LVSteve
Member
Call me a Luddite curmudgeon if you like, but here is my list of stuff you find in cars that I think we can live without.
1) Touch screens. Really? Yes Honda, I'm looking at you.
"Want something MORE distracting and hard to use than a cellphone when driving, then try the latest from ACT, (Accident Causing Technologies) the touch screen! Need to adjust the radio volume? Simple! Just take your eyes off the road for 20 seconds while you locate the virtual slider buried two menus down and wait for the software to eventually respond to your request, maybe. Yes, you may rear-end another car stopped at a light, but you will do so with the music at just the right volume*.
* Volume level not guaranteed to suddenly go to death metal levels causing even more distraction."
Of course, this applies to any function that requires using the touch screen. A/C fan controls only on the touch screen are a deal breaker for me.
2) Non-defeatable radar cruise control. Sorry, it's just unsuitable for the way Americans drive on freeways. Most of these systems have a minimum following distance of about 3.5 car lengths, or "WAY TOO CLOSE" as we called it in Europe. However, in America such a gap is liable to trigger Asphalt Agoraphobia (the morbid dread of more than 12 feet of empty road surface) in most surrounding drivers. As a result your radar cruise control is constantly backing off and reestablishing speed, killing the whole point of cruise control, smooth progress.
3) The "three-blink" flick turn signal feature for lane changes. What self-absorbed arrogant idiot thought of this one? First, it assumes that I'm looking at your car pretty much all the time. I can miss your three blinks doing a mirror scan or an over the shoulder check. Second, if you read the driving requirements for most states you are required to signal before and throughout a maneuver. Make too many lane changes on the three blink schedule and the kids in the back will be barfing.
4) Panoramic sunroofs. Is your vehicle a tour bus in a historic town or national park, or a mobile air traffic control tower? No, neither is mine, so what's the deal with seeing straight up? As a half-qualified engineer I cannot fathom putting so much glass that high in a vehicle. It weighs far more than steel, so you compromise the center of gravity of the vehicle and its handling. In a wreck steels bends, but glass tends to shatter and create shrapnel, no matter how well it is tempered and coated. Then there is the cohort of the panoramic sunroof, the "solar shade". These are as much use as a chocolate fireguard in the desert SW. Too much light and heat gets in.
5) Engine sounds piped into the cabin. Say what? This is done either with some funky plastic pipe and diaphragm (Ford symposer) or directly through the stereo (BMW and others). WHY!?!?!? Oh, and why do BMW (and I suspect others) make it such that you cannot turn it off?
I spend a large wedge on a refined car then some brain donor in the design staff says "it's not loud enough!" Probably the illegitimate child of Lemmy.
I'm sure I can think of a few more, given time.
1) Touch screens. Really? Yes Honda, I'm looking at you.
"Want something MORE distracting and hard to use than a cellphone when driving, then try the latest from ACT, (Accident Causing Technologies) the touch screen! Need to adjust the radio volume? Simple! Just take your eyes off the road for 20 seconds while you locate the virtual slider buried two menus down and wait for the software to eventually respond to your request, maybe. Yes, you may rear-end another car stopped at a light, but you will do so with the music at just the right volume*.
* Volume level not guaranteed to suddenly go to death metal levels causing even more distraction."
Of course, this applies to any function that requires using the touch screen. A/C fan controls only on the touch screen are a deal breaker for me.
2) Non-defeatable radar cruise control. Sorry, it's just unsuitable for the way Americans drive on freeways. Most of these systems have a minimum following distance of about 3.5 car lengths, or "WAY TOO CLOSE" as we called it in Europe. However, in America such a gap is liable to trigger Asphalt Agoraphobia (the morbid dread of more than 12 feet of empty road surface) in most surrounding drivers. As a result your radar cruise control is constantly backing off and reestablishing speed, killing the whole point of cruise control, smooth progress.
3) The "three-blink" flick turn signal feature for lane changes. What self-absorbed arrogant idiot thought of this one? First, it assumes that I'm looking at your car pretty much all the time. I can miss your three blinks doing a mirror scan or an over the shoulder check. Second, if you read the driving requirements for most states you are required to signal before and throughout a maneuver. Make too many lane changes on the three blink schedule and the kids in the back will be barfing.
4) Panoramic sunroofs. Is your vehicle a tour bus in a historic town or national park, or a mobile air traffic control tower? No, neither is mine, so what's the deal with seeing straight up? As a half-qualified engineer I cannot fathom putting so much glass that high in a vehicle. It weighs far more than steel, so you compromise the center of gravity of the vehicle and its handling. In a wreck steels bends, but glass tends to shatter and create shrapnel, no matter how well it is tempered and coated. Then there is the cohort of the panoramic sunroof, the "solar shade". These are as much use as a chocolate fireguard in the desert SW. Too much light and heat gets in.
5) Engine sounds piped into the cabin. Say what? This is done either with some funky plastic pipe and diaphragm (Ford symposer) or directly through the stereo (BMW and others). WHY!?!?!? Oh, and why do BMW (and I suspect others) make it such that you cannot turn it off?
I spend a large wedge on a refined car then some brain donor in the design staff says "it's not loud enough!" Probably the illegitimate child of Lemmy.I'm sure I can think of a few more, given time.
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Being a mechanic for the last 45 years (and counting..) I've seen a lot of stuff added to cars and trucks that does nothing but complicates something simple. People demand it..so we get it. Me..I don't get it. Give me cables that open and close things..knobs on my "radio", a simple set of analog gauges,and a $2 key! Door handles made of metal..windshield wipers you can take off without reading a manual..and gas caps! The number one thing turning on engine lights on the newer cars/trucks is that capless fuel filler. Glad I'll be retiring soon...
