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: 2) by toddestan on Friday April 13 2018, @01:03AM (1 child)
I'm guessing you've never rented a Buick Cascada then?
(Score: 3, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Friday April 13 2018, @03:36PM
I rented a Buick SUV for our summer vacation last year. When pairing with my android for Carplay the infotainment system crashed and I had to restart the car to reboot it. It did successfully pair Bluetooth with my SO's iPhone 6 and we could make calls, but streaming Pandora was glitchy. We turned it off and just used a BT speaker instead.
My big annoyance with this car was you couldn't turn down the radio when in reverse. Sit down, fasten seat belt, start car, place in reverse, bluetooth connects to the iphone, starts blaring the first song alphabetically on it, f*** THAT'S LOUD, but I can't turn it down. Car in park, wait 5 seconds for the backup camera to turn off, and now I can turn it off.