People are getting fed up with all the useless tech in their cars
www.theverge.com
Tesla continues to rank above average.

People are getting fed up with all the useless tech in their cars — For the first time in 28 years of JD Power’s car owner survey, there is a consecutive year-over-year decline in satisfaction, wit…::People are dissatisfied with the technology in their cars, according to a new survey from JD Power. They especially don’t like the native infotainment systems.

  • fubo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1761·
    1 year ago

    Some proposed design principles:

    1. It’s a car.
    2. It’s not a goddamn TV.
    3. It’s not your goddamn ads platform or subscription service.
    4. It is, however, a piece of life-safety-critical equipment.
    5. Because it’s a car, the driver wants to deal with car stuff like driving, navigating, fuel, roads, obstacles, and not killing people.
    6. They also want to make it passably comfortable by messing with the heat or AC, the fans, the windows, and the fucking moon roof.
    7. Messing with your phone while driving is Actually Illegal these days in civilized parts of the planet. This is for good reason: people get killed that way.
    8. If the car requires messing with your phone, or messing with something that is basically your phone, then you have failed.
    9. There should be a big knob with a fan icon on it. Turning this knob all the way to the left causes the fan to turn off all the way. Turning the knob all the way to the right causes the fan to turn on all the way.
    10. If I ever have to use a touchscreen to control the side mirrors, I will become an extremely unhappy ape.
    • zxo@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      33·
      1 year ago

      I would pay more to get a car with more buttons than you can comprehend and a small little infotainment system that allows you to play music than a super futuristic car with a iPad in the center and nothing else in the center console area.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
        261·
        1 year ago

        physical buttons for the important stuff; stuff like setting interior RBG lighting color and intensity? that can go on soft buttons.

          • evranch@lemmy.caEnglish
            91·
            1 year ago

            For real if I wanted RGB footwell lighting I would install it myself. And I did, in my first beater car, as a dumb teenager does. I thought it looked pretty cool.

            But now as a grown man I want a car to start every time, go fast when I step on the pedal, and have AC like a refrigerator. If it’s a truck I want it to pull heavy trailers and not get stuck in mud and THAT’S IT.

            Currently driving a 2008 Crown Vic and a 1978 F350 on propane, both of which do exactly what I want.

            • Zron@lemmy.worldEnglish
              42·
              1 year ago

              My 2004 Honda accord had a good EQ, and it was all controlled with 2 buttons and the radio tuning dial to adjust the levels.

              There is no need for a touchscreen in a vehicle. A small screen for displaying information is one thing, but I should not be compelled to play with what amounts to an iPad when I’m driving a car.

      • crossover@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        1 year ago

        Mazda. They’ve brought back physical buttons and have support for CarPlay if you want it.

        • zxo@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          I’ve also heard they are decent cars, at this point I’ll just keep driving what I’ve got and hope that in a couple years, more manufacturers will return to making most things controllable by physical buttons.

      • nbailey@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Get a 2004-2009 car, yank the stereo out and throw an aftermarket headunit with android/carplay in. Best of both worlds!

        • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Ugh one of our cars needs a new head unit, as its mid-2000s aftermarket unit has gone bad. But I can only get the dang thing halfway out. I can’t even get to seeing the wires in the back. No idea how it was put in, but it seems the wires are too short, maybe I have to remove the whole dashboard front thing?

        • Calcium5332@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          1 year ago

          2010-2012 will work as well if no tech package. My 2010 Lexus RX350 has no touchscreen, but still has knobs and a backup camera on the back mirror. It’s wonderful.

    • FireWire400@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      1 year ago

      No. 9 but for media volume, touch controls are garbage and gestures are even more garbage.

      Looking at you, VAG.

      • mawp@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        1 year ago

        A special place in hell is reserved for whoever the hell keeps putting capacitive buttons on cars, ESPECIALLY when they put them on the steering wheel!

      • derpysmilingcat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        …who tf…which car maker has gestures? If you’re gonna gesture how about you gesture your damn hand over to the button?

        • FireWire400@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I think mostly VAG (VW-owned brands) and BMW, maybe Mercedes as well. VAG uses them to sense your hand approaching the touchscreen to hide additional items “when you don’t need them”, BMW uses full-on hand waving to navigate menus.

      • Thadrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        No. 9 but for media volume

        Thankfully, all cars I’ve driven that had a touch screen also had some media buttons on the steering wheel. I’d prefer to have good old physical buttons in the center console, but at least you didn’t have to use the touch screen.