@cstross I wouldn't care if they were only affecting their own awful customers, but by glamorizing these shit UI elements, they've got all the other car manufacturers copying them and endangering everyone. NTM kids who didn't consent to die in a fire.
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@cstross core user interface interface actions are like jokes: if you have to explain them, the problem is not in the audience.
@cstross That was written by a tech author. Why didn't the tech author not say "I'm not writing that, if those instructions are needed your product is crap"?
@TimWardCam@c.im @cstross@wandering.shop
Probably because those people are only involved when it's way too late and they want to keep the job.
@TimWardCam @mort NO LOVE for modern electronics where the paper manual is a 10cm square glossy white pamphlet printed in pale grey 4-point type that's so tiny and illegible I need to photograph and enlarge it before I realize it's not the manual, it's just the warranty declaration.
@TimWardCam @cstross @mort could be worse. The qr code on a cheap covid mask from 2021 I had lying around went to a porn site.
@TimWardCam @cstross @mort
My 2013 five-gear manual Corolla has 470k on the odometer. I'll be soon looking to, reluctantly, replace it. Any suggestions on the lowest-tech car available?
@quoidian @TimWardCam @mort I no longer drive, but I'd recommend avoiding anything recent enough to have Google or Apple car integration—and definitely avoid anything with a touchscreen, they're actively dangerous (requiring the driver to look away from the road to operate controls is a BAD THING).
@cstross @TimWardCam @mort
I had the misfortune to argue with a deer in 2020 and so needed a 'courtesy vehicle' for a week.
I have a clear list from that SUV what I don't want in a vehicle and the distracting display screen is on top.
@quoidian @TimWardCam @mort I would make a qualified exception for a reversing camera display that delivers satellite navigation stuff when not in reverse gear.
But it needs to be a *display*, not an input touchscreen.
@cstross@wandering.shop @TimWardCam@c.im @quoidian@mastodon.online
There are also other good use cases for touchscreens. Searching/ordering radio stations, settings, less often used information, ...
It just shouldn't be necessary for anything commonly used while driving. Including AC, volume or track/station changes.
@mort @cstross @TimWardCam it's the existence of the screen as a reason for taking my eyes and attention off the road that I question. I wouldn't read a book, listen to radio, or talk on a phone while driving at my age and on our snowy roads.
@quoidian @mort @TimWardCam It takes your eyeballs a couple of seconds to accommodate from long distance vision to close-up. At 100km/h that can easily be 100 metres of travel, with lethal consequences if you don't adjust in time.
@cstross @TimWardCam @mort
My youngest has a cracked neck vertibra and, when I visited, I was happy to see he had a backup camera in his SUV. But if the price of having it is having nobs replaced by a touchscreen, then no.
@quoidian @TimWardCam @mort The in-car touchscreen controls are there to save the manufacturer's bill of materials. Knobs are custom injection-molded bits of plastic, so individual cost items. Touchscreens are surprisingly cheap in comparison to 20-30 knobs/dials ...
@cstross @TimWardCam @mort
But since I have no automotive shares, I don't care to feel unsafe to give them a benefit.
@quoidian @TimWardCam @mort If I seem paranoid about Russia these days it's because I'm old enough to remember the Cold War and Putin's cowboys are pulling shit that would have had the Politburo and the White House tearing up the hotline and hammering shoes on the table in the UNSC back in the day.
@cstross The door handle did not need disrupting.
Apparently you open the glovebox from a pull down menu. That didn’t need disrupting either.
Having ridden in one as an Uber, they also appear to have disrupted the concept of “needing suspension”. I now never select “eco” when hiring an Uber in case I get a Tesla. I’m in my 50s. My back doesn’t deserve that.
@goatsarah @cstross "What if a car, but instead of a car, it's just a high-tech simulation of what it feels to be trapped inside a VR experience jointly designed by a high-end hi-fi manufacturer and the people who created the user interface for your health insurance company's website?”
Agree this design is bad and dangerous. China may ban it.
But, is there a cultural element to obviousness: is a door handle obvious to someone who hasn't seen one used before? That unobvious link between lever and larger body action used to be sufficient to stop forest dwellers like bears, but no more. They've even learned to operate hidden trashbin handles. I have seen a foreigner completely stumped by a can opener. The Irish made a sport out of stumping foreigners 🤣
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@avi2022 @cstross is a handle on a door obvious? yes, if it looks like a handle. it's a space to put your fingers when pulling something. tell me about a culture that does not have handles?
the aztecs had no wheels, but, what do you want to bet they had handles?
edit: actually if you're looking to open a door then you'll probably put your fingers in a handle if there is one, whether you recognise it as a handle or not. you're looking for purchase to pull on the door…
As it turns out, door handles may be a somewhat recent thing after standardized manufacturing - see Osbourn Dorsey’s 1878 patent for an “improvement in door-holding devices”.
Japan favored sliding panels with recessed pulls. Early America / frontiers favored "latch strings".
Older setups usually separated latch action from locking.
The Aztecs didn't use swinging doors with hinges, instead using a curtain or mat with a bell for privacy, and security was cultural.
@avi2022 @fishidwardrobe I'm reasonably sure I read that the Romans didn't have hinges for most (if not all) of their doors—the door was just lifted into place across the doorway and barred from inside at night.
@cstross A terrible car, the product of a terrible company owned by an extremely terrible person
@cstross Why would anyone want to get inside a literal Nazi-car? Putting aside neonazis of course
@cstross more importantly, safety critical, a number of people have burned alive in Teslas because their door controls became inoperative and they did not know where the emergency manual release latch is.
Also, China just banned recessed door handles like Tesla's. They may help aerodynamics a tiny bit, but once again a safety hazard.
@cstross Let‘s not start talking about the emergency handle under the diriver’s side floor mat.
