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Car manufacturers are easily the winners here. If your car’s audio system doesn’t have a simple knob you can grab and twist, well, that just sucks.
by temporallobe 5y ago
Car manufacturers are easily the winners here. If your car’s audio system doesn’t have a simple knob you can grab and twist, well, that just sucks.
- jeffbee 5y agoI can twist mine as much as I like, but the radio comes on instantly and the software that cares about the volume knob being twisted starts about 3 seconds later.
- jiggawatts 5y agoI had one that would work, but only if you rotated the knob very slowly. So if you turned the car on and the music was deafening, you had to oh-so-slowly turn down the volume with one hand, while trying to staunch the bleeding from your ears with the other hand.
- dmitshur 5y agoWhile an awful situation, I couldn’t help but laugh very much at how ridiculous it is. Thanks for this comment.
- TchoBeer 5y agoThat's hilariously bad design
- mmoskal 5y agoThe rotary encoders typically require quite fast sampling (~1000Hz) to be reliable when turning fast (it can be also done in hardware though). They are probably running a whole RTOS on that poor microcontroller that controls radio, so can’t afford so much processing power ;)
- mikewarot 5y agoIn our Subaru, the radio comes on, but you can't turn it off for at least 10 seconds, and then it might come back on, depending on exactly how many times, and when, you tried to turn it off earlier.
- mark-r 5y agoI have a Toyota Camry and I haven't timed it but I think it's more like 10 seconds. Before that neither the volume knob nor the on-off button work.
- xwdv 5y agoThe new Lamborghini Huracan Evo is especially bad at this with its touch screen volume control, no knobs at all.
- vincentmarle 5y agoAlright will not be getting the Lambo then..
- FriedPickles 5y agoFord moved volume control to the touchscreen, but people wanted a knob. Solution? They stuck a knob to the touchscreen. Under the knob is an artificial "finger" that touches the screen. I haven't used it personally so all I can say is it's a hilarious solution. https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/02/im-obsessed-with-the-ford-mustang-mach-e-physical-touchscreen-volume-knob/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/02/im-obsessed-with-the-ford-...
- fiddlerwoaroof 5y agoTesla’s have great physical controls for the stereo under your left thumb. For all the complaints about the Tesla touchscreen, the Model 3 has really well thought-out physical controls.
- ajsnigrutin 5y agoThey took a simple device, that was easy to make, and every china basement factory could make, and made it needlessly complicated. Now we have a chip shortage, and not even a radio with volume control can be made without a chip that is backordered for 1y+
- whywhywhywhy 5y agoStill unfortunately more expensive buying the component than just putting the dial on a touchscreen. Even if it's objectively worse in absolutely every possible dimension you could ever grade it on.
- HelixEndeavor 5y agoIt looks cool, and that's the only nice thing you can possibly say about it.
- sellyme 5y agoIt's a work of genius, that's just not necessarily a compliment.
- potamic 5y ago
- heywire 5y agoMazda got this right on the CX5 (at least in my 2016). Not only is there a knob, but it is on the center console where you can easily reach it without looking. Same goes with the controls (the touch screen is disabled when the vehicle is moving)
- barryvan 5y agoMazda got this right more recently by completely ditching touchscreens in favour of physical knobs and buttons. They've even been able to move the screen further away so that it's at a more comfortable focal distance -- less time for your eyes to adjust when you flick over from the road to the screen.
- temporallobe 5y agoMy 2016 MX-5 (Miata) has the same thing, and it’s one of the many reasons why as soon as I sat in the car, I immediately fell in love with it. Mazda seems to investment a lot in ergonomics and driver enjoyment. Case in point: the new Mazda 3 2.5 Turbo.
- LeoPanthera 5y agoI'm going to pre-emptively defend Tesla here, since they are usually the canonical touch screen example - Tesla cars have a volume thumbwheel on the steering wheel.
- axiosgunnar 5y agoWhat about the passengers? :-)
- Hamuko 5y agoThey'll listen and they'll like it.
- _Algernon_ 5y agoA passenger using a touchscreen doesn't normally cause distracted driving.
- axiosgunnar 5y agoAh yes that is a very good point!
- ant6n 5y agoPassengers would just reduce the carbon footprint per transported person, which goes against the greenwashing stance of Musk cars. Or put another way: those potential passengers should get their own Tesla, because more teslas are better for the environment.
- RubberbandSoul 5y agoMy Nissan has a center console that cedes ALL controls to the rear camera app when the car is put in reverse. So if you have music playing you can twist the physical volume knob all you like while in reverse and nothing will happen! If you parallel park daily you'll probably experience this every time: You jump in the car, start it and put it in reverse. The music will start playing after a couple of seconds at the level that you had during your noisy commute. You now have the choice to put your car in neutral, change the volume and then go back to reverse and exit your parking spot OR try to navigate out of your parking spot with music blasting.
- thehappypm 5y agoMaybe it's a reasonable design decision. How often is the car going in reverse? Should you really be fiddling with the UI when the car is in reverse? Sure there could be a passenger, but is it such an inconvenience?
- unbalancedevh 5y agoNo, I agree that it's awful. I rarely want the volume when I get in and start the car to be the same as it was when I ended my last trip. And not "fiddling with the UI" is exactly why there should be a mechanical potentiometer knob that is always available by feel to let me quickly spin down the volume and get back to driving without being distracted or annoyed by the radio. The need for that in Reverse isn't any different than in Drive.
- kaba0 5y agoI believe Ford automatically lowers the volume to barely hearable while in reverse — since otherwise I think passing over the UI to a more important component is a good decision.
- Tempest1981 5y agoDoes the power button work, or is it also locked out?
- 5y ago
- unbalancedevh 5y ago> If your car’s audio system doesn’t have a simple knob you can grab and twist, well, that just sucks. And is an actual potentiometer with stops at min/max volume, not some kind of digital encoder wheel that debounces my input away when I spin it down fast because I want it quiet right now and both my hands somewhere else.
- morsch 5y agoI dunno, I kind of like having a second volume control at the wheel, which isn't easily compatible with having a physical potentiometer. Just make it a digital control that you can spin quickly (also let me push it for instant mute).
- durnygbur 5y agoThe digital clock in my car audio is half of the year correct and half of the year one hour off, except after replacing battery when it's a random number. The winner are kitchen devices with digital clocks. Recently visited house with high-end kitchen with build in coffee machine, dishwasher, fridge(s), oven, stove - half a dozen digital clocks, every showing different time, all wrong. Satan himself knows and cares what combination of buttons hidden God knows where adjusts these clocks.