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Rivian's Chief Software Officer Says In-Car Buttons Are 'An Anomaly'

4 points by m463 2y ago

gryfft 2y ago
Well, that's me completely done with modern design, then. Honestly, the opening quotes from this guy make my skin crawl. Buttons are simple, responsive, snappy, provide instant haptic feedback, and they're dirt cheap. But no. Let's control vehicles with Siri and ChatGPT. My vehicle's interface really needed more hallucinations.
- marssaxman 2y ago
  Yeah, seriously: I thought Rivian was going to be a more-reasonable rival to Tesla, but apparently they're going down the same tunnel to automation insanity, and just haven't made it stick yet. Will someone build a sane electric car, please? Just a car, not a rolling media/surveillance platform?
  - m463 2y ago
    > I thought Rivian was going to be a more-reasonable rival to Tesla I think he's also forgetting his target market. People I know that are interested in rivian like that it is "normal". It looks like a conventional pickup. Also, I think silence is luxury. and what happens if you're on the phone? or have a passenger? ugh.
anigbrowl 2y ago
“Ideally, you would want to interact with your car through voice." Perhaps this is true for things like turning the air conditioning up and down on boring drives where you fantasize about being Jean-Luc Picard*. I am much less convinced of this for anything where reaction time matters. Every electronic musician I know prefers hardware control surfaces to virtualized ones. Draw your own conclusions. * I think one of the major things Star Trek gets wrong is the representation of HCI. It looks good on screen and makes storytelling easier but creates other problems. Indeed, there are episodes where the computer goes down and highly skilled starship crew are faced with blank screens and must resort o crawling around in utility ducts and hitting things with electronic spanners.
wumeow 2y ago
Touchscreens are popular in modern cars because they’re cheaper than control panels with buttons. That’s it. Bensaid’s comments here are just marketing and rationalization.

4 points by m463 2y ago

Well, that's me completely done with modern design, then. Honestly, the opening quotes from this guy make my skin crawl. Buttons are simple, responsive, snappy, provide instant haptic feedback, and they're dirt cheap. But no. Let's control vehicles with Siri and ChatGPT. My vehicle's interface really needed more hallucinations.

marssaxman 2y ago
Yeah, seriously: I thought Rivian was going to be a more-reasonable rival to Tesla, but apparently they're going down the same tunnel to automation insanity, and just haven't made it stick yet. Will someone build a sane electric car, please? Just a car, not a rolling media/surveillance platform?
- m463 2y ago
  > I thought Rivian was going to be a more-reasonable rival to Tesla I think he's also forgetting his target market. People I know that are interested in rivian like that it is "normal". It looks like a conventional pickup. Also, I think silence is luxury. and what happens if you're on the phone? or have a passenger? ugh.

anigbrowl 2y ago

“Ideally, you would want to interact with your car through voice." Perhaps this is true for things like turning the air conditioning up and down on boring drives where you fantasize about being Jean-Luc Picard*. I am much less convinced of this for anything where reaction time matters. Every electronic musician I know prefers hardware control surfaces to virtualized ones. Draw your own conclusions. * I think one of the major things Star Trek gets wrong is the representation of HCI. It looks good on screen and makes storytelling easier but creates other problems. Indeed, there are episodes where the computer goes down and highly skilled starship crew are faced with blank screens and must resort o crawling around in utility ducts and hitting things with electronic spanners.

wumeow 2y ago

Touchscreens are popular in modern cars because they’re cheaper than control panels with buttons. That’s it. Bensaid’s comments here are just marketing and rationalization.