SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 3, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Thursday April 12 2018, @03:12PM (4 children)
I rent a lot of cars, and have also made this observation.
The winner of the kitchen sink award has to be the 2017 Ford Focus with the full infotainment system. From the driver seat I could reach 70 different buttons, switches, knobs, levers, and controls.
That _feels_ excessive.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @06:11PM
Sounds like they should rename the car to "Ford Distraction" instead.
(Score: 4, Funny) by VanessaE on Thursday April 12 2018, @08:41PM
"Oh, cut the bleeding heart crap will ya? We've all got our switches, lights, and knobs to deal with, Striker. I mean, down here there are literally hundreds and thousands of blinking, beeping, and flashing lights, blinking, beeping and flashing - they're flashing and they're beeping. I can't stand it anymore! They're blinking and beeping and flashing!"
(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.