3 ms·

Allowing Silicon Valley dorks to redefine the established UIs of cars was one of the biggest mistakes of the last 10 years. Ultimately it's cost shaving, but it

Allowing Silicon Valley dorks to redefine the established UIs of cars was one of the biggest mistakes of the last 10 years. Ultimately it's cost shaving, but it spread like a cancer to other manufacturers owing mostly to a TikTok-brained customer base (to their own detriment). It's one of the reasons I refuse to own a new car. Zero reason to hide critical controls behind a touch screen. My daily driver has all tactile controls. I can operate wipers, climate, radio, and all critical functions blindfolded.

roncesvalles 1mo ago
The reason is cost savings. It's cheaper to modify software UI than it is to modify hardware UI.
- szundi 1mo ago
  [dead]
- cicko 1mo ago
  There's no need to modify the hardware UI. It worked fine for decades.
  - spockz 1mo ago
    I heard a very simple explanation from a car engineer involved with setting up the factory pipelines. Each button has a limited life time, each button has a particular chance of being doa, or a particular chance of being fitted badly, some fail prematurely. All of this leads to an increase in “failures” in seperate steps of the manufacturing pipeline, assembly of dashboard, assembly of car, after the car is completed, after it is shipped to dealer, and after the new owner picks it up, during the lifetime of the car. Each of those moments occurs a significantly increased cost of replacing the button. By simply removing buttons and knobs, this source of failure rate goes down and it appears cheaper. It is also the reason behind going from 4 buttons for the windows to 3 (left, right, and a toggle for front/rear) According to him the monetary savings were significant enough to proceed with it. Personally, I wish they wouldn’t. But I believed the numbers.
    - hulitu 1mo ago
      > Each button has a limited life time A button for a car is designed and tested to last 10 years. Software on the other hand...
- andrekandre 1mo ago
  > cheaper to modify software UI at some point, beyond aesthetics, sometimes a function is done and doesn't need tinkering anymore.... especially in something like a car that is 2 tonnes of steel and metal...
- pmontra 1mo ago
  Hardware controls might cost more to develop (do they?) but on the other side they don't get any modification during the life of a car. No need to spend money in updates. Given the long history of those controls they are well understood by the car maker and by the car owners. All my cars have had basically the same controls for turn indicators, lights and wipers. The variations are minimal. I got two cars with cruise control and I had to read the manual once per car (better not to experiment at high speed.) I probably just poked with the levers to understand how to control the radio. However it took me four years to finally make my phone play audio over Bluetooth (calls were OK.) Everybody's else phone was fine. I finally found the right incantation of taps on the touch screen. Luckily very few functionalities must be accessed via the touchscreen, most notably adjusting the time and resetting the tire pressure sensors.
frollogaston 1mo ago
It's probably because they started mandating reverse cameras. Which is great, but any cars without screens suddenly had them. At that point, it was probably cheaper to put the rest of the functionality on the screen.
mrtesthah 1mo ago
This is ultimately a matter of corruption and a failure of government to regulate.
deleted 1mo ago
[deleted]
nxpnsv 1mo ago
Reminder: You shouldn’t drive blindfolded, no matter how well you know your controls.
- boomlinde 1mo ago
  You shouldn't drive blindfolded, but have you given any thought to where your eyes should be pointed while driving?
  - nxpnsv 1mo ago
    I agree with the point, i hate the touch screens, and i think you should be able to control almost everything without taking your eyes off the road. The blindfold made me think of some david blaine stunt.
dzhiurgis 1mo ago
Ironically the most hated car features right now (speed limit warning and lane departure alerts) are designed by government. In fact they are hated so much people are deliberately buying older less safe cars instead.
- hulitu 1mo ago
  > Ironically the most hated car features right now (speed limit warning and lane departure alerts) are designed by government. That's what car manufacturers make you think. Who do you think it (paid) lobby for those features to be mandatory in new cars ?
maxerickson 1mo ago
BMW launched their unified iDrive controls in 2001 (to much controversy).
hulitu 1mo ago
> Allowing Silicon Valley dorks to redefine the established UIs of... was one of the biggest mistakes of the last 10 years. Fully agree

roncesvalles 1mo ago

The reason is cost savings. It's cheaper to modify software UI than it is to modify hardware UI.

szundi 1mo ago
[dead]
cicko 1mo ago
There's no need to modify the hardware UI. It worked fine for decades.
- spockz 1mo ago
  I heard a very simple explanation from a car engineer involved with setting up the factory pipelines. Each button has a limited life time, each button has a particular chance of being doa, or a particular chance of being fitted badly, some fail prematurely. All of this leads to an increase in “failures” in seperate steps of the manufacturing pipeline, assembly of dashboard, assembly of car, after the car is completed, after it is shipped to dealer, and after the new owner picks it up, during the lifetime of the car. Each of those moments occurs a significantly increased cost of replacing the button. By simply removing buttons and knobs, this source of failure rate goes down and it appears cheaper. It is also the reason behind going from 4 buttons for the windows to 3 (left, right, and a toggle for front/rear) According to him the monetary savings were significant enough to proceed with it. Personally, I wish they wouldn’t. But I believed the numbers.
  - hulitu 1mo ago
    > Each button has a limited life time A button for a car is designed and tested to last 10 years. Software on the other hand...
andrekandre 1mo ago
> cheaper to modify software UI at some point, beyond aesthetics, sometimes a function is done and doesn't need tinkering anymore.... especially in something like a car that is 2 tonnes of steel and metal...
pmontra 1mo ago
Hardware controls might cost more to develop (do they?) but on the other side they don't get any modification during the life of a car. No need to spend money in updates. Given the long history of those controls they are well understood by the car maker and by the car owners. All my cars have had basically the same controls for turn indicators, lights and wipers. The variations are minimal. I got two cars with cruise control and I had to read the manual once per car (better not to experiment at high speed.) I probably just poked with the levers to understand how to control the radio. However it took me four years to finally make my phone play audio over Bluetooth (calls were OK.) Everybody's else phone was fine. I finally found the right incantation of taps on the touch screen. Luckily very few functionalities must be accessed via the touchscreen, most notably adjusting the time and resetting the tire pressure sensors.

frollogaston 1mo ago

It's probably because they started mandating reverse cameras. Which is great, but any cars without screens suddenly had them. At that point, it was probably cheaper to put the rest of the functionality on the screen.

mrtesthah 1mo ago

This is ultimately a matter of corruption and a failure of government to regulate.

deleted 1mo ago

[deleted]

nxpnsv 1mo ago

Reminder: You shouldn’t drive blindfolded, no matter how well you know your controls.

boomlinde 1mo ago
You shouldn't drive blindfolded, but have you given any thought to where your eyes should be pointed while driving?
- nxpnsv 1mo ago
  I agree with the point, i hate the touch screens, and i think you should be able to control almost everything without taking your eyes off the road. The blindfold made me think of some david blaine stunt.

dzhiurgis 1mo ago

Ironically the most hated car features right now (speed limit warning and lane departure alerts) are designed by government. In fact they are hated so much people are deliberately buying older less safe cars instead.

hulitu 1mo ago
> Ironically the most hated car features right now (speed limit warning and lane departure alerts) are designed by government. That's what car manufacturers make you think. Who do you think it (paid) lobby for those features to be mandatory in new cars ?

maxerickson 1mo ago

BMW launched their unified iDrive controls in 2001 (to much controversy).

hulitu 1mo ago

> Allowing Silicon Valley dorks to redefine the established UIs of... was one of the biggest mistakes of the last 10 years. Fully agree