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> old car that doesn't have a screen (well, it does, but didn't come with a GPS built in I used to pick up and deliver lease cars from/to customers, and I'll n

by brnt 4y ago

> old car that doesn't have a screen (well, it does, but didn't come with a GPS built in I used to pick up and deliver lease cars from/to customers, and I'll never forget the Audi which had navigation, but no screen! There was a two line text display, which would show textual directions. It was an interesting experience!

mywacaday 4y ago
I bought my 2009 Audi in 2014, it was missing some new roads and updates in my area, I approached the dealer about an update, they wanted €250 for the disc and €250 for the license key.
globular-toast 4y ago
Yeah, VAG cars totally support having navigation with no screen! It seems quite funny by today's standards, but I guess the idea is it's like having your passenger navigate and read directions to you.
DaiPlusPlus 4y ago
A two-line text display is still a screen. My dad's early-2000s Peugeot 407 also had a similar set-up: a red/orange monochrome dot-matrix display, with a surprisingly hot backlight, capable of displaying only the most rudiminary of roundabout diagrams and now-and-next directions. It did use TTS to pronounce street names with the wrong inflection and an overemphasis on "yAAARds" as units-of-distance for some reason. It was controlled by an easy-to-lose infrared remote-control D-pad: entering an address meant picking each letter one-by-one from an A-Z list until it could autocomplete the street name. I was always envious of kids whose parents had contemporaneous Mercedes with their full-color 3-4" LCD screens - until they'd told me of how bad UX was across the board: stuff like sub-usable frame-rates, overpriced map-data updates, etc - and this never got better over time until Tesla showed-up with 17" full-screen 60fps Google satellite imagery right there. And still the rest of the car industry doesn't "get" good UX. Le sigh. (Yes, I drive a Model X and I'll decide the next car I buy squarely on the car's software UX - because if they can't get something as simple as smooth framerates right then what else are they getting wrong in the car?)
- genocidicbunny 4y ago
  (Gonna be the lightning rod of hate here for a moment) > And still the rest of the car industry doesn't "get" good UX. Le sigh. Imho, a giant 17" touchscreen that replaces most physical controls in a car is also not good UX for a car. Why do you need high-res satellite imagery of your route on a screen in the center of the car? Just look out the window! I'll grant that most other manufacturers also do a poor job of a lot of the UX elements, but Tesla ain't the great saviour either.
  - DaiPlusPlus 4y ago
    > Why do you need high-res satellite imagery of your route on a screen in the center of the car? Just look out the window! Because it’s incredibly useful. It means you can navigate dirt tracks. See over treeelines. Judge the quality of parking lots. Find out what side of the building the driveway or entrance is on. Etc.
  - mosburger 4y ago
    no hate here - the "replace everything with an iPad" movement of car dash design has been generally, IMO, a horrible change. When driving, you need tactile feedback when adjusting things like the cabin temperature so that you can keep your eyes on the road. Replacing knobs with GUI sliders on a screen that you have to see to manipulate is a step backwards. I would love it if auto manufacturers came to their senses and went back to old-fashioned knobs and buttons, but I suspect that just sticking everything on a screen is cheaper to manufacture and maintain, so I won't hold my breath. :(
    - DaiPlusPlus 4y ago
      I agree entirely. Heterogenous (I.e. distinctly shaped) physical controls are essential for safe driving without taking one’s eyes off the road. …but that doesn’t mean my last car’s abysmal “Ford MyTouch” or “Ford Sync” or whatever they rebrand it’s as was ever fit-for-purpose. How can a UI that can’t render faster than ~5fps be considered acceptable by the world’s leading carmaker? Where is the pride in their work?

by brnt 4y ago

mywacaday 4y ago

I bought my 2009 Audi in 2014, it was missing some new roads and updates in my area, I approached the dealer about an update, they wanted €250 for the disc and €250 for the license key.

globular-toast 4y ago

Yeah, VAG cars totally support having navigation with no screen! It seems quite funny by today's standards, but I guess the idea is it's like having your passenger navigate and read directions to you.

DaiPlusPlus 4y ago

A two-line text display is still a screen. My dad's early-2000s Peugeot 407 also had a similar set-up: a red/orange monochrome dot-matrix display, with a surprisingly hot backlight, capable of displaying only the most rudiminary of roundabout diagrams and now-and-next directions. It did use TTS to pronounce street names with the wrong inflection and an overemphasis on "yAAARds" as units-of-distance for some reason. It was controlled by an easy-to-lose infrared remote-control D-pad: entering an address meant picking each letter one-by-one from an A-Z list until it could autocomplete the street name. I was always envious of kids whose parents had contemporaneous Mercedes with their full-color 3-4" LCD screens - until they'd told me of how bad UX was across the board: stuff like sub-usable frame-rates, overpriced map-data updates, etc - and this never got better over time until Tesla showed-up with 17" full-screen 60fps Google satellite imagery right there. And still the rest of the car industry doesn't "get" good UX. Le sigh. (Yes, I drive a Model X and I'll decide the next car I buy squarely on the car's software UX - because if they can't get something as simple as smooth framerates right then what else are they getting wrong in the car?)

genocidicbunny 4y ago
(Gonna be the lightning rod of hate here for a moment) > And still the rest of the car industry doesn't "get" good UX. Le sigh. Imho, a giant 17" touchscreen that replaces most physical controls in a car is also not good UX for a car. Why do you need high-res satellite imagery of your route on a screen in the center of the car? Just look out the window! I'll grant that most other manufacturers also do a poor job of a lot of the UX elements, but Tesla ain't the great saviour either.
- DaiPlusPlus 4y ago
  > Why do you need high-res satellite imagery of your route on a screen in the center of the car? Just look out the window! Because it’s incredibly useful. It means you can navigate dirt tracks. See over treeelines. Judge the quality of parking lots. Find out what side of the building the driveway or entrance is on. Etc.
- mosburger 4y ago
  no hate here - the "replace everything with an iPad" movement of car dash design has been generally, IMO, a horrible change. When driving, you need tactile feedback when adjusting things like the cabin temperature so that you can keep your eyes on the road. Replacing knobs with GUI sliders on a screen that you have to see to manipulate is a step backwards. I would love it if auto manufacturers came to their senses and went back to old-fashioned knobs and buttons, but I suspect that just sticking everything on a screen is cheaper to manufacture and maintain, so I won't hold my breath. :(
  - DaiPlusPlus 4y ago
    I agree entirely. Heterogenous (I.e. distinctly shaped) physical controls are essential for safe driving without taking one’s eyes off the road. …but that doesn’t mean my last car’s abysmal “Ford MyTouch” or “Ford Sync” or whatever they rebrand it’s as was ever fit-for-purpose. How can a UI that can’t render faster than ~5fps be considered acceptable by the world’s leading carmaker? Where is the pride in their work?