could ride the light rail into work. I got more time with my PSP and wasn’t getting to work all stressed out or angry.
Oh I’d be pleased with an added 20-30 minutes, This is what Jackwagon’s Boring company should be doing. plowing light rail though metro areas too congested for new rails
In my experience, return-to-center turn signal stalks. Just stick with the stalk staying left or right, so that I can cancel the signal at any time.
From a coworker, electronic trunk opening/closing. When you just need to access the trunk quickly, it’s irritatingly slow. If you try opening or closing by hand, it’s likely to break.
My trunk pops up so fast, if your head was in the way you’d be knocked out cold.
My Polo has normal latching turn signals, but if you only move the leaver a short way and let it go back to centre it’ll give you just three flashes, just right for an overtake imo.
It’s an example of an ‘extra’ feature done right. My folks have the same setup on their Skoda, but never realised, because if you use the indicator in a normal fashion it operates just how you’d expect. You get a perfectly normal indicator stalk, plus an extra feature that doesn’t get in the way of normal operation.
Agreed on this being a good feature. My car is too old for it, but I’ve rented a couple cars for work that had it.
For me it’s the inability to easily check your oil. If you get a warning, isn’t nice to verify that there’s a problem with something other than your oil level sensor?
Also, we need buttons for things, not sub menus.
Everything that was controlled by a button, dial, or switch in 1990 should still be controlled that way today.
The screen in the dash should only be for navigation linked to your phone, and the radio. But I would also be happy if the radio was still a separate unit like it was in 1990.
Push to start. Especially when the key fob is running low on battery and you have to put in in a specific spot and there is like a 50/50 chance of it seeing it or not. Also sometimes you just need to hold the crank for a few more seconds more for it to fire over with while push to start it is just like nah not doing that.
I’d argue push to start is also bad because if your throttle gets pinned the way to shut off the engine usually involves a special way of hitting the button to turn it off, vs a hard off switch in the form of a key that can easily turn off, one is intuitive, and the other is not.
You want to get rid of my physical key? Super, then do what the goddamn military has done for longer than I’ve been alive and put a mechanical switch that basically is a permanent key, and since you want some semblance of security for the vehicles then do your stupid RFID key shit.
In my Prius, I can shut the engine off at speed by either pushing and holding the power button, or pressing it repeatedly in succession–either of which should be intuitive enough in an emergency.
When my remote battery has died, I’ve never had a problem pressing the button with it and it recognizing it.
I think the panic mashing the power button is intuitive enough, but it is also reliant on software to function, unlike a hard off switch.
When I was trying out the LX700h I noticed that all the doors are soft close, which I noticed a lot of other people were struggling with because they were unaware of the feature. People would close the door with what they thought was the appropriate amount of force for a luxury vehicle…and it totally was…but the door not closing completely, then re-opening it and closing it again not realizing that it would close itself. If you closed the doors with slightly more force you would go past the soft close and you would never even know is was there. Which begs the question of why its there in the first place? If it wasn’t, the doors would close with the amount of force you have been trained to give a door, instead of it catching just before closing. I got used to it, and I let the door take care of itself but only the owner will ever get used to it like that. Everyone else will either get mildly frustrated re-closing doors, or learn to close the door harder than they want. Plus the added cost and complexity. I got used to it and it didn’t bother me, but it doesn’t need to be there and didn’t really add anything.
I find it super helpful. I don’t use it all the time. It’s not like I’m closing the doors on purpose with just enough force to trigger the soft close, but it surely comes in handy when I’ve got a diaper bag in one hand, a baby in the other, and the ‘ol booty bump to close the door wasn’t strong enough. The door is like “don’t worry, I got it” and politely yoinks itself shut.
As I said, if you are the owner, its not a bad thing, but my GX470 practically closes its own doors, and I never need to re-close them, even with a light closing touch. Having the soft close would be an additional burden comparatively.
Replacing the mechanical switch for the Dome lights to turn them on quickly on the whole interior with a button on the screen buried in a menu. Thanks GM.
Not sure if this is across other GM platforms, but on my Acadia if you hold the driver’s (might work on passenger’s too, I’m not sure) dome/map light button in, it illuminates all of the dome lights. I only know this because I read it in another forum, but I agree with you that having to do it through the menu sucks.
I just tried, I should have RTFM lol thank you!!!
Mandatory nannines beeping and booping at you every 6 seconds. They are decent on the freeway, but on the island I grew up on, my Mom’s toyota yoinking on the wheel anytime I get close to the white line on a twisty backroad is extremely annoying.
This 100%. Subarus are awful for that. I have to buckle the seat belts in the back seat or anything I put back there sets off the seat belt alarm. About to trade that Subaru for a Mazda which assumes I know how to drive. This is going to lower my stress level considerably.
My VW will shrilly beep and display and all caps message in red that says “TAKE OVER STEERING IMMEDIATELY!” When like … my hand is on the wheel and we are in the lane. I have to grip it hard for a few seconds and then it will relax again for a bit.
I thought my (2nd hand) VW had a warning beep the first time you put it into reverse (but not after that until you turn the car off). Mildly annoying, but I got used to it.
Eventually, after some searching I found a post from someone who was having exactly the same problem, and their parking sensors had stopped working. I went out and looked at my car, and sure enough, it had parking sensors that I’d never noticed when I bought the car.
I could probably replace the sensors and get the system working again, but then it would beep at me every time it was in reverse, instead of just once, so I can’t be bothered.
My car most mornings:
BING “IT’S 39 DEGREES!!!”
Hyundai’s system is really bad, it overreacts to slight imperfections in the lines, like if the guy in the painting truck nudged the wheel a little and put a small wave in what’s supposed to be straight, the car will try to jerk the wheel over the center line. Also, hard packed road salt apparently gets read as road markings, but it can’t read actual road paint at all if it’s not brand new and perfectly clean, get a little wear on it and the system does nothing
Also, I love how the forward collision warning freaks out like a hysterical idiot over the car slowing down a mile and a half ahead, but does absolutely nothing when a deer jumps into the road 2 feet from the front bumper
Non-mechanical door latches, coupled with non-mechanical door handles (which require a servo, etc. to make the handle available for use).
It’s the electronic shifters with no feedback for me.
I’ve heard arguments against the old school shifters and I just don’t buy them.
On the flip side, keyless entry and starting is the tech feature that gets the most hate compared to how awesome it actually is. I’d legitimately not buy a car with a keyed ignition again for almost any reason.
Agree with the first, disagree with the second. No reason to not have a physical shifter. Even my FuTuRe car Volt has a physical disconnect to the “gearbox”. However, the key fobs BLAST through their batteries, I have to replace the cell about every 3 months. It’s pretty annoying hopping into the car and having FOB NOT DETECTED flash on the screen after it had been working perfectly fine the previous 3 days.
Do you keep them in the car or close by? Mine all last a couple years at least but they’re out of communication range with the vehicle.
Nope! At least 100 feet away in the house, or in my pocket way away from the car when I’m at work. I don’t know why they drain so quickly. It’s not just one fob either, I have two that do the same thing.
I am actually a fan of back up cameras and tire pressure monitoring(done well).
My first instinct was the best high-tech improvements would be in engineering and manufacturing so that cars and car engines actually last more than 100K miles. I do not miss the yearly starter, alternator, belts, hoses, gaskets, plugs, plug wires, distributor cap, rotor, points, and condenser replacements of the bad years of bad car ownership.
So much this, ’80s and earlier seem to always need something to run well. Now with DIS or coil on plug and FI most cars are good for years without issue.
yes. I asked a friend who is not a retired aircraft mechanic (transatlantic passenger jets) and retired marine helicopter/airplane mechanic. What his opinion on this improvement was and he suggested bringing more aviation quality controls and processes into the automotive manufacturing world.
I once said to him, “don’t you hate it when you drop and nut or bolt when working on something and have trouble finding it?” and his reply was “That has never happened to me.” I changed the subject.
EFI was the big game changer.
The “ice possible” warning my car gives me after brushing a foot of snow off to get in.
I’m new to having a car that does this. On mornings like that I totally agree. Yeah thanks Chevrolet for the warning, how could I have ever guessed. On the other hand, where I live, temperatures on my commute can vary about 10 degrees. Sort of nice to get a little popup telling me that there could be ice on the road after I’ve been driving in 40+ degree weather for a while.
The VW implementation of that drove me wild when I had my Mk7.5 Sportwagen, it would go off every time the temperature went to 39F or lower, meaning if it was *about* 40F outside, every time the thermometer would fluctuate between 40 and 39, it would ding. That didn’t happen often, but when it did, it was seriously aggravating, and honestly scary.
VWs use the same sound for ice warnings as they use for low gas and the check engine light. As someone in a warmer area I do not have a positive association with that sound.
Our Forester gives us the “roads may be icy warning” as if I wasn’t aware that it’s cold outside.
I do appreciate that GM set a lower limit to “ice possible” message. They leave it up to the driver to surmise once it’s below maybe 20F or 15F
My Nissan would let me set the temperature that I wanted the warning to trigger. My current Chevrolet Volt dings at me when it’s cold enough for me to freeze inside the car with both the hand and bun warmer turned on. The Mazda I had between those two trusted me to look at the outside temperature displays and then make poor, yet fun, decisions.
Moving HVAC controls to the infotainment system is a crime worthy of The Hague and I will die on this hill. I’ve driven multiple cars with this nonsense and it’s bad every single time. I also don’t buy the “well just set it once and leave it in auto” argument either. Temperatures vary wildly where I live and it’s not unheard of to have all four seasons pop up over the course of a week.
Because of that what feels comfortable to me varies widely, and at least in my Hyundai there are plenty of times when the system trips up if it’s left in auto. It tends to get confused in extreme temperatures for some reason and I sometimes have to override it. If that’s an across the board problem or a related to that famous Korean quality control, but I digress.
I want to be able to turn a knob right or left without taking my eyes off the road to adjust the damn temperature. This doesn’t seem like a big ask to me but tech bozos think otherwise.
While the tech bozos made the technology, it is the Cost Accountants who decide that a $1 million software upgrade for a million cars costs a dollar each, versus whatever the HVAC physical cluster costs per vehicle (what, $50-$300? Quick google search shows about $70 for my car).
My son’s 22-yo Prius has HVAC in the screen. Of course the screen is wonky and often won’t work (99% of the time is does not work; love the short times I’ve driven it and it was working, an I’ve tried to figure out the combinations that make it work, to no avail).
The assumption seems to be that you are an unchanging person who wants the inside temperature at exactly one setting. But that is not true. Sometimes there is fog on the windshield that needs to be defogged. Again, a safety issue ignored by accountants who see a cluster of HVAC controls that cost $300 being replaced by chips and a screen that already will be there for an additional couple of cents (just a software change).
I wish a car company can let me buy the car I want that costs an additional $70 for the physical HVAC controls, along with all the other 1990’s tech.
You’re right. Fuck dem bean counters too!
Who are these people who never adjust their HVAC settings? Do they never get in the car after scraping the ice and snow off and desparately need to warm up? Or after frantically gathering their kids and things for 20 minutes and they’re sweating profusely by the time they make it to the car?
I have to adjust my settings everytime I start it up, because…the outside conditions change.
‘Set it and forget it’ is for people who live in the tropics, like Hawaii, where I did live for a while. And I DID leave the HVAC alone pretty much all year. Yet, the occasional winter month storm could still lead to chilly mornings up in the hills and I would need the heat instead of A/C.
I’ve had to argue this before. I change the HVAC temp ALL THE TIME. During the winter, I’m in a different state of dress practically every time I enter the car.
If you live in a place where the outdoor temperature varies by 120F throughout the year, and up to 40F over the course of a day, you’re going to want quick convenient access to the temperature controls. The premise of any HVAC control being stuck to the screen is crap.
Yes – and I leave “AUTO” off because I do not want gale force wind (at the wrong temperature) every time I start the car.
Over the last month there has been a 50 degree spread in temperatures here in DC. We have seen rain, snow, gale force winds, a few random days that it was 60 degrees, we’ve cracked single digits, etc. I am also just a fellow who runs hot and has a baseline of lightly damp. If it’s 50 degrees or higher I need air conditioning.
I also have a 7 month old, a furry friend who I love to death but would categorize high maintenance, a North Carolinian wife who has a different idea of ideal temperatures than I do, etc. I am changing that shit CONSTANTLY. Do NOT make me poke at a goddamn tablet to do it. Let me use my muscle memory to twist a knob. Thank you.
My second Gen Volt has one of the best climate controls I have seen. I can leave it in full auto and it makes all the decisions, or i can choose to have the temp and fan speed on auto and manually control the vents, or temp and vents on auto and manually control fan speed. Or what I normally do is full manual control where I can select any combination, most often I have air coming out of defrost, face, and floor vents simultaneously and adjust fan and temp as needed. Not counting the bum warmers, the entire system has ten buttons and two knobs and by the third day of owning the car I never had to take my eyes off the road to operate it. It will be a cold day in hell before I switch to screen based climate controls.
I’m not a fan of the column shifter on my in-law’s new Equinox. All I want to do is grab the thing with my fist and pull it into position like every column shift vehicle I’ve ever driven, but it doesn’t work like that. You have to tap it up or down to select drive or reverse and it has a button on the end that you press to engage park. That button is supposed to disable overdrive, damn it! A rotary dial or buttons would be better because I don’t already have a notion for how it should work that I have to unlearn in order to drive.
Rivian requiring to use the touch screen to move HVAC Vent position is up there. Not as bad as Tesla ditching the turn signal stalk, or BMW using one that does not physically “latch” on a detent to indicate a tap vs held signal.
The virtual dipstick is up there too, especially since I’ve seen that some iterations require a drive cycle to fully measure, which is exactly what you want when you aren’t sure if you under or over filled your engine oil.
Glad someone mentioned the signal stalk as well. Always fun to cancel if it mistakes the input as “held”.
You can cancel with a light tap in *either* direction. Much better.
In my case, I didn’t experience this style stalk in a BMW. Instead it was a Ford Five Hundred. Tried to tap it, press it down, and tap in the other direction. None worked.
I had no idea anyone sold cars with this other than BMW. Of course Ford took the idea and executed it poorly. Or it was broken. It’s a Ford, so equal probability.
I think Doug Demuro mentioned it with his Range Rover so Land Rover may have been another. The Ford Five Hundred in question had 230k miles at the time, so good chance it was broken.
BMW owned Land Rover when Dougie’s was designed, so that would not surprise me. But I assume that his worked properly, and he is just an idiot (which he is IMHO, I can’t stand that guy).
BMW’s stalk absolutely has a detent, and a rather strong one at that. Push to the detent for 1-7 programmable flashes, push past it to engage the turn signal until you turn or cancel it. And you can cancel by tapping in *either* direction. A much better idea, even if the average ham-fisted punter seems not to get it.
Sorry, I should have specified, it’s absurd that the stalk does not stay in place when pressed to the detent, the fact that it returns to center regardless of what the input is is absolutely idiotic. Turn signal stalks are near universal in their operation outside of BMW, with a detent that holds the stalk in place until the turn has been executed, and either a tap or light hold for non-continuous signal.
Having a stalk that does not stay provide the driver with far less physical feedback than the standard. It’s so dumb, that as far as I’m aware, BMW has gotten rid of this design and gone back to the standard detent usage.
No, it was *better*. And it’s sad that BMW abandoned a better idea because the average driver is an idiot. I have two cars with this setup and I hate driving cars that don’t have it. The stalk is ALWAYS in the right position, you can cancel it by tapping in either direction, and the self-cancelling mechanism will never break, because it’s not mechanical. BTDT on a couple of aging cars.
I’ve never owned a BMW so it just wouldn’t occur to me that the turn signal stalk could break and need a different solution.
Wait, is that why turn signal use is so sporadic in BMWs?!
Nah, that was a stereotype before the new stalks.
He was talking about a Ford 500, not a BMW.