In contrast, stuff like "airflow toward torso" versus "airflow towards feed" or "both" is stuff where you can either wait to feel it or else glance at the settings during a safer moment. This assumes, of course, they don't do something stupid like have the "current setting" vanish from the screen on a short timer...
It's got buttons. Lots of buttons. It has no touch screen(s).
Some of the buttons include: Multi-tap button to change HVAC vent configuration manually. Dedicated, separate buttons for front and rear defrost (with an LED on the button for each).
And the PWM control for the fan loves slow ramping, apparently as a design intent, which is dumb: It could provide immediate audible feedback to input but instead tends to just loaf around in response to user inputs.
But! It has an automatic mode that really does work pretty well almost always, maintaining comfort for different zones based on a temperature setting for each. So usually, I don't mess with it at all. When that doesn't work optimally (too hot? too cold?), the temperature is adjusted by knobs.
And it also accepts voice commands. Which sounds silly, and perhaps is silly, and I certainly do feel silly using that.
But when the front window starts fogging a bit on the inside on a cold night, I can tap the voice command button on the steering wheel (which is easy to find by feel) and say a command like "Climate control defrost and floor" and it switches to that mode.
I very seldom look at the stupid LCD screen, with its small and nearly-inscrutable blue-backlit hieroglyphs. I change modes with my voice, and I give the temperature knob a twist using muscle memory (though I could use voice commands for that, instead).
It's still perhaps not ideal (and I do have ideas for hacking on the CAN-B network for some hands-off automations to make it work better with even less user input), but it's pretty good.
And if Honda could use voice commands starting ~15 years ago, then any automaker should be able to do so today. The physical parts (the microphone, the CPU grunt, the CAN controls) are broadly already in-place; the rest is just software that can be copied infinitely as new cars roll off the line.
I’m optimistic that the latest progress in AI will fix this when the technology matures in cars. I reckon this is still a decade away though.
And that one voice command is easy-enough to remember, and the resulting manually-selected mode is easy-enough to cancel with the Auto button (which is the entire middle of the temperature knob -- simple enough).
AI is too easy to get wrong.
For example: At home when my hands are full and I'm headed to/from the basement, I might bark out the command "Alexa! Basement lights!"
This command sometimes results turning the lights on or off. But sometimes, it results in entering a conversation about the basement lights, when all anyone really wants from such simple diction is for the lights to toggle state -- like interacting with a regular light switch just toggles state.
I simply want computers to follow instructions. I am very particularly disinterested in ever having conversation -- a negotiation -- with a computer in my car.
But I can see plenty of merit to adding some context-aware tolerance for ambiguity to the accepted commands. Different people sometimes (quite rightly) use different words to describe the end result they want.
That doesn't take an LLM to accomplish, I don't think. After all, a car has a limited number of functions. It should be mostly a matter of broadening the voice recognition dictionary and expanding the fixed logic to deal with that breadth.
I reckon that this should have happened 5 years ago. :)
Nowadays screens are being used as a cost cutting measure. It stands to reason that if an automaker reintroduces more costly physical controls it’s going to be to address the issue of cumbersome controls. Hopefully, anyway.
Now if only VW would resume bringing small cars to North America. I’ve owned a few VWs, I liked them, but I don’t want a big car, much less an ugh truck, but that seems all they offer any more. I suppose the market has spoken.
“Things you can feel without looking …”
Sadly, this refresh seems to miss this point. The photos look like a grid based keyboard on everything, instead of the tactile experience that means your eyes don't leave the road.
The buttons are likely to work better than the touchscreens, and when you look at what you press you'll actuate your intent every time, but you'll still have to look.
I still drive a VW from 12 years ago because it was the last with "old school" buttons and knobs. VW has been pre-marketing this change for several years now, but looks like they'll need a few more before going back to your point.
Sad.
> Now if only VW would resume bringing small cars to North America.
The VW EOS was one of the last hard top convertibles, while also being a small car and practical. The concept needs to exist, yet doesn't seem to any more — another reason for prolonging the useful life of one if you have it!
// EOS retrospective: https://youtu.be/qkU-UP-iTag
https://i.redd.it/ahxh0bmh7ka11.jpg
The first version of autopilot that did anything that could charitably be called navigation wasn't introduced for another 8 years after this car and actual self-driving remains a distant goal 17 years later.
And that Tesla has gear shifter, turn signals, etc. Tesla only went full FU about 2y ago
Also my Tesla drives me to work every day just fine without intervention. I don't think you need unsupervised full self driving for the screen to make sense, and while I didn't have a Tesla 11 years ago I think the vision was clear and a screen with minimal/no buttons was still useful. My point is just that if you're trying to make a so-called driver's car, without regular updates or meaningful self driving capabilities, it makes sense to add buttons so people know where things are while driving. The screen was a logical derivation from the other features tesla was building and incorporating, starting with the screen because it's easy is a mistake by companies like VW/benz/etc in my opinion.
I can't imagine a date significantly earlier than 2009. Musk himself only became CEO in 2008, and 2007 was the second grand challenge.
Also my Tesla drives me to work every day just fine without intervention.
Similarly I don't know the exact date Tesla started talking about FSD/Autopilot, but they've certainly been talking about it for as long as I've been aware of the brand.
Obviously the 2009 prototype has buttons and as I've already mentioned it doesn't have cameras, but the point stands. Tesla has oriented the features and experience in a way where just having a screen makes a lot of sense. VW just added a screen and hasn't made moves to back it up with other features or with similarly involved regular updates. I think it makes sense for Tesla to continue building cars with just a screen, whereas if VW won't take advantage of the screen they should add buttons back, at least in my opinion.
Incidentally, I also wonder if the many checklists pilots need to go through before the plane does anything are strictly necessary. It seems like automating these steps and removing associated buttons may be beneficial to reduce cognitive load and prevent operator error (such as happened with the Air India crash last year).
But "gear shifter"? It doesn't really require a stalk.
When you start, you select either D or R. Not a big deal.
And when you stop, I think most (all?) EVs even automatically go to P and apply parking brakes when you stop.
I think that already covers 99% of driving for 99% of people.
This is also a minor thing, but I also long for galvometer-based speedometers and tachometers. They're charming. You can keep the screens in the cluster, but just give me a mechanical dial and show me the engine RPM at all times even if it's a PHEV.
I'm not a "for the love of the drive" type of fellow, especially after living with an older 6-speed manual for many years, so I'm curious where the enthusiasm for manual comes from.
And, importantly, it's going away. Nearly no vehicles sold in the US are manual because it would be such a small market that it wouldn't be profitable to support it. I don't understand why Corvettes and BMWs don't offer manuals. Are they trying to offer engaging driver's cars or not?
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