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Cars can have three separate networks for infotainment (radio, navigation, etc), body controls (seats, lighting, locks) and mission-critical stuff (steering, br

by romaniv 11y ago

Cars can have three separate networks for infotainment (radio, navigation, etc), body controls (seats, lighting, locks) and mission-critical stuff (steering, breaks, engine). Some of them actually do. There is little genuine need to send commands from low-importance networks to high-importance networks. Yes, you would have to live without single uber-control touchscreen, but it's not really that big of a limitation: you simply need separate controls for low-importance and high-importance things.

rodgerd 11y ago
Then HN would be full of people sneering at the terrible car UI and demanding the Apple of cars come along and disrupt cars.
- mattwad 11y ago
  I rent cars often, I really dislike the ones w/a giant touch-screen on the front and nothing else. To me it's a gimmick and totally unsafe, since I have to look at the screen to do anything on it, sometimes repeatedly if it didn't recognize my touches. So they often end up duplicating all controls on the steering wheel, how is that 'good design'? Last car I had (Kia Forte) was actually very pleasurable... they had a very helpful digital display but all the adjustment could be done w/real buttons.
- Silhouette 11y ago
  The parts of car UIs we're talking about are mostly awful anyway, and on several different levels. They have basic design flaws like using naff graphics, which neither look good nor supply information more effectively than simpler alternatives, and using non-tactile controls like touchscreens or fully circular rotating dials. Hopefully by now everyone knows the dangers introduced by most of the mobile communications systems in modern cars. The direct control interfaces in a car that tend to be very well designed and implemented are the basic movement controls like the steering wheel and pedals. These are distinctive and immediately recognisable. They work predictably and after proper driver training they become very intuitive. Drivers in an emergency can often still manage to swerve or brake to avoid a collision, and that is the level of user friendliness you want when you're in control of multiple tonnes of fast-moving death machine. Other parts of the interface that modern cars tend to do very well are all the subtle behaviours behind those controls: the power steering that adjusts so it "feels right" at any speed, the independent driving and braking of different wheels so the simple pedal controls don't unnecessarily spin the wheels if you try to move off with too much gas but do retain control without skidding unnecessarily if you brake and steer at the same time in an emergency. And of course there are a raft of safety systems in modern cars, some fully automatic, but some giving subtle cues to the driver to help them predict and hopefully avoid dangerous situations earlier. But these so-called infotainment systems, and radios, and communications systems, and satnavs, and fancy environmental controls... Most of these are just awful, and sneering at them is entirely fair and justified right now, so separating them from the essential controls that keep the vehicle operating properly and safely should really be no problem at all.

by romaniv 11y ago

rodgerd 11y ago

Then HN would be full of people sneering at the terrible car UI and demanding the Apple of cars come along and disrupt cars.

mattwad 11y ago
I rent cars often, I really dislike the ones w/a giant touch-screen on the front and nothing else. To me it's a gimmick and totally unsafe, since I have to look at the screen to do anything on it, sometimes repeatedly if it didn't recognize my touches. So they often end up duplicating all controls on the steering wheel, how is that 'good design'? Last car I had (Kia Forte) was actually very pleasurable... they had a very helpful digital display but all the adjustment could be done w/real buttons.
Silhouette 11y ago
The parts of car UIs we're talking about are mostly awful anyway, and on several different levels. They have basic design flaws like using naff graphics, which neither look good nor supply information more effectively than simpler alternatives, and using non-tactile controls like touchscreens or fully circular rotating dials. Hopefully by now everyone knows the dangers introduced by most of the mobile communications systems in modern cars. The direct control interfaces in a car that tend to be very well designed and implemented are the basic movement controls like the steering wheel and pedals. These are distinctive and immediately recognisable. They work predictably and after proper driver training they become very intuitive. Drivers in an emergency can often still manage to swerve or brake to avoid a collision, and that is the level of user friendliness you want when you're in control of multiple tonnes of fast-moving death machine. Other parts of the interface that modern cars tend to do very well are all the subtle behaviours behind those controls: the power steering that adjusts so it "feels right" at any speed, the independent driving and braking of different wheels so the simple pedal controls don't unnecessarily spin the wheels if you try to move off with too much gas but do retain control without skidding unnecessarily if you brake and steer at the same time in an emergency. And of course there are a raft of safety systems in modern cars, some fully automatic, but some giving subtle cues to the driver to help them predict and hopefully avoid dangerous situations earlier. But these so-called infotainment systems, and radios, and communications systems, and satnavs, and fancy environmental controls... Most of these are just awful, and sneering at them is entirely fair and justified right now, so separating them from the essential controls that keep the vehicle operating properly and safely should really be no problem at all.