5 ms·

Volvo and Ford Edge use touchscreens to adjust AC and there is no steering wheel control for it.

by syzar 4y ago

vel0city 4y ago
Changing the AC, even with physical controls, is a distraction from driving. I don't get why anyone drives without it being on auto climate as you're inviting more distractions. If its on auto climate why are you making adjustments while you drive?
- uluyol 4y ago
  Maybe because its burning hot out and people need high AC to cool down. Or the opposite in cold weather. Or to defrost windshield/rear window. Climate control is a great feature. But it's not perfect, and there are instances where you need to manually override. Just because you don't run into them doesn't mean they don't exist. EDIT: BTW on cars with physical controls all of these things are either button press or dial turn away. I've never had to look at the controls to do these things.
  - vel0city 4y ago
    So here's an example. It's over 100F outside, my car is probably 115F inside it at the moment. Setting my car to 70F inside instead of it's current 72F won't make it cool any faster. Even setting it to it's "LO" setting won't make it cool any faster. The AC compressor is either on or off. The car will set the fan speed to it's best possible speed to cool the car as fast as it can regardless of it being 72 or 70 or 68. Me adjusting things manually won't make the compressor work harder or make the car cool faster. There's zero benefit for me to touch the AC controls. The car knows it's hot. The car knows how I want it. It will do what it can to get it to that target temp. Me doing anything will just result in more distraction away from actually driving the car.
    - kipchak 4y ago
      Wouldn't it engage a heavier fan speed if there was a smaller disparity in temperature? For example if it's 75 in the car and I'd like it to be 72 turning the AC down to 70 would engage a heavier fan speed with the downside of increased noise, so practically I would cool down quicker by setting it to 70 and could then adjust back up to 72. But more practically, if I start catching a lot of sun from the window I might want to go from 72 to 70 to compensate, even if the cabin temperature is more or less the same.
      - vel0city 4y ago
        The car knows how intense the sun is. It has sensors to measure that. Coupled with some decent low emissive tint it's really not hard for it to handle such an idea. I live in Texas. I assure you I live in an area with high heat and intense sun. My cars have glass roofs. My cars seem to handle it fine.
        kipchak 4y ago
        Perhaps it depends on complexity of the system? I like in Florida and have to do some tuning occasionally, but I think it just has a typical in cabin and ambient sensor and isn't aware of how much sunlight there is.
        vel0city 4y ago
        If it has a screen it probably knows how bright it is as it can probably change between night and day modes. If it can tell it's bright, it can guess you're getting more radiant heating. It's been like that on every car with a screen built in that I've owned, more than a decade of model years.
    - _carbyau_ 4y ago
      Alternately, I don't care about he speed of change. That blazing sun shining on you via radiation directly feels different than if the sky is overcast. I want to easily tweak the temp to account for my personal comfort. I don't care about the temp of the air except as an input to helping me be comfortable. I don't want to have to start and then sit in my car idling to wait until it gets to temp only to find out I want a little more or less.
      - vel0city 4y ago
        I don't experience much difference. Low emissivity tinting does wonders to make you more comfortable. I even have glass roofs on my cars and it really doesn't make that much of a difference in comfort in my car. On top of that, my cars also know how intense the sun is. It wouldn't surprise me if that's also an input to the climate control.
        _carbyau_ 4y ago
        I have a 10+ year old car. I don't expect to update it until 2030 at least. I guess I'll get to try out this tech then.
- nucleardog 4y ago
  What kinds of cars you driving that are making the process that distracting. I have three giant knobs inches away from my gear lever to control the climate. Climate control status is on a screen just below line of sight to the road. I'm moving my hand a few inches and generally not even needing to look at anything to get feedback (I can set the fan speed by ear...), and if I do I can do it without taking my eyes off of the road. I'm controlling the climate control for my comfort, not to hit arbitrary numbers. If I make a quick stop and spend a few minutes out in 110 degree heat, I wanna get in and have ice cold air blasting in my face until I'm comfortable. I don't care if the car is already a chilly 66f inside. If it's -40 outside, I want it to blow heat directly on my feet when I get in until my toes warm up even if the car is already warm. Hell, sometimes if it's too warm in there and my toes are frozen I'll drive around with the heat blasting and a window cracked to keep it comfortable. I shouldn't need to sacrifice my comfort so the manufacturers can continue building shitty and dangerous UIs for basic vehicle functions.
  - vel0city 4y ago
    Anything you do outside of driving your car is then technically distracting you from driving even if only minorly. Sure, it's not massively distracting to reach over and turn some knobs. But is is more distracting than never having to make an adjustment at all.
    - nucleardog 4y ago
      Sure! So we should probably focus on making things people need to do in their car as quick and intuitive as possible to limit the distraction. We put radio controls on the steering wheel to make it easier and safer to do things like adjust the volume. We don't just tell people "set your volume before you get moving and let the speed dependent volume control take over from there".
- speed_spread 4y ago
  I have total control over my car's A/C through 3 rotary dials and can adjust all parameters to my liking without taking my eyes off the road a single millisecond. Doing so also requires much less attention than maintaining a non-important conversation with my usual passenger, who likes to talk a lot.

Volvo and Ford Edge use touchscreens to adjust AC and there is no steering wheel control for it.

by syzar 4y ago

Volvo and Ford Edge use touchscreens to adjust AC and there is no steering wheel control for it.

Changing the AC, even with physical controls, is a distraction from driving. I don't get why anyone drives without it being on auto climate as you're inviting more distractions. If its on auto climate why are you making adjustments while you drive?

uluyol 4y ago
Maybe because its burning hot out and people need high AC to cool down. Or the opposite in cold weather. Or to defrost windshield/rear window. Climate control is a great feature. But it's not perfect, and there are instances where you need to manually override. Just because you don't run into them doesn't mean they don't exist. EDIT: BTW on cars with physical controls all of these things are either button press or dial turn away. I've never had to look at the controls to do these things.
- vel0city 4y ago
  So here's an example. It's over 100F outside, my car is probably 115F inside it at the moment. Setting my car to 70F inside instead of it's current 72F won't make it cool any faster. Even setting it to it's "LO" setting won't make it cool any faster. The AC compressor is either on or off. The car will set the fan speed to it's best possible speed to cool the car as fast as it can regardless of it being 72 or 70 or 68. Me adjusting things manually won't make the compressor work harder or make the car cool faster. There's zero benefit for me to touch the AC controls. The car knows it's hot. The car knows how I want it. It will do what it can to get it to that target temp. Me doing anything will just result in more distraction away from actually driving the car.
  - kipchak 4y ago
    Wouldn't it engage a heavier fan speed if there was a smaller disparity in temperature? For example if it's 75 in the car and I'd like it to be 72 turning the AC down to 70 would engage a heavier fan speed with the downside of increased noise, so practically I would cool down quicker by setting it to 70 and could then adjust back up to 72. But more practically, if I start catching a lot of sun from the window I might want to go from 72 to 70 to compensate, even if the cabin temperature is more or less the same.
    - vel0city 4y ago
      The car knows how intense the sun is. It has sensors to measure that. Coupled with some decent low emissive tint it's really not hard for it to handle such an idea. I live in Texas. I assure you I live in an area with high heat and intense sun. My cars have glass roofs. My cars seem to handle it fine.
      - kipchak 4y ago
        Perhaps it depends on complexity of the system? I like in Florida and have to do some tuning occasionally, but I think it just has a typical in cabin and ambient sensor and isn't aware of how much sunlight there is.
        vel0city 4y ago
        If it has a screen it probably knows how bright it is as it can probably change between night and day modes. If it can tell it's bright, it can guess you're getting more radiant heating. It's been like that on every car with a screen built in that I've owned, more than a decade of model years.
  - _carbyau_ 4y ago
    Alternately, I don't care about he speed of change. That blazing sun shining on you via radiation directly feels different than if the sky is overcast. I want to easily tweak the temp to account for my personal comfort. I don't care about the temp of the air except as an input to helping me be comfortable. I don't want to have to start and then sit in my car idling to wait until it gets to temp only to find out I want a little more or less.
    - vel0city 4y ago
      I don't experience much difference. Low emissivity tinting does wonders to make you more comfortable. I even have glass roofs on my cars and it really doesn't make that much of a difference in comfort in my car. On top of that, my cars also know how intense the sun is. It wouldn't surprise me if that's also an input to the climate control.
      - _carbyau_ 4y ago
        I have a 10+ year old car. I don't expect to update it until 2030 at least. I guess I'll get to try out this tech then.
nucleardog 4y ago
What kinds of cars you driving that are making the process that distracting. I have three giant knobs inches away from my gear lever to control the climate. Climate control status is on a screen just below line of sight to the road. I'm moving my hand a few inches and generally not even needing to look at anything to get feedback (I can set the fan speed by ear...), and if I do I can do it without taking my eyes off of the road. I'm controlling the climate control for my comfort, not to hit arbitrary numbers. If I make a quick stop and spend a few minutes out in 110 degree heat, I wanna get in and have ice cold air blasting in my face until I'm comfortable. I don't care if the car is already a chilly 66f inside. If it's -40 outside, I want it to blow heat directly on my feet when I get in until my toes warm up even if the car is already warm. Hell, sometimes if it's too warm in there and my toes are frozen I'll drive around with the heat blasting and a window cracked to keep it comfortable. I shouldn't need to sacrifice my comfort so the manufacturers can continue building shitty and dangerous UIs for basic vehicle functions.
- vel0city 4y ago
  Anything you do outside of driving your car is then technically distracting you from driving even if only minorly. Sure, it's not massively distracting to reach over and turn some knobs. But is is more distracting than never having to make an adjustment at all.
  - nucleardog 4y ago
    Sure! So we should probably focus on making things people need to do in their car as quick and intuitive as possible to limit the distraction. We put radio controls on the steering wheel to make it easier and safer to do things like adjust the volume. We don't just tell people "set your volume before you get moving and let the speed dependent volume control take over from there".
speed_spread 4y ago
I have total control over my car's A/C through 3 rotary dials and can adjust all parameters to my liking without taking my eyes off the road a single millisecond. Doing so also requires much less attention than maintaining a non-important conversation with my usual passenger, who likes to talk a lot.