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When I went car shopping recently, I was amazed by the autonomous technologies in most new models: automatic lane-keeping, braking to avoid collisions and parallel parking, for example.
But I was appalled by the state of dashboard technology. Technology sells, so car companies are all about touch screens and apps these days. Unfortunately, they're truly terrible at designing user interfaces (UIs)—the ways that you, the human, are supposed to interact with it, the car. A good user interface (a) is easy to navigate, (b) puts frequently used controls front and center, (c) gives clear feedback as you make a change and (d) is apparently beyond the capabilities of today's car companies. I asked my Twitter followers to help me nominate the World's Worst Car UI Designs—and I was flooded with responses.
Source:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/automobile-dashboard-technology-is-simply-awful/
Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
(Score: 5, Funny) by SomeGuy on Thursday April 12 2018, @11:46AM (5 children)
You are supposed to read them BEFORE you start driving.
Yes, most people just want to sit down and start driving. Having controls labeled in proper English makes a quick dashboard scan nice and easy. Stupid symbols means looking everything up in a manual.
Voice capability for input and output?!?!? Brilliant idea. Thanks for forbidding hearing impaired people from driving.
In the USA you have to be able to read English in order to read road signs. It is a basic safety thing.
Then again at the rate things are going, in 20 years the new revised road signs will no longer read "Atlanta 20 miles", but instead have a blue LED back lit symbol of a penis followed by a wavy symbol that means "it still be a ways further"
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @12:49PM (1 child)
in 20 years the new revised road signs will no longer read "Atlanta 20 miles"
These signs are obsolete. What could you possibly need them for? Your GPS system will tell you exactly how far it is to your exact destination; signs telling you the distance to some arbitrary point inside a city that you aren't going to anyway isn't useful, and is just a waste of taxpayer dollars.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @01:59PM
Get back with us when Gay Positioning System navigation become mandatory in both new and old cars and other vehicles. Then perhaps you will have a point.
"Turn left in to river". *Splash*.
Some of us like to know where we REALLY are and not rely on some overcomplicated corporate dreck.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @02:06PM (2 children)
Even better is the manual sometimes doesn't even have the right symbols in them because they make the same manual for several different models that have minor differences. Then sometimes the way they label the symbols is ambiguous. Even better is how bad some of the English in some manuals.
And this will go wrong for people who accidentally activate it while having a conversation while driving. Or when it accidentally activates because it thinks it hears something and ends up being a distraction
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday April 12 2018, @04:37PM
Or the kids and "friends" having heated arguments from the back seat on the choice and volume of the music, temperature and fan speed, and turning on the wipers because they don't like water drops.
Enough people get into arguments with the front passenger, I'm pretty sure we don't want to give access to the primary controls to everyone in the car.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @06:08PM
Me: drives my old non-voice trollmobile up next to a voicecarfag and rolls down window:
"Excuse me sir, do you have any GreyHEY, CAR, DRIVE OFF OF CLIFF!"
Zooooom... BOOM!
Lols.