Featured New safety ratings prioritize touch controls for key driving needs

I have thought about transplanting my BMW i3-REx drivetrain into a 1960s MicroBus body. But most of the bodies are rust-buckets.

Bob Wilson

 

One of the Michigan amateur radio operators I used to regularly talk to (K8NG) was an industrial psychologist for gm. Those are the psychologists that determine where & what kind of controls are the best to put in - & implement in vehicles for controls so they're quick & easy to discover without distraction. To save money gm gutted the department. He too eventually was laid off. Seemed a case of profit before function.

 

I would redefine that as cost cutting over quality which in the medium term hurts profit margin.

In a rental car quick and easy to discover is important but vehicle price is more important here. For a sale easy to use once learned is more important. I believe the quality issues of the ford system hurt them (voice control and other functionality before it was ready). My brother really likes his Cadillac EV though so maybe GM has worked through many of their issues. I would definitely use UI engineers over psychologists to design.

 

The thing is that most people still feel that touchscreens are a premium future tech. They don't understand that it's cheaper to throw in a screen and design the looks in software than design physical controls.

So the touchscreen prevails.

This is yet another reason why i don't like modern vehicles. The rich, who but new cars, have very different tastes than a poor, used-car owner like me.

 

Yeah, always make me think of trinkets and beads: find a cheaper way, convince buyers it's an improvement, the latest.

As far as I'm concerned, in the eighties they had the ideal heat/vent controls (per first picture in my post #9). No more UI engineers or psychologists needed: the wheel has been invented. For the rest of it, the so-called infotainment system, I don't really care.

 

our kids were brought up on cell phones. the generation following them started in gestation.
i wonder if they care as much as us fogies

 

i'd be happy with a 1970 radio with 5 presets

 

With tuning and volume knobs you just reach over and turn. So quaint...

In an interview, Buzz Aldrin (apollo 11 astronaut) was reminiscing about a NASA project, insanely expensive, to design a pen that would reliably work in zero gravity. Then compared to the Russians: they gave their astronauts pencils.

(He may have picked up on urban-myth, but anyway, good story.)

 

and large enough to work with gloves

 

Funny thing about radio: AM nothing and FM, only one worth listening. On trips, I have hours of bought music albums that I still love to hear and sing along. Or just enjoy the silence of my own musings.

Bob Wilson