Discussion
EV Stupidity Checklist: https://hypercritical.co/2026/05/29/ev-stupidity-checklist
EV Stupidity Checklist
@hypercritical My good friend is an Engineer and worked in the motor industry for many years. He would agree 100% with you on this, as we’ve had this discussion many times as we see the car industry getting worse.
He says it’s extremely expensive to design and build a proper dashboard with physical dials and controls which is why they all followed Tesla’s design.
However, the good news is that European car manufacturers are reversing course, at lease when it comes to physical climate control buttons, because they’ve realised how dangerous touch controls are.
This is definitely the stance of the VW Group and hopefully we’ll see more of it.
@DanielG @hypercritical while I see the argument for physical controls, I’m amazed how people are so gung-ho about physical AC controls. I set the temperature once (21c, cool in the summer, warm in the winter), and I then never touch it, and let the automatic AC do its thing. One thing I occasionally do is to turn on defroster before I start the drive, but that’s about it.
@Janne_O In my region (New England) there's a lot more routine climate control actions above and beyond just setting the temperature. Seat heaters, front and rear defrosters, A/C on or off (for defogging/drying purposes in cold weather, not just cooling in hot weather), vent selection, air flow strength, and direction. "Auto" mode doesn't handle most of this, and it's necessary stuff to drive safely and get going quickly in challenging weather.
@Janne_O people have vastly different needs from AC and heating, depending on both themselves (e.g. various medical issues) and the climate they live in (e.g. I’m in the desert and usually want cooling to maybe 25C, which feels better because air is so dry, it during rainy season I might want it to go down to 18C to dehumidify).
If we have our dog with us, I need to redirect air to footwell.
When I buy groceries, I can’t buy them in trunk (it’s often 40C+ here) so I put them on passenger seat and blow cold air on it, etc. etc.
@hypercritical Um, tried a Nissan LEAF?
@hypercritical The Tesla Robotaxi* has neither a rear window nor sideview mirrors. How does Tesla get away with this in the USA? Laws don’t apply to Elon.
* They’re using some Model 3s for robotaxis. I’m talking about the purpose-built vehicle.
@adamrice I don't know what the rules are for "autonomous" vehicles. And also, as you noted, laws don't currently apply to Elon…
@hypercritical I wish you could have the Renault 5 in the US, it meets all of these criteria
,is incredibly fun to drive, and it looks like this
https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/BXN7nm/s1/renault-5-e-tech-electric.webp
@DrChris Look at those door handles!
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