There was no need to ever improve upon THIS
There was no need to ever improve upon THIS
Comments
208-
-
Everything after THIS was a mistake.
1985 Nissan 300ZX
-
Oh, that was my first car. Sometimes, the display changed to something weird though, like this:
-
One of my best good mates in school had an 84 200 that we dubbed Tron cause of this awesome setup. Great share, thanks!
-
So fucking cool.
-
85 Subaru XT
-
looks like something from cyberpunk
-
-
I’d argue split climate for the driver and passenger seat is the only important missing innovation.
-
Just point the vents fancyman
-
I somewhat regularly drive 9+ hours and split controls are not really comparable to just pointing the vents. If I am the driver, I need cool air blowing at me to keep me awake and alert. No longer having to compromise with passengers has been a pretty big improvement for a drive that long.
-
While I'm eating sushi, snapchatting, and flipping off that jerk that cut me off?? That sounds dangerous.
-
-
That and the ability to set a temperature that is then automatically maintained.
-
Till one of the 3 in vent temp sensors fails and my AC won't turn on until its replaced but you have to remove the entire dash to access it so it would cost $1500 to change a $20 sensor
-
-
3 zone a/c is also pretty nice. No more "it's too
<exact opposite of what the driver is feeling>
" whining from the back.-
True, but in my experience that’s on a separate console in the back seat.
-
-
-
Hard disagree with this. Climate control has become a must for me since the early 2000s. Set and forget is always better than fiddling with things. And now my current car has three levels of automatic so it doesn't go full blast at the beginning, it's amazing.
-
Automatic AC is good. Having an accident while looking at which part of the touchscreen the finger has to press is straight removed engineering.
-
So, even better argument for auto climate control. Set it once when you first get in your car and are still parked, then leave it. However, yes buttons please. If this meme is about buttons vs touch screen, then I strongly agree with the meme. My vehicle not only has the auto climate, but also it is using buttons. They're stupid capacitive touch buttons that Hyundai has since switched back away from, but at least they're always in the same spot and I don't have to change any screens to access them.
-
My car still has tactile buttons and it's a 2018 model. The reason big touchscreens that do everything are becoming more and more usual is because the people want it
-
-
I wish my wife understood how that worked. She always gets in, and since the engine hasn’t warmed up yet, the heat doesn’t come on, so she cranks it up to 30C.
-
My wife's car is like that, you set it to 72 and it'll blast really hot air or really cold air depending on the outside temperature vs inside. I wish it just blasted 72 degree air. I just always use it in manual mode now so its not constantly switching.
-
Is she still under warranty?
-
Yeah, my gf does something similar, but opposite. She doesn't like it going full blast so she turns down the fan which turns off the auto. I think if she had the version I did she would actually use it correctly.
-
-
-
This should be mandatory by law. Touch screens should not exist in cars for drivers.
-
Cloudyelling.gif
-
-
Por que no los dos?
-
I almost agree with this, but I prefer just one more advancement over this: the thermostat kind. I like to just set the temperature so I don't have to keep adjusting it.
Nothing fancy, no touchscreen bs, just simple knobs. I was perfectly happy with the thermostat feature in my old 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix GT.
-
My new car is a 2025 model, but it's an Indian made Japanese Kei car so the interior is super basic. and it has large, infinitely spinning knobs for temperature and fan strength, and a digital temperature readout. I really like them.
When the temp was cold in the morning but now it's hot, I spin those dials like wheel of fortune to the left and immediately set the AC to cold and fast. No repeated button presses.
The only downside is that it doesn't have one of those knobs for music volume.
-
Not only do those knobs sound awesome to use, but I could see them being cheaper and more reliable as well.
Instead of being mechanically connected to whatever custom parts to direct air flow, it can just be an off the shelf encoder sending a signal to a processor that already exists.
-
-
-
So long as the vents have analog dials that manipulate how much air is coming out. Otherwise I'd have to be pro left/right temperature difference. When it's 100 degrees out side and someone says the AC is to cold it blows my mind
-
There is such a thing as the AC being to cold. When I turn it all the way down in my car it's like being inside a freezer. It legitimately starts to hurt where it blows on your skin after a while. Same with the heat though, it gets so hot that you burn yourself if you touch the vents.
-
I miss my old car where the engine was so small it got up to temp in minutes even in -30 and the airflow was so direct it felt like it was burning your hands if you aimed it right at the steering wheel
-
You know you can adjustt the temperature AND air flow, right? You can blast the air to accelerate to the desired temperature and then dial back on the air flow and temperature to keep the car actually pleasent. I only say this because i have a friend who cranks the heat full blast in the winter and then rolls down his windows while still max blasting the heating! Dude has serious brain worms.
-
-
Lol, yes, automatic vents are only beginning to get good (and are far from prefect).
For me it's def not something you set only once. Witch is a fail by default.
-
When it's 100F or higher, there is no such thing as AC too cold.
-
Wrong. This has no ads. How will I become a tech billionaire if I can't disable your breaks until you watch my ad?
-
To: Driver@Car.com
Subject: Major Alert Notification
Dear
<INSERT NAME HERE>
, It has come to our attention via our sophisticated proprietary carAI system that you and your friend (Brad) were discussing the owner of this CarCompany Inc, LLC and one of you called him a "Poop-Head". In light of this recent conversation, we have disabled all non-essential functions in your car until you send $150 to "President@NeedsMoreMoney.com". If after 90 days this payment has not been received these functions will be permanently revoked until End of Life (Yours or Cars).Sincerely, Probably Elon Musk.
CarAI is a service offered at no cost with a irrevocable revocable license. All data gathers with or without consent are the sole property of CarCampnay Inc, LLC. Subject to Terms and Conditions. May be updated at any time by CarCompany Inc, LLC without notification. Any legal issues are required by Arbitration only within the city limits of Pyongyang
-
I think you mean brakes, but funnily enough both work in this context.
-
I did, but wait how does the other one work?
EDIT: Nevermind, I got it. That's funny. Now I'm happy I can't spell lol
-
-
-
I disagree. I like that I can set my temperature to an exact number and the car will automatically adjust to that temp. We should have stopped there. No need for touch screens. That’s was the holy grail of temperature control.
-
I’d add being able to set a different temperature for the driver and passenger. It’s a godsend for relationships.
-
Some cars even have a separate zone for the rear. However I've only seen that on touch screen models, so they can suck a dick.
I had great fun with it in the back, though. They couldn't see my temp on the touch screen at the front, just that the zones had been split, and I managed to get the two in the front to bicker because the driver thought the front passenger had split them XD
-
-
Hard agree. I came to say the exact same thing.
-
-
Yours is a decade or two past the true ideal. Not pictured: the 5-inch sliding control that mechanically adjusted between recirculated and exterior air and the drivers and passengers pull-knob by the feet that let exterior air flow in directly. A heavenly touring experience.
Also on the one pictured in your post, I find those lit press to toggle ac and def buttons with indicator lights wore out over time and required a ton of force to switch on the cars I've had with them.
-
Spot the roach
-
Ironically, my 2018 Subaru is more mechanical than this. 2/3 dials are mechanical, cable-driven flaps / valve for heat and vent control. Only the fan is an electric dial.
-
Meanwhile in 91:
\
\It's not that I wanna compare high end at the time, it's that this low tech took 20+ years to trickle down to basic equipment for no other reason than extra margins.
But to capture both - automatic climate control & touchscreens - some random 80s Buick:
\ -
I still remember the lever that you described
-
-
I've got an old car and it's still like this. I don't look forward to the day I have to get a new car.
-
Yeah like, all I wish my car had was Bluetooth capabilities but besides that I love my older car.
-
We had to buy a new (used 2022) car after we ran out old car into the ground. The touch screen controls temperatures. There wasn't a single variant of the car that didn't have a giant ass touch screen. It makes me really uncomfortable when the screen no longer works.
There's also some other things that piss me off.
But Some of the pros (and why we accepted that trade off):
- all wheel drive
- fancy sensors when someone is in my blindside
- it opens when it senses the key is nearby.
- heated seats with controls. (Used to bring hot packs because it gets cold here)
- cameras for the rear
- it does that cool thing where it breaks if it senses you might collide. I hated it at first but I'm old now and it saved me once from collision.
Either way, fuck cars and if public transportation was better here, id use that.
-
I would be really uncomfortable with a car where I had to touch a giant's ass to make it go.
-
Kia doing static controls for entertainment and HVAC is a big part of why I bought one.
-
-
Except backup cameras. Everything else is bad
-
Backup cameras are cool but they'll never stay backup cameras. Give manufacturers that screen, and well, if you have it, you've gotta use it
The Sprinter I used to drive for work had a backup proximity alarm that beeped faster as you got closer to walls/cars/etc; it was fantastic. Only downside is I don't know how well it would detect people
-
-
How fast do you want it, how hot do you want it, where do you want it
-
Only missing a night picture with the red LED backlight on
Yes the temp sensor is a worthy addition to the formula. Imagine fiddling with your 80s/90s A/C running on ye olde R-12 to get the temperature right lol.
-
Agree with the addition of a low and high setting. I don't care what the target cabin temp is, if I just got into my car after braving some crazy wind chill I want to be air fried for a bit.
-
-
My honda civic has this perfectly balanced (this is a stock photo):
-
I will say as someone who lives in a cold climate, but that typically likes cooler warm air. It would be nice to sometimes be able to set how cold the air is coming out of the vents and not the temperature I want the cabin to be. But other than that, yeah I think my Honda Civic handles this pretty well as well
-
-
First gen tundra controls really are excellent. They and used mechanical linkages for the diverter and for the hot/cold control. The only problem is the knobs get loose over time and can break or fall off when you accellerate.
-
Lol how hard are you accelerating that you dials fly off
-
They get really loose. While no slouch, these trucks are not world beaters.
-
-
-
Ever notice how social politics got all fucked up when these went away?
-
Reagan.
-
-
However you probably don't miss the manual choke valve, double clutching, hand winded starter crank, or even window cranks.
There was really no golden period of car controls. It went fluidly from one kind of shit to another kind of shit.
-
From 2006-2012 we had decently reliable, simple to operate vehicles, that got not shit gas mileage
-
Yeah, I have a 2012 Civic and I'm keeping that thing until the wheels fall off (assuming I can't reattach them). The only thing I don't have that would be useful is Bluetooth and that's only because they've stopped making phones with headphone jacks. I had a much newer model as a loaner while it was being serviced one time and I fucking hated that thing. The only thing I'd consider trading in for would be a light truck with a full size bed but those don't exist. At least not in USA.
-
I'm currently driving a low-mileage 2012 Mazda 3 that we have owned since new, and it's pretty great. It's a 40mpg hwy vehicle, is fun to drive on the back roads to work manually selecting gears, and I can load 8ft lumber and 10ft pipes into it lengthwise (it's a sedan too, not hatchback) at home depot while the guys hopping back into their shiny $80,000 commuter trucks watch me.
I think I want to replace it with an MX5 one day. Recent Mazda interiors I've looked at seem to have kept a reasonable balance of physical controls along with moderately sized infotainment screens. So maybe a new one could be on the table. We'll see how the next revision turns out.
-
That was also the period when the introduction of tire pressure sensors created brand new issue that people never had before.
-
I dunno. I had an 03 Corolla that had heated seats and electric windows that held on to gas like a camel with water. Best car i ever has
-
Perhaps even a bit later. My 2014 F20 BMW 1-series was still pretty great. The facelift model of the same car I had after that (2017 or so) is the first one that started to include things that annoyed me.
-
-
There was really no golden period of car controls
I'm going to say there was and it was around 2010. Like maybe 2005 until 2015.
The BMWs of the E90/E87 generation that I drove in those years are still the pinnacle of automotive achievement for me. They had all the things I needed and nothing that annoyed me. Anything after that started to include more and more annoying stuff.
-
Yes, this really describes it.
Sure, maybe I would wanna manual choke even today ... but like twice, that's it, just for the fun of it (it wouldn't even work with modern engines anyways).
Also the environment changed, roads, congestion, etc.
You can find great examples from any era.
-
-
Sorry internet, I love the auto climate.
-
My dial has auto on it
-
-
Hard disagree. Physical buttons with a digital temperature and split controls for left and right (and maybe rear as well). Automatic climate control that also does the fans. I had all of this on a car in 2010, and it was perfect - I could just leave the temperature set at what I wanted all the time, and the fans would blow hard if it needed to heat or cool significantly to get there.
Some manufacturer's, eg Volvo, don't automatically adjust the fans, which is wank. But nothing is as wank as touch screen controls - I fucking hate it when you're trying to aim at a button, then as you go in to press the car bumps and you completely miss.
-
This works well and it's not a hill I'll defend but automatic control of temperature is better when it's done well. In the UK we have a culture of driving cars with manual transmission and I've never understood it when automatic transmissions exist and are pretty good. People wanna feel like they are in control of stuff.
-
Well, as a kid I thought by the time I'll do my driver's license there will be no more manual transmissions around.
Turns out, automatic is just still way more expensive to buy AND, as I recently learned, crazy expensive in maintenance.
-
Not sure about the UK, but I know Germany likes manuals because they last longer when you have a lot of hills and mountains.
-
-
I still have this. I can adjust all of it without ever looking at knobs while driving. Good luck doing that with touch bs.
-
That has 5 moving parts, while a touchscreen has none. It's much easier and cheaper for the manufacturer to install the touchscreen. But instead of passing the savings to you, they probably keep it or pass it on to investors.
-
But the touch screen comes with a price you pay for the UI development which is not a small amount. So while installing it might be cheaper, in the end I would argue it's more expensive.
-
The screen could well be more expensive than the dial parts, but installation would be cheaper, so we'd need the numbers. The thing about software is that it's very expensive to make but selling price is as low or high as you need it to be.
-
-
Exactly.
Each of those knobs needs an injection mould, each switch behind it a supply chain. Iterating on digital design is far cheaper as well.
It's far cheaper to use what are effectively 10 year old tablets in the cheaper cars. Since LCDs are being mass manufactured for other things that likely get a nice economy of scale.
-
Be nice if those savings were passed on....
-
-
Or worse, they charge extra because the touch screen is a luxury product.
-
That depends on what badge they put on the hood. They might market a screen as luxury, but the fact is I much prefer dials myself so I'd consider dials to be luxury and I'd actually pay more for dials.
-
-
-
Honestly. I prefer my current EVs AC. I have set it to 21 degrees when I first got it and I haven't touched it since.
I don't like "more cold" or "more hot" dials. I know what I like, 21 degrees and if the car can keep exactly that? I'm happy.
-
One of my older minivans had a digital thermostat and it was just about the only digital control in a car I can tolerate. Though, I am still doubtful if it was actually the temp I set it to. It's not like I had a thermometer inside the car.
-
-
It's really interesting that I agree with you, but so many people insist that they're new and fancy tools are somehow making their lives significantly better. And obviously it's an opinion question, it's not like they're lying, but I just don't see the value that many of them do.
-
My car has climate control. I set it to 72 degrees once a long time ago and rarely have touched it since.
The fascination with dumb controls in a car is odd to me. It seems like people overshoot the “I want physical controls I can feel my way around without looking” and get into “give me the Flintstones car” lately.
-
-
how hard do you want it? how hot do you want it? where do you want it?
-
One of my knobs broke and to this day, I can't work out how to replace it. Where do you even buy them from??? 🙃
-
Used parts! Junkyards, eBay, whatever. Odds are you'll be able to find a replacement unless the factory knob was super fragile or your vehicle is exceedingly rare.
If your vehicle is vaguely popular it'll probably have a stl (think exported 3D shape) available. In that case I'll print/mail you one assuming you're in the US. If you're not in the US hop over to !3DPrinting@lemmy.world and I'm sure someone will help you out.
-
Wreckers?
-
Yeah, there’s a pick-n-pull in Lakewood that I have recommended to people, even though I’ve never needed it myself.
-
-
Amazon, parts store, junkyard, find someone to 3D print one for you
-
-
It’s true. I hate my touch screen to control airflow in my car. Every time I go to adjust it, it fucks up and I’m distracted while driving.
-
Let me play devils advocate…..
One of my cars has the hvac controls on the screen and it’s usually fine, because it is actually smart. I only need to set the temperature and it remembers that.
For example now that it’s getting cold, I almost never need to touch those controls
- I can preheat through an app (no subscription needed)
- when I start my car, the thermostat is set to 69 (heh heh) where I last left it
- the car goes through a progression: heating steering wheel and seat first, then automatically off when the cabin temperature comes up
- the glaring problem is defroster. Aside from initial heat up I don’t know a good way to switch to that while driving. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be automatic and fails or if there is a shortcut somewhere
-
-
My car is still mainly like this.
It has a touchscreen thing but it's only for the entertainment and it has steering wheel controls as well so there's an alternative to using the screen while driving.
-
I long for the days it was two horizontal sliders. Cold to left, slide to the right the warmer you wanted. Low to the left, slight to the right for high fan. Now it's all this digital horse shit and it takes years of me being bored at red lights to be motivated to explore all the menu drudgery on the console. Now it all has fucking wifi and tracker nonsense too.
-
I have this and I will not change.
-
I wish more companies did this.
The larger temperature controls and the vertically, slightly curved stack make so much sense to me.
-
This must be a Honda Fit interior, right? I still wish I had managed to snag one of those, but they are probably double the price of other used hatches where I am. Ah well.
-
-
My 2018 vehicle has intuitive tactile knobs & buttons. Easy to operate without eyes ever leaving the road. I am grateful.
-
After many such threads I've come to the conclusion that peak car is between 2014 and 2018.
I'm old enough to believe I'll never have to drive something with a touch screen.
I design touch screen UI as part of my job and I can see no argument for one in a vehicle other than GPS, and for that I have my phone.
-
hmm, I'll have to look at that range for my next vehicle.
for my preferred budget, I'm looking at 2010 to 2015, but that's mostly because they stopped making economical wagons after that point (Toyota Matrix and Hyundai Elantra Touring are what I'm looking at)
it seems like even in that year range, once you get above the low cost vehicles, they start introducing shitty tech. but I haven't looked closely enough at things in the last 10 years to see how they've progressed year to year, because frankly it's just more money than I want to spend
-
I'd cap it at 2000.
-
-
'98 and ain't selling
-
-
my '93 MR2 has buttons and a slider. Perfection.
-
Add dual climate control and then I'm with you.
-
I removed about this every time I'm drive anything but my old truck that still has these!
-
Fat disagree. No way. Nope. I have cooling seats in 105 degree weather. Ain't nothing like my balls having a cooking time on the commute home.
-
With the old style set up I just popped a small ice bag under them
-
-
Oh Look at Mr fancy pants here with his working heater in his reasonable priced car!
-
If you truly believe this, replace your home thermostat with the same controls. Live with that shit for awhile.
-
Ok, and?
-
That's a thermostat. The OP image specifically lacks a thermostat
-
-
-
I'm not wealthy enough to own a car that has anything newer than this lmao
-
Oh, there is. I love having a set of controls separate from the passenger side.
-
I have that heater/AC unit
-
Though it is functional, it is ugly.
-
No u
-
-
Never letting go of it.
-
Was it?
I love auto settings, it means much less fiddling/interaction (which is safer).
\ My last manual AC car was from the "previous millennium". Why wouldn't you want to set the temperature?
\ (Physical buttons tho, tho it's hard to get it these days. But even touchscreen climate control should be very low interaction.)Also manual AC usually means no HUD, no adaptive high beams, no radar, etc. Those are essentials that do a lot for road safety, and all were available since mid 90s (high end at the time).
-
Fuck that, give me a thermostat any day of the week.
-
I should do a video on the bad UX in the Mach E.
-
I got similar in my pre-lift BMW E46 and I love it. I had also post-lift E46 with buttons for AC, but I prefer the knobs since no need to look at it while driving.
-
Heated and cooling seats..
Split zones
Heated steering wheels
And so much more..
I swear the online Luddite whining about car tech never ends…
-
All of that stuff is great.
Just don't make me use a touch screen while I'm driving.
-
Bro obviously they're lauding physical mechanical buttons, not condemning useful features. Every single thing you listed can be controlled with manual tactile buttons. The issue that people have is with needless touchscreens and unnecessary digital interfaces.
-
It's not the actual tech, generally speaking, that people are upset about. Although your Luddite reference is probably more accurate than you intended.
The Luddites weren't anti-tech, they were anti- the damage it was doing to the people who did the work.
Most people who hate these new technologies aren't mad at the tech itself, they're mad at the quality that's produced when the only concern is lowering costs and the extractive infrastructure built around it. A monthly fucking subscription for heated seats. This exists now.
The alternative to this is the galaxy brained take: "THESE PEOPLE HATE HAVING A COMFORTABLE ASS WHILE DRIVING"
-
Your being way too generous..
The people that are upset about this are just whining for fake internet points..
-
-
Split zones aren't real, just have one person open their window a crack, thermostats in cars do not work. Heated seats are nice.
-
What are you babbling about?
Split zones are completely real in my vehicles as are the thermostats..
-
-
Heated and cooling seats…"I sit on a small ice bag"
Split zones "all car interiors are too small to have a significant difference"
Heated steering wheels - "I wear gloves on cold days"
-
... I don't think those describe those functions very well.
In cars climate control doesn't work like in a house, where you heat or cool the whole object, it relies on airflow, so ofc you can set significant difference in temperature between zones.
No car AC will overpower the greenhouse effect on a sunny day, it will just just cool the passengers via direct airflow.
-
-
-
I love automatic AC, but I sadly share cars with people who crank the temperature down to below 65*F the second they get into a hot car.
-
My vw passat has that, but the temp control maintains the temperature, so straight up is 72°f
-
It's -5C/23F outside, you hop in the car, winter boots and thermal layers. Your climate control's lowest setting is 16C/61F. You have two options: personal sweaty sauna or drive in your winter jacket with frozen hands.
Other options: blast heat with windows down. Full AC, just get it over with.
-
I always just freeze while the car warms up. Driving with a jacket on is an absolute no-go. I see so many people do it and I don't understand how, it's restrictive and you will inevitably start to bake when the sun hits you.
-
-
RETVRN
-
Yeah, just make them more robust and maybe add more steps between settings.
-
achkually your title is wrong because it was never improved upon.
-
But I don’t think seat warmers came with cars with these controls?
-
Is this post full of boomers? Cause it reads like it's full on Boomer Town here.
-
More like complaining about features no one asked for.
Tactile controls are superior, because they can be used without distraction, and the chance of user error is lower.
Besides, they involve less circuitry and are therefore much more reliable.
There absolutely are great uses for large touchscreens, but car control panel is not one.
-
The next thing will be: I can't toggle my AC because AWS is down.
your seats overheat and get stuck in the most forward position
You're lucky if it lets you start the car.
Are you? I think I would rather a car that doesn't start than a car that doesn't have breaks
Or perhaps, I can’t toggle my AC because I forgot to pay my subscription fee.
You joke, but I literally came across this. I HATE that I had to connect my window unit to the net, but we have a lot of brownouts in the area, and it allows me to restart the AC if I'm away, or else my pups would cook during the summer if it didn't turn on. The AWS outage hit, and I couldn't log in to the app that controls it to turn it on. Luckily, it's not peak summer and it didn't get too warm by the time I got home.
If the brownouts don't last long, you could maybe solve this issue with a moderately priced UPS to keep the AC unit from powering off during the brief moments when power goes out.
There exist air conditioners with power outage recovery, and they've been around for decades. It's usually labelled "automatic restart" on the spec sheet. This was already a solved problem before the Internet Of Shitty Things, and it seems that in your case some rat bastard went around and deliberately unsolved it.
Whoever that person is, we need to find him and give him a smart kick up the rear.
Instructions unclear: AWS is doing fine, but my AC won't shut off until I renew my BMW+ subscription.
You are joking, but I'm pretty sure a few cars could not start or got bricked because AWS went down.
Luckily for me, I don't even know what 'AWS' means.
Amazon Web Services, are huge data centers that many companies rent to run their services.
The other day one of those AWS data centers had issues and temporarly went down so many services didn't work, also because of this many heated beds stopped working properly and over-heated.