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> Old man shouting at clouds? Reasonable person reacting to insanity? I believe there's a small but growing market for "dumb" tech. Unfortunately there aren't

> Old man shouting at clouds? Reasonable person reacting to insanity? I believe there's a small but growing market for "dumb" tech. Unfortunately there aren't really many options for cars that I'm aware of. I suspect a quality-but-stupid display company is incubating somewhere, just waiting to nail manufacturing.

tivert 3y ago
> I believe there's a small but growing market for "dumb" tech. Unfortunately there aren't really many options for cars that I'm aware of. I suspect a quality-but-stupid display company is incubating somewhere, just waiting to nail manufacturing. I'm pessimistic. The product would be too niche. The problem is twofold: 1. Experts who have the users best interests at heart have bee disempowerd by business-culture and technological change (opening up new avenues of customer exploitation that were previously impossible). 2. A lot of these issues are technical and hard to understand by the average consumer. Furthermore consumers have been trained over the last few decades to put up with a lot of crap. Even if a individual consumer doesn't like something, it will be a vague feeling or a gotcha that happens long after purchase. And what choice are they given by the market? Usually none (e.g. all the copycatting). Just as an example of how terrible the market can be: I understand the quality of many household appliances has fallen through the floor over the last few decades: they break more quickly, more expensively, and are harder to repair. To enable that, many of the major players own so many brands that even a totally unsatisfied consumer is likely to be a repeat customer, even of the exact same model they hate (e.g. have a terrible experience with a Whirlpool washer, then swear off the brand and end up buying a Maytag, which is literally a restyling of the same exact model).
- flir 3y ago
  There might be a market for ripping that crap out, though. The car has to continue working without ambient data, because it won't always have ambient data. So just metaphorically (or literally) rip out all its antennae.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 3y ago
  Even if, IF a company started selling a basic dumb reliable car AND it became popular and people started buying it THEN it would only be but a brief moment before the MBAs came it to ruin it and enshittify that car too. I see no stable market place for good basic reliable (and easily repairable) automobiles. Any attempt to do so either: won't happen to begin with, be unsuccessful because it won't induce perceived status like a giant F150, or will eventually turn into the thing it was originally designed to subvert.

tivert 3y ago

> I believe there's a small but growing market for "dumb" tech. Unfortunately there aren't really many options for cars that I'm aware of. I suspect a quality-but-stupid display company is incubating somewhere, just waiting to nail manufacturing. I'm pessimistic. The product would be too niche. The problem is twofold: 1. Experts who have the users best interests at heart have bee disempowerd by business-culture and technological change (opening up new avenues of customer exploitation that were previously impossible). 2. A lot of these issues are technical and hard to understand by the average consumer. Furthermore consumers have been trained over the last few decades to put up with a lot of crap. Even if a individual consumer doesn't like something, it will be a vague feeling or a gotcha that happens long after purchase. And what choice are they given by the market? Usually none (e.g. all the copycatting). Just as an example of how terrible the market can be: I understand the quality of many household appliances has fallen through the floor over the last few decades: they break more quickly, more expensively, and are harder to repair. To enable that, many of the major players own so many brands that even a totally unsatisfied consumer is likely to be a repeat customer, even of the exact same model they hate (e.g. have a terrible experience with a Whirlpool washer, then swear off the brand and end up buying a Maytag, which is literally a restyling of the same exact model).

flir 3y ago
There might be a market for ripping that crap out, though. The car has to continue working without ambient data, because it won't always have ambient data. So just metaphorically (or literally) rip out all its antennae.
Eddy_Viscosity2 3y ago
Even if, IF a company started selling a basic dumb reliable car AND it became popular and people started buying it THEN it would only be but a brief moment before the MBAs came it to ruin it and enshittify that car too. I see no stable market place for good basic reliable (and easily repairable) automobiles. Any attempt to do so either: won't happen to begin with, be unsuccessful because it won't induce perceived status like a giant F150, or will eventually turn into the thing it was originally designed to subvert.