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How is a manual glovebox latch more expensive than an electronic latch? I think there must be consumer demand for this feature. Oh how luxurious it must feel t

How is a manual glovebox latch more expensive than an electronic latch? I think there must be consumer demand for this feature. Oh how luxurious it must feel to never have to use a manual latch unlike the unwashed…

jimmyswimmy 4y ago
It's not. But at the margin it is. If you already have a touch screen display then adding a button costs next to nothing on a per car basis. And there are a ton of solenoids in cars so they can probably reuse one and save the cost of the manual latch. Not to mention the Apple-esque design ideals that eradicated headphone jacks. You now have a cleaner looking passenger side of the dashboard. None for me, thanks.
- williamcotton 4y ago
  Auto-manufacturers are still buying manual latch mechanisms in bulk as well for their non-luxury cars. A demand for Apple-esque design seems more plausible!
  - fomine3 4y ago
    Or say, most manufacturer want to be like Tesla
mceachen 4y ago
> there must be consumer demand for this feature That’s assuming competence. Design that follows consumer demand requires actual research work performed by the design team. It’s much easier for product designers to simply follow the design decisions of the “market leader. It’s what their higher-ups may even be requesting or requiring. This pattern explains such user-hostile decisions like the loss of headphone jacks, or curved glass displays that distort edge pixels and don’t accept glass screen protectors. Or car maker’s trend to remove tactile controls with a laggy, convoluted touchscreen UX.
- autoexec 4y ago
  > This pattern explains such user-hostile decisions like the loss of headphone jacks, or curved glass displays that distort edge pixels and don’t accept glass screen protectors. Or car maker’s trend to remove tactile controls with a laggy, convoluted touchscreen UX. Curved glass displays cause phones to break more often which sells more phones, removing headphone jacks encourages users to leave bluetooth enabled which is used for data collection and tracking. People are making money from those design choices (at our expense), but who is making money by removing tactile controls and burying their functions behind menus? The screens and OS are there either way.

jimmyswimmy 4y ago

It's not. But at the margin it is. If you already have a touch screen display then adding a button costs next to nothing on a per car basis. And there are a ton of solenoids in cars so they can probably reuse one and save the cost of the manual latch. Not to mention the Apple-esque design ideals that eradicated headphone jacks. You now have a cleaner looking passenger side of the dashboard. None for me, thanks.

williamcotton 4y ago
Auto-manufacturers are still buying manual latch mechanisms in bulk as well for their non-luxury cars. A demand for Apple-esque design seems more plausible!
- fomine3 4y ago
  Or say, most manufacturer want to be like Tesla

mceachen 4y ago

> there must be consumer demand for this feature That’s assuming competence. Design that follows consumer demand requires actual research work performed by the design team. It’s much easier for product designers to simply follow the design decisions of the “market leader. It’s what their higher-ups may even be requesting or requiring. This pattern explains such user-hostile decisions like the loss of headphone jacks, or curved glass displays that distort edge pixels and don’t accept glass screen protectors. Or car maker’s trend to remove tactile controls with a laggy, convoluted touchscreen UX.

autoexec 4y ago
> This pattern explains such user-hostile decisions like the loss of headphone jacks, or curved glass displays that distort edge pixels and don’t accept glass screen protectors. Or car maker’s trend to remove tactile controls with a laggy, convoluted touchscreen UX. Curved glass displays cause phones to break more often which sells more phones, removing headphone jacks encourages users to leave bluetooth enabled which is used for data collection and tracking. People are making money from those design choices (at our expense), but who is making money by removing tactile controls and burying their functions behind menus? The screens and OS are there either way.