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A counter example of an unintelligent washing machine: My Whirlpool emitted a diagnostic puddle of water underneath it. I Googled the seal, ordered it from an
by creeble 6y ago
A counter example of an unintelligent washing machine:
My Whirlpool emitted a diagnostic puddle of water underneath it. I Googled the seal, ordered it from an independent supplier, and installed it myself.
It is now on its 25th year of use with us, and cost less than $400 when new.
- MengerSponge 6y agoI'm imagining your Whirlpool singing a happy diagnostic song while it wees on your floor
- teachrdan 6y agoWhile I, too, am using an ancient washing machine in my home, it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison. New washing machines use far less water and electricity than their older counterparts. They also remove more water during their spin cycle, reducing the amount of drying necessary. And if your dryer uses natural gas (as mine does), a newer washing machine will reduce your use of natural gas as well.
- troyvit 6y agoWhat kills me is that every feature you mention can be done without needing an app, an lcd, or the cloud, and the same thing applies to electric cars. How much cheaper would an electric car like a tesla be if it didn't have autopilot, electronic keys, and LCDs everywhere? How much more secure would it be without an e-key to unlock it? I hope when I'm ready to buy an electric car I can find something like that.
- Gibbon1 6y agoI'll be interesting if the gadgetness continues once the cost to build an EV drops below a basic gasoline powered car. My commute is 8 miles of which 6 is on a freeway. Doesn't feel like a burden. Unlike say a tech bro doing his 50 mile commute down 101. So I'm dubious an autopilot would be a big win from me.
- primrose 6y agoI’m willing to bet the LCD screens and fancy hardware are a small part of the vehicle cost, esp. when compared to the batteries. All software is expensive up front but near zero cost to deploy to each additional car. At some number of cars sold the software costs becomes a rounding error.
- mNovak 6y agoExcept when that software needs more than a microcontroller to run. The computers Tesla throws into the cars are not super cheap.
- fomine3 6y agoCar manufacturer tries to reduce penny costs for each parts literally. Good SoC/LCD are $$$. Meanwhile, software is costs at once so traditional car manufactures uses cheaper chip and force programmers to write efficient code.
- adwww 6y agoThe physical hardware might be a drop in the ocean on a $100,000 car, but the software engineering for all the features they enable cannot be cheap.
- kbob 6y agoI believe the Tesla Models 3 and Y's LCD screens were a cost cutting measure -- one LCD replaces dozens of smaller screens, switches, buttons, and indicators, as well as the PCBs and metal chassis to support them and the molded plastic to hide the PCBs and chassis. It's probably also less engineering effort to put a set of controls on the screen than to design the corresponding physical controls.