Featured New safety ratings prioritize touch controls for key driving needs

At one time - Disney had a department that could easily fix VHS players/recorders/2-way Motorola radios besides the usual celluloid playing products. But now we are a disposable society. That said, just finished taking apart our K-Cup coffee maker that gave up the ghost & replaced its pump. But I'm quickly become a fossil from a bygone era.

 

That is depressing.

 

I once paid 50% of the purchase price for an older, espresso machine pump. But my Philips espresso machine has already gone 2x longer than my earlier machines. Less work, easier clean-up, and great espresso.


Bob Wilson

 

We were given a Kuerig that had been left outside and froze with water in it. I took it apart and sealed it all back up. Now we use it daily for coffee for all 4 of us.

 

With multiple users, the Kuerig pods makes it easy to choose whatever beverage one wants. A widower living alone, bulk COSTCO whole beans meets my needs.

It does have a steam/hot water wand if I want to try something else. I used to steamer to prepare cup-o-noodles in the past. Much less overhead and more control. I haven't made dark-chocolate/milk yet but cold weather will be here soon enough. No sugar coco ... yummy.

Bob Wilson

 

you can make a fortune on stuff like that.

 

That is a good observation.

People in the business of selling cars desperately attempt to give people what they want.

People's preferences change over time - so the industry is constantly adapting to keep up with consumer preference.

You would be very hard pressed to find any successful automaker that didn't have a department that was constantly interacting with the Consumer Market to adequately gauge, predict and keep up with Customer preferences - it is a matter of survival for them.

Building $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 ..... vehicles no one wants is not a buisness plan.

 

to me it feels like:

Car manufacturers preferences change over time - so buyers are constantly adapting to keep up with manufacturers’ preferences.

 

I understand how you feel like that.

Building a car is like a high wire balancing act where you are constantly trying to keep from falling while balancing cost, assembly line manufacturing suitability, consumer preference, supplier capability, profit, vehicle sales, industry ratings (JD Power, Consumer Reports etc.), Federal regulations, labor cost etc......

Almost impossible to do and very easy to criticize the process - there is no right way to do all those things and perfectly balance them - it's impossible.

For every person who likes manual controls - there are a couple of younger generation people who like touch screens and for every couple of people who like touch screens there are a couple of others who like voice controls.

Some manufacturers have built cars where you have knobs (tactile controls) + touch screens + voice control and the customer chooses how to interact with the car - but then you have people screaming bloody murder that cars are too complicated, expensive, hard to operate and expensive to repair - there is no winning in the consumer preference, car design/manufacturing game - only compromises that please some and infuriate others.

Some vehicles/car manufactures quietly do a very good job at it - the Camry is probably a great example of amalgamating all the compromises into a highly desired vehicle.

 

I’m a leetle more sceptical about the auto makers motives, the rationale behind their “improvements”.

 

There are also what the majority of people want, and then what a few of us would like.

 

car makers want to make money like any business. there is a trade off between cost cutting and 'what people want'.
i have no idea what people want. i doubt it is the same for everybody though.
watching the way people drive these days, i'd gues that safety is low on the list. at least the safety of others.