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I'm driving a dumb car. It's getting old, showing its age, opens by putting a physical key into the door. It has like zero annoyances (except f'ng over the clim
by stinos 3y ago
I'm driving a dumb car. It's getting old, showing its age, opens by putting a physical key into the door. It has like zero annoyances (except f'ng over the climate I guess). It has buttons. It has a radio with buttons I can control without having to take my eyes fo the road. The radio is probably the most sophisticated piece of electronics in it, gladly connecting with everything sensible because it has a line-in jack. tldr; the car plainly and simply just works and is a tool with an awesome utility value for me (especially nice is that given the age we don't care at all anymore about scratches, so I can literally throw my bike in and not care).
Now, the sad thing is: this should be normal. And 20 years or so ago, this would have been just a normal car amongst most others. Today, compared with cars like the one in OP's rant, it's as if my dumb cheap ugly car is a feature for behaving the way it does. The other sad thing being that a lot of people don't seem to realize this. Like, waiting for your trunk to close is somehow a good thing. I'll probably won't get a car anymore when this one breaks down (yes, I know I'm lucky I can get away with that, stil..). I don't want to feel getting annoyed and dumbed down by something which should be my tool, not the other way around.
- 303uru 3y agoI'd love to be car free again, I spent 5-ish years exclusively riding my bike and I miss it like crazy. I had a 95 Camry that I loved to death until it died spectacularly on I70 outside of Vail. Then I had an Audi RS3 that was fun to floor from time to time but otherwise annoyed the hell out me. The tech was absolute crap, everything was overly complicated, just annoying. I now has a Model 3 and despite having the most tech of them all, it does it astonishingly well. I have all the climate controls set to auto and I have not touched them in three years. The car preheats/cools at a set time every morning so when I get in with the kids it's comfy. I never think about gas or maintenance. I don't even need to remember to grab a key. You literally get in with your phone in your pocket, put it in drive and go, using only one pedal to drive. In the weirdest way it's the best dumb car I've driven (and I was a freelance automotive reviewer reviewing 2-3 cars a week for almost 10 years).
- stinos 3y agoThanks for this alternative view on things, makes me realize even more it's not the tech per se which is the issue, but the way it is executed.