this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2025
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago
[–] [email protected] 127 points 1 week ago (2 children)

the EU is already passing legislation to require core functionality isn't hidden behind a touch screen.

good public transit is more likely to happen and I'd put my money on subscription based self driving taxis.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yeah i have hated it for years My personal car is old and has buttons for everything but still a touch screen if I want it.

My work car is like dealing with an ipad to change the volume etc. It's not safe

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You guys have seperate work and personal cars?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah mobile crane mechanic, company pays my fuel and car.

Be fucked if I were to travel around with all my tools in my personal car making someone else rich

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Out of curiosity, do you own your tools?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

Yeah i own my own tools in Australia most mechanics do.

You need the flexibility to have what you want and need, not relying on what someone else thinks will get the job done

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

My BYD has a decent mix. It has a volume knob on the steering wheel which you can press to mute, and a previous/next button.

If you want to mess with your playlist though, you use the touchscreen. You're not supposed to do that sort of thing while driving.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I'm having such a Baader-Meinhof effect with those BYD's

Where I live its essentially a small country town despite being a capital city.

I had never heard of them and saw one last week on the road and then I saw an add for them at the airport and three since I went interstate yesterday and now seeing it mentioned here.

Edit

To add to this watching the footy and its there in a shirt

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Is that an Australian team? I don’t recognize the crest—and the tiny flag thingies below look say Sidney. I’m just curious.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Yeah Sydney Roosters Rugby league team

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

The moustache gives it away.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

subscription based self driving taxis

Can't wait until the Lime Scooter can travel 80 mph

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 week ago (4 children)

And screens have become popular because people think they're fancy, hi-tech, expensive. But ironically they're cheap and nasty. They are much cheaper to make than haptics, knobs, dials, etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

That is very much changing, in my view, in large part because actual luxury vehicles are sticking with physical controls.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Always cheaper to buy a big flat piece of glass that's already mass produced than to design and manufacture a custom control interface.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Cheaper? They don't care about cheaper. That custom control interface is a revenue stream.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think those old toyota and saab (orange or green is best) screens are nicer to look at than most new ones. Btw have any automakers even tried going above 60hz refresh rates? lol

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

honestly i'll be surprised if they even go above 30hz

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I think they're LCDs, where refresh rates are way less relevant

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Enshittification of automobiles

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Touch screen steering is surely coming.

It will save the corporations tons of money not having to manufacture a steering wheel.

They'll sell it as a "high tech feature" and use it as an excuse why the car is more expensive than last year

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Surely having a physical steering wheel is a requirement otherwise they'd have already innovated with driving solutions before now.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Oh, there have been attempts. Joystick controls, for example, in Mercedes concepts (F 200, SL R129 Concept, Vario Research car), or in actual farming vehicles. Recently, several automakers tried yokes. For now wheel is the cheapest (and simplest) way to make a car steer, we'll see some funky shapes probably.

edit: also if steer-by-wire takes off, I imagine physical steering linkage would still be required. In that case it wouldn't save money.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

Joystick controls sound fun for like bumper cars

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If it's good enough for a Galaxy class, it's good enough for my car.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Shut up, wesley

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

In the future, you will have to sit in the back seat with a VR headset on, so you can drive the vehicle with a controller in third person.

"Alright, buckle up. We 'bout to go for an INSANE STUNT BONUS!"

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Download a Burnout revenge skin pack and I'm sold

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

'Welcome to Kuh-rayyayayazay Taxi! Select your destination! Would you like to play either the Offspring or Bad Religion during your ride?'

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Do you enjoy the virtual joysticks on phone games? This but for steering (x) and speed (y).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Gyro master race. Tilt the car to turn.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not every car is a piece of shit. Mine has a touch screen for configuring parameters I honestly don't think you need a dedicated button for, like "lane drift alert volume" and those can only be done when the car is parked.
Everything else either has a button as well even if they had to dig deep into the plausible locations to get there, like "press the button on the end of the turn signal to disable lane centering while adaptive cruise enabled", or it only allows voice communication while in motion, like the typing based commands for navigation.

I think the only time I've wanted to use a setting that didn't have a button was when I was on a stretch of freeway in traffic where I didn't feel keen on pulling over if I could avoid it, and I got gunk on one of the radar sensors. Since it couldn't get a coherent reading it refused to turn on cruise control since it was set to adaptive. I had to drive without cruise control for a while until I pulled into a gas station and was able to clean the gunk. The setting to disable adaptive cruise control was touchscreen only, and locked out when the vehicle was moving.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

So I get what you're saying but at least from my point of view that's still too much unnecessary shit, mind you I think cup holders are optional but hear me out. The problem isn't the touch screen per-se it's everything else reliant on it cruise control, lane assist, and back up cams are all either unnecessary or in the case of the back up cams a failure of design. All a lot of folks want is a basic as shit car where the most complex thing inside of it is the door ajar light.

In many ways cars are too computerized they have so many points of failure that I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if we see a generation or two being bricked because of another capacitor or CPU plague. That's also not getting into their shitty interiors, I fucking hate my grandmother's car but maybe Ford in particular is bad. Point is they have too much shit going on maintenance wise and frankly speaking lots of folks just want what amounts to a 2001 era car, enough electronics for maintenance while still being relatively easy to repair and replace hell for backup cams you could even have a cool popup screen.

But maybe I'm just a biased asshole who is a borderline luddite and only has really driven cars from the early 90s to 01, point is I will labatomize any new car if I am somehow forced to use one.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

everything else reliant on it cruise control, lane assist,

That's stuff's on buttons in many, many cars.

back up cams are all either unnecessary

They really aren't. With thicker pillars (for better safety, but also sometimes for design purposes) the more cameras you have - the better.

You can still buy incredibly simple cars, just look at PSA, Dacia/Renault basic models or Fiats that have been in production for years. Hell, Mitsubishi ASX turns 15 and all they did was stick a big screen for a radio. Suzuki S-cross imo is the sweet spot, a small screen for 2 functions (radio/phone audio, camera) and physical controls for the rest.

Or just don't buy new cars. I think you'd like VW Up, big selling point of it was the lack of a navigation system because they get outdated so quickly, so instead there's just a nav holder.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

So buy a car without those things, or don't use them. It's not like you can't drive my car without those things, and every one of them, barring the camera for obvious reasons, is controlled by a physical button. Better yet just don't drive. If more people took public transportation we'd be better off.

I don't particularly want to drive. When I do, I'd prefer to have climate control, not need to crank a window, and for the car to be able to tell me someone is going to clip me when I'm backing up. No matter how small the support bars are, the driver will never have as good a view as the radar sensor mounted on the side of the rear bumper.

Backup cams aren't a solution to a design that limits visibility, they're a solution to "most people won't turn their heads when backing up". People like their necks more than they like their neighbors kids.

It's one thing to say that you want a no-frills car, and another entirely to say that car design peaked 30 years ago, and even further than that if you want a car that isn't impacted by electronic component failure.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Import some commies, they know how to build good public transport.

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