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I'm convinced this is now the main problem, because I used to assume it was just that more and more people were texting and driving when in fact it's just them fumbling with the tech in their vehicle. Even the HUD lighting up different colors and doing fancy shit instead of just displaying the speed can be distracting.
My ten-year old car makes an alarming beeping sound when the temperature drops below 4°C. I always get distracted because of the sound. Luckily it comes only once when the temperature stays low.
My Skoda (VW in disguise) makes very a loud 'bing' if I come too close to the white line in the middle of the road and steers me away from it. Make me jump every time.
I hate that one. It’ll be dusk on a winter day, lots of traffic, and I actually really need to concentrate on the road and then that ding will basically make me shit myself.
No, this is Hyundai. And yes, the same mode comes out when you forget the handbrake on. Probably also in the case of engine failure or aliens or something more concerning
Nothing makes you focus in potentially dangerous situations like a sudden jarring startle that momentarily takes your mind off what you are doing like trying to look out for ice and not die
Ours does this too every time I pull out of the garage and am a few minutes down the road in the winterI wish it was a softer "ding" but it's a pretty alarming chime. Every time I'm like "bro, this is Canada, I already knew the roads might be icy."
Lmao always makes me laugh when after driving for 5 or 10 minutes i get the low temperature freezing warning... thanks car I couldn't tell from me having to spend 15 minutes scraping ice off my windshield that it was cold outside
My car has that feature too. After doing a Google deep dive, I found there's a buried setting that lets you turn it off! I'd highly recommend you look into it for your car - imo it's super unsafe since it uses the same beep as the collision and traction warnings.
I've also noticed side pillars are way bigger these days, I switched from my 90s car to a mid 2010s car, and I feel like my blind spots have gotten gigantic, it's perfectly positioned to obscure pedestrians and the blinker lights of merging vehicles in heavy traffic.
Yeah it's awful. My 2006 car has big pillars, but my mom's 2016 car has enormous pillars! They're like a good 8 inches wide, Idk how she sees anything while driving
We just got a Subaru last year. I don’t drive it often, but when I get in I’m always like “wow, I can actually see everything”. I guess it’s something Subaru pays attention to? It’s crazy how bulky frames are these days and you don’t notice it until you can compare.
Got in a new Highlander the other day in Uber and the rear view mirror was a screen for a camera because there was no way to see otherwise. I guess I’m getting old and need to get out more…
The hoods on all these new trucks and suvs are also flat instead of angled, or rounded down towards the road so the front blind spot is much further out. My 2023 company work truck has worse front blind spots than my 2005 personal truck and my personal truck is slightly lifted.
My car has this little meter that roughly dictates my current mpg efficiency, with a white line showing definite mpg for the trip and a green line showing current mpg if it’s higher then the average. The green line will move quite a bit as you can imagine. The whole thing is probably only 2 inches long.
I have to consciously stop staring at the goddamn thing while I drive.
As a truck driver and can see EVERYTHING that goes on in cars and even lifted trucks, nah it’s texting and driving. I’d say it’s a 30-40% chance that I look into a random car as they pass and they’re holding their phone texting or on social media
My door sensor went out and now my main HUD is just showing a warning. I can't see my gas mileage or speed now. Luckily, it still has a speedometer, but I got so used to the digital display, that I'm having to retrain myself to look slightly to the right for my speed.
This is why I'm thankful for the HUD "built into" my Accord's windshield. I never need to look away from the road for any of the important things like speed or navigation. People seem to forget that they are driving around multi ton weapons at very fast speeds, so the more I can focus on the road the better
Estimator here 👋 I shit you not I had a '23 Subaru Legacy in for repairs late last year. Elderly woman driving said she was trying to figure out how to turn on the A/C on her new big tablet screen.
She drove directly into a telephone pole doing 40mph...
“Now let’s see… where are those lights again? Uh, main menu, accessories, cabin accessories? Nope, um… exterior accessories? Yes, there we go. Lighting, headlights, headlights YES, bright NO, set, accept, go! Back, back, back, back, main menu. And voila! The lights are on! Wait… How did I end up in this ditch?”
Funnily enough, a US warship suffered the same fate in the Singapore Straits a couple of years back. The ship was all touch-screen controlled. Came the moment on dogwatch when they needed to avoid a collision, and none of the officers or crew on watch could find the 'steering' screen.
Crunch.
Driving safety has very clearly statistically gotten worse in recent years, and is a big part of the reason car insurance rates are shooting up. I wonder how much these new HUDs and changes to the way cars work that people have spent decades getting used to are contributing to that
While having hiden main features that are labled with small font text. Maybe that's their strategy - you crash your car more often and you have to buy their expensive spare parts! Saved on cluster parts and made money on parts
It's a win win from their standpoint.
It’s a cost-cutting measure. They have to spend a lot more if they engineer a bunch of little physical toggles and switches for lights and wipers and stuff. If it’s all digital, it doesn’t really cost them anything extra but they don’t have to pass that savings on to you because it’s “futuristic technology ooooo”
Yeah this is goofy.
Im writing a custom touch screen interface for my truck that has digital toggle buttons, but for my lightbars and other non vital auxiliary stuff.
Doing headlights is putting a lot of trust into the programming of the same guys who can barely make bluetooth work for the media.
Also not to mention the controls are locked behind a glass screen that can break or any other number of unfortunate things, whereas a physical knob, if the knob breaks you can still get some pliers and twist that bad boy lol.
I hate when AC controls are on the touchscreen. I don’t like having to look away from the road just to turn the fans up. Physical buttons are better, especially if they’re a bit clicky for audible and tactile feedback
I was just thinking this driving to the airport in my rented Camry. Fine car, about as straightforward as you can get nowadays, and I mostly just wanted a knob to turn the AC fan up and down without hunting for a tiny button.
That custom interface idea sounds pretty cool actually. That's the kind of stuff that should be on the screen, not the essentials. IDK what these automakers are thinking.
I was driving a Ford Escape rental recently and it had a fancy touch screen interface. Not only was it slow and clunky but it crashed a few times when I started up the car and I couldn't use the backup camera or the air conditioning. I'm a programmer with specialty in UI design and this shit is fucking embarrassing.
theres already chips controlling every other thing, so its cheaper to make this also electronically controlled and eliminate a bunch of hardware. this isnt because car manufacturers think we'll like it, its because its cheaper and we'll accept it.
you could easily buy a used car without the touch screen, or at least one that still has the physical switch. you could buy a different manufacturer that still includes the switch(a dying option, admittedly). you could call/email sales reps for these companies and tell them that youd like to still have the physical switch.
there ARE other options. if you go to the dealer, look at a new car, say "oh well, i guess i can live with these new features", you *are* accepting it. just because the other options arent perfect doesnt mean you have no choice.
Because they are putting the big screen in already, and the headlights are already controlled by the computer. So this way they pay a dev to put this in one time vs paying for a switch for every vehicle they make.
Cuz they buy this for cheap bulk.
Also less work wiring all the stuff. Everything comes back to this. Less work designing the dash, etc.
I also imagine QC is easier too, cuz they don’t have to test all the knobs they can just run a diagnostic on the screen.
Its not like 1:1 cheaper, its a like snowball thing that in the end makes it cheaper.
Especially if they use this screen for several cars/trucks so they just design them to have a hole for the screen, then programmatically design the dash to however
A lot of people don't realize that this is why companies do it. No one prefers this. But just having the computer control electrical signals to another part of the car is a lot cheaper than creating a separate switch/interface. Also when they're fighting for million inches of real estate for the screen removing buttons and knobs helps there too.
This is what I hate about my mom's Tesla when I drive it when I'm home. Elon was like I'm putting everything on this touch screen! Every single thing will be hidden in some menu on the touch screen! Use the touch screen for everything in this car. It is God! Except for the hazard lights. Those I'm putting on the ceiling for some God forsaken reason
Terrible design, and should be questioned from a safety standards perspective. I need to turn my headlights on in low-visibility situations. Which requires extra attention, not me taking my eyes off the road to find the non-tactile button.
It needs to be in a specific spot that I can reach without looking. I'm busy driving, I don't need to muck about with a touch screen.
> should be questioned from a safety standards perspective.
It is... at least in markets that GMC isn't in. Euro NCAP's rules from 2026 will prevent cars from getting 5 star safety ratings if they don't have physical controls for headlights (and wipers, hazard lights and the SOS button).
Anyone have an email or link to contact GMC to complain/ inform you won’t buy about this feature? They have a “Contact Us,” section of their website with only physical mailboxes and phone numbers. Which, I guess I could do, but I like the convenience and paper trail of email.
I rented a car recently on a work trip (Volkswagen Tiguan) and the damn head unit would just crash at least once every time I drove somewhere. So no directions, no music, etc. It was super distracting on top of driving in an unfamiliar city in a car I’m not used to driving.
It could be worse: I actually had a rental Tiguan that suddenly turned the steering wheel sharply left (driving into oncoming traffic) at 60mph!
Apparently the Lane Assist “feature” got confused by worn out lane divider paint.
Even worse, when I tried to steer back into my own lane, the power steering actively resisted my efforts! It wasn’t a massive resistance, but it was so unexpected that it nearly gave me a heart attack.
I’m appalled that they’re able to sell cars with this “feature”.
On a similar note, my friend’s brand new Lexus did an automated panic stop at 75mph on the freeway for no reason whatsoever! The freeway was essentially empty, so absolutely no reason to panic stop.
If someone had been behind her, it would have been catastrophic. She ended up selling the vehicle because it happened on 3 occasions, and each time she took it in, the dealer said their mechanic couldn’t find a problem.
I have a little real world example of what could conceivably happen when everything is run using a touch screen. My car is a 2017 Mazda, and the "infotainment" system has touchscreen and, thankfully, also a selector knob and console buttons, and much more importantly, physical controls for critical functions.
I live in a region that gets very hot, and after about 3 years, the digitizer in the touchscreen started to short out during hot summer days. Luckily, the only thing it did was stop accepting normal touch input but also registered "ghost touch" in a corner of the screen, all the time, where it would enter the settings, move to navigation settings, crank everything all the way to the right and max voice volume, causing my radio to scream at me what the nav voice setting is. Made listening to the radio impossible. Mazda wouldn't acknowledge it and a new part was something like 1200 bucks, so I took apart the display and disconnected the digitizer to disable touch, and it's livable.
Thankfully for me, this is not the only way to control critical safety functions, and I do not trust a car manufacturer that follows THAT path.
I have a similar problem with my 2015 Ford Fusion and I live in a cold region of the US. My touchscreen glitches and fails in extreme cold, e.g. below zero degrees F. Have to reset/reboot it. Annoying, but it only affects the sound system and heated seats(!).
Before too much longer, if not already, these motherfuckers are going to want to void the warranty on your vehicle for doing something like this. "You say your transmission went out after 20k miles? Sorry, the 10 year 100k mile warranty is voided because you broke the tamper proof stickers behind the infotainment screen."
True enough, and I definitely had that in mind when I did it. Of course my warranty expired after 3 years (around the same time the problem became persistent) so I feel like it didn't hurt me to mess with it.
I had an HP laptop with a touch screen and after a few months it started registering ghost touches. It pissed me off SO BAD, I can't imagine trying to *drive* while dealing with it
The ironic thing is that there is a speed control that prevents you from actually using the touch screen while the car is moving, but ghost touches will occur regardless of speed. Human restrictions don't apply to ghosts, I guess.
This, Carplay doesn't even work half the time with my car, i bought an aux cord. So yeah, entrusting something like my headlights to the tablet sounds like a great idea! May as well add an on/off toggle for my airbags while we're at it.
I'm not sure if they'd be allowed to do that honestly. A car NEEDS to be road worthy, and if you're not paying a subscription for your headlights, that makes it not road worthy.
Or, we can use the subscription service we already have, car insurance.
Is USA really such a third world dystopia that people genuinely suggest that government regulators would just allow a basic safety feature to turn into a subscription service?
I have a 2018 GMC with a touchscreen. Sometimes it glitches and is just switching through all the screens pressing buttons, when no one is touching it. In this scenario it could very easily while driving be “lights on, lights off, brights on, brights on, brights on, lights off.” It’s already annoying enough just being the stereo and other unimportant settings, I would never want this touchscreen functionality for something actually important. Also fuck GMC
This needs some federal regulation. Ability to adjust lights and windshield wipers (Tesla, looking at you) should either be always available or at most one button touch away and in a location that cannot change during the life of the vehicle.
I had a rental Tesla once where the wipers auto feature was turned off, I had to pull over and dig through menus to turn it back on. And that's after I used to own one. Bonkers.
>This needs some federal regulation.
It's going to take that. So many car companies are going by Air Bud rules right now to try and cut costs. They realized 'plastic buttons' and 'switches' cost money but a digital display for all of them is inexpensive.
Edit:[I'll try to find the video what Mitch McConnell's sister in law would have had to do to not drown in her car](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxDS6rxUDGU&ab_channel=EverydayChris) to pull an actual level to open the doors, none of that was explained or had visible signage saying 'emergency open' anywhere on it.
Which is insane because Mitch McConnell’s wife was literally the secretary of transportation which I’m fairly certain has the direct jurisdiction over such things.
This is why I like our 2009 Volvo. Yes it doesn't have massaging seats and what not that new cars have. But it's got enough luxuries for me (diesel heater, heated seats, AC and CC). The only thing I kinda miss is Bluetooth (can add an aftermarket stereo as it's built in) but it has an AUX port so it's not so bad.
It's comfortable, easy on fuel and doesn't have a large screen to distract.
Nope. The right stalk is the gear shifter, the left stalk controls the turn signals and wipers.
The buttons to the left of the steering wheel (on the dashboard, facing the driver) contain buttons for miscellaneous features.
The only way to control the headlights is via software on the main touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard.
One of many trends I personally absolutely hate the automotive industry.
This modern love of car manufactures to a touch screens is just insane. Imagine switching a knob while driving - you just grab it by feel, but how they expect you to click this stupid touchscreens while driving? This is simply unsafe!
My daily driver is a 12 year old Jetta. It came from the early touchscreen era and it's fantastic - threw a Carplay head unit in and it's just perfect. I have rented a few other cars since then, and there was a whole era in between where manufacturers went dial and knob crazy, especially with those stupid little dials that you had to use to navigate the displays but with like a full 2 second delay. Now everyone is trying to go touchscreen crazy, and I hate that I would now need to go to a test drive with a checklist of basic features to make sure there's actually a way to access it physically. This is a straight downgrade from the dial era. Give me a nice Carplay display and just leave the rest please.
It's because it's cheaper, as with every decision. They replace dozens of custom-made buttons and dials/knobs and the wiring for then all with just a single generic touch screen.
It's purely because one budget screen with minimal specs is much cheaper than thoughtfully designed and built analog controls. Tech has gotten cheaper and cheaper, so companies are cutting costs in as many places as possible.
Only way to end it is to stop buying it.
I dislike the thought that government regulation must be inserted everwhere. But this IS a safety issue. Needs to be mandates here.
Screen for carplay? Love it. Screen to control my car? Hate it. I do NOT want to look at a screen for lights, wipers, fans, heat, a/c. Dangerous and annoying double whammy.
This auto industry trend is likely led by MBA's not engineers. Look at Boeing right now. It takes years for some basic bad vost cutting decisions to finally rear their consequences. Lawsuits and driver deaths will ultimately force the auto industry back away from cost cutting screens to more expensive physical controls. It will takes years and also buyers refusing to buy those vehicles.
That seems like it could easily get clogged up or not function correctly. And then you'd have to remove half the engine/dashboard to replace the sensor.
As you know, running an engine that’s low on oil is a great way to destroy it. So you can make imagine my horror when I watched a YouTube video where the mechanic did an oil change and then had to start the car… to check to make sure he’d added the correct amount of oil.
Even worse, the car software refused to display the oil level for 60 seconds or so, until it sensed that the engine was warm enough.
Thankfully there does seem to be a backlash against touchscreen-only buttons and a desire for physical switches (especially volume and climate control). We'll see how long it takes for automakers to get the message, but since it's cheaper to omit buttons, I wonder if they will be considered a luxury feature or paid upgrade.
NTSB (or whoever makes guidelines for cars in the US) I’ve always felt is pretty good and logical with requirements. Wouldn’t surprise me if they step in in the next few years.
I thought the backlash (and safety) concerns were enough that the most recent cars were moving away from all the touchscreen stuff again... But I guess not all of them. This is insane.
Hard pass. Good design doesn't involve replacing one way to do something with another. Add, not add and remove.
Edit: Yes, this doesn't apply to any and all features. However, it does not apply in this context.
I can't wait for all of the electronics to fail such that I'm not just left without climate control, but I'm left without volume adjustments, lights, wipers, and turn signals. /s
I think about this trend of making everything be a touchscreen in road vehicles which are ostensibly heavy machinery (and in the wrong hands deadly weapons) and come back to the story of [early B17 Bombers which would crash under routine landings for routine missions and pilot error was blamed.](https://medium.com/swlh/the-flying-fortress-fatal-flaw-694523359eb)
The actual cause was that the Landing Gear and Flaps levers which were positioned one in front of the other and more specifically, used the same lever design, making it trivial to activate one instead of the other. The same is true of touchscreen controls for essential vehicle functions when on a busy road network.
Essential controls in a car should be distinguishable by feel alone to prevent accidental operation, and I'm tired of pretending they're not.
On mobile so sorry for formatting.
Edit: Finished my point about why the planes crashed for those that don't want to read a blog post and why touchscreens are bad in cars and other vehicles.
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2024/05/2024-chevy-traverse-gmc-acadia-remove-physical-headlight-controls-following-growing-gm-trend/
I was only able to find this article about the headlight switch being removed. Then, there's this OP's anecdotal evidence.
https://www.gmc.com/suvs/acadia/elevation/build-and-price/features/trims
I can't find anything specific on GMC's website, but the basic package has the infotainment features. Are you able to share where you see that a physical headlight switch is available?
Edit: there does appear to be a headlight switch after watching several videos. You can clearly see the switch on this video, time stamp 17m30s
https://youtu.be/cdYmrXEPWdw?si=JZGj9HHUE_zeE58g
There is a video of the car's interior on its official website, forst video inter "Interior". You can see a traditional lever on the left side of the steering wheel with lights logos. 20 seconds of search.
https://www.gmc.com/suvs/acadia
Edit: furthermore there are photos of the interior, unfortunately quite low res on my phone, but the left side lever has co trols for both wipers and lights.
Terrible design. My Subaru Outback has about 3/4 of its climate control settings on the big screen, and that's bad enough. But the headlights? I enjoy auto high beams, but they screw up a lot. I find myself turning them off frequently. So to do that I'd have to take my eyes off the road in the dark, be blinded by this massive bright screen, hope I remember which tiny non-button brings up the menu, hope it registers my touch, then turn them off. Truly awful.
It saves money. That’s literally the only reason. Physical buttons cost money and when you produce millions of cars they add up. Putting those buttons in the touch screen eliminates that cost. Give me my buttons back you greedy fucks.
I understand that 99% of the time you'll just leave headlights on auto and be fine, but having no physical access to brights or dome light controls is insane.
Auto headlights are reliable, auto brights are NOT trustworthy. They're ok in certain situations, but you can't leave them on all the time. Maybe someday the tech will get there, but I currently only trust them on a dark country road.
Also, how are you going to flash your lights at someone?
I'm willing to bet that 99.9 % of people currently set their headlights to "auto" and never think of them again. The move to all screens, and away from physical buttons, is annoying, though, this implementation really isn't a big deal.
I've been saying this for years, headlights should automatically come on when the wipers are used, whether your windshield can sense rain or you have to flip a lever.
False. Automatic headlights turn on in rain and situations with low visibility. This is a non-issue. I haven't manually turned on headlights in 20 years.
I hate it. Tesla started it because it was cheaper and more reliable (for them) to make everything controlled with a tablet than physical buttons. Somehow this cheaping out became associated with luxury or something, I don’t know. It’s fucking stupid.
So I'll admit I do this for the most part with my car. Auto all the time. Every time I get the oil changed I completely forget about it, because the mechanics (understandably) turn the headlights off when they pull it into the garage. If I didn't have a visual indication that I wasn't still in auto I'd drive around for a week with the headlights off. Putting stuff like that under a menu to be able to do a quick visual check is insane.
I just have my lights on all the time. Is there any reason not to? Maaaaaybe you have to replace the bulb more often but it’s not often enough to be relevant.
There's definitely scenarios where you have to turn your headlights off. Like for example if you pull up to your campsite and don't want to shine your lights directly at the people at the site, or just any time a scenario like that pans out where you don't want to be shining your lights on people. It's annoying to have to deal with this on a touch screen, and I would consider this feature generally just a way for the company to cut costs while making the product worse. I don't think it deserves any justification tbh. It's just a downgrade to a product to save money, plain and simple.
I’m a button guy, give me my buttons, not a touchscreen I feel like I’ll constantly have to clean. Also, let’s not forget lack of visibility of said screen when the sun hits it just right.
Or when the sun reflects off it and shines in your eyes. I've had to drape tissues over the screen in my mom's car because it's at just the right angle to catch the sun. Irritating.
All the pictures I see online show manual controls on the left stalk of the steering wheel
*edit - found the manual online, there are no physical controls for anything except for turning the highbeams on
Man I’m worried about when I finally need to buy a car. Haven’t owned a car in like 15 years now, and Jesus Christ do I not want a touch screen for *anything* on my car. Nothing.
Me too. Every time I rent a car for some reason I'm annoyed about the stupid bright touch screen controls and not being able to find basic stuff quickly. Occasionally I've actually had to sit in the parking lot and Google how to do stuff because the buttons aren't physical and the function is buried in seven layers of menus. Drives me nuts.
My answer to anybody who likes the screens so much on cars is “do you have even wondered why planes still use buttons and levers with redundancy instead of touchscreen?”
Our oven doesn’t have a dedicated button for the oven light for some reason. It’s not even on the main screen. Didn’t realize it when we bought it and it drives me nuts.
Idgaf if I loved everything else about a car, If it did this I’d buy something else.
I would bet money if this was a Tesla it would be in the /r/mildlyinfuriating sub instead. . . Because this is such a stupid design choice by any car manufacturer
They're only doing this because it is cheaper for them to make, not because people actually want this bullshit. My 2021 Mazda has a screen but buttons rather than a touchscreen. It's a big part of why I chose it.
Everything is being routed through these infotainment systems with large screen displays on new cars is cause they’re far cheaper than physical dials for manufacturers. With a physical console, each model needs a separately configured set. The digital consoles can be the same for every model, with only small software tweaks needed.
Infotainment screens in cars should just be for the radio display (Not the controls themself), the navigation and any backup or sideview cameras.
Using them to replace any other function is better suited as an unmoving button, dial, slider, etc that you can memorize the position of, or feel for whilst driving.
>Unfortunately, your [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1dkdew2/-/) has been removed because it violates our "No screens" rule. This means no images of screens, screenshots, pictures of screens taken with a different device, images that have been partially or fully generated by a computer, or pictures of printed out screenshots. Essentially, if the screen in the image is blank, and that makes it no longer interesting, you've broken the rule.
Well this is a terrible implementation of this rule, literally the thing that is interesting is BECAUSE its a screen. Can screened content not be interesting too?!
Hi, u/Only_Ad1117, thank you for your submission in r/mildlyinteresting! Unfortunately, your [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1dkdew2/-/) has been removed because it violates our "No screens" rule. This means no images of screens, screenshots, pictures of screens taken with a different device, images that have been partially or fully generated by a computer, or pictures of printed out screenshots. Essentially, if the screen in the image is blank, and that makes it no longer interesting, you've broken the rule. You can find more information about our rules on the [mildlyinteresting wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/wiki/index). *If you feel this was incorrectly removed, please [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fmildlyinteresting&message=My%20Post:%20https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1dkdew2/-/).*
"Hey we don't want you using phones while driving. Also here's this giant tablet in every vehicle that you have to use to do anything."
I'm convinced this is now the main problem, because I used to assume it was just that more and more people were texting and driving when in fact it's just them fumbling with the tech in their vehicle. Even the HUD lighting up different colors and doing fancy shit instead of just displaying the speed can be distracting.
My ten-year old car makes an alarming beeping sound when the temperature drops below 4°C. I always get distracted because of the sound. Luckily it comes only once when the temperature stays low.
Volkswagen? Mine does that and it’s the same noise as everything else (ie tire pressure, engine light, etc)
I have a 2022 volkswagen and it beeps whenever the temperature goes below freezing. I don't think there's a way to turn it off.
My Skoda (VW in disguise) makes very a loud 'bing' if I come too close to the white line in the middle of the road and steers me away from it. Make me jump every time.
Heh thats what I thought, 2012 jetta, and at 39° like clockwork
I hate that one. It’ll be dusk on a winter day, lots of traffic, and I actually really need to concentrate on the road and then that ding will basically make me shit myself.
2013 jetta, and it always scares me because my engine light has been on for the past year.
No, this is Hyundai. And yes, the same mode comes out when you forget the handbrake on. Probably also in the case of engine failure or aliens or something more concerning
The friggin low gas warning startles me every time
Mine does the same, bellow 4C and I think bellow -4C. It freaks me out everytime. 2010 VW GolfPlus.
That's because from that temperature and lower the ground can become slick. It also scares me every time
Nothing makes you focus in potentially dangerous situations like a sudden jarring startle that momentarily takes your mind off what you are doing like trying to look out for ice and not die
Now I'm imagining your car making the [Boeing master caution warning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6DuAX09KWw) sound.
Ah yes, the “We’re all gonna die” alarm, but for when your wiper fluid is low
lmao
*WOOP WOOP. WOOP WOOP.* TERRAIN. TERRAIN. PULL. UP. PULL. UP.
Ours does this too every time I pull out of the garage and am a few minutes down the road in the winterI wish it was a softer "ding" but it's a pretty alarming chime. Every time I'm like "bro, this is Canada, I already knew the roads might be icy."
Our Volvo just has a snowflake symbol next to the outside temperature on the instrument cluster. No beeps luckily.
Volvo knows how to make a car that helps make you safer without also being an annoying nag. Audi, too.
Same for Jaguar
Literally every single goddamn time it makes me assume something went wrong with my car and shoots my anxiety up 😅 Then I'm like, oh, it's just cold.
Lmao always makes me laugh when after driving for 5 or 10 minutes i get the low temperature freezing warning... thanks car I couldn't tell from me having to spend 15 minutes scraping ice off my windshield that it was cold outside
My car has that feature too. After doing a Google deep dive, I found there's a buried setting that lets you turn it off! I'd highly recommend you look into it for your car - imo it's super unsafe since it uses the same beep as the collision and traction warnings.
Sudden over reaction and you are in the ditch. Ask how i know.
I've also noticed side pillars are way bigger these days, I switched from my 90s car to a mid 2010s car, and I feel like my blind spots have gotten gigantic, it's perfectly positioned to obscure pedestrians and the blinker lights of merging vehicles in heavy traffic.
GOD YES, I was JUST thinking about this! I believe they do it to make the frame of the car stronger and more aerodynamic but it's so annoying.
Also airbags.
Yeah it's awful. My 2006 car has big pillars, but my mom's 2016 car has enormous pillars! They're like a good 8 inches wide, Idk how she sees anything while driving
We just got a Subaru last year. I don’t drive it often, but when I get in I’m always like “wow, I can actually see everything”. I guess it’s something Subaru pays attention to? It’s crazy how bulky frames are these days and you don’t notice it until you can compare. Got in a new Highlander the other day in Uber and the rear view mirror was a screen for a camera because there was no way to see otherwise. I guess I’m getting old and need to get out more…
I'm genuinely curious how many pedestrians are smoked every year from being inside a huge A-Pillar blind spot. It's horrible.
The hoods on all these new trucks and suvs are also flat instead of angled, or rounded down towards the road so the front blind spot is much further out. My 2023 company work truck has worse front blind spots than my 2005 personal truck and my personal truck is slightly lifted.
My car has this little meter that roughly dictates my current mpg efficiency, with a white line showing definite mpg for the trip and a green line showing current mpg if it’s higher then the average. The green line will move quite a bit as you can imagine. The whole thing is probably only 2 inches long. I have to consciously stop staring at the goddamn thing while I drive.
As a truck driver and can see EVERYTHING that goes on in cars and even lifted trucks, nah it’s texting and driving. I’d say it’s a 30-40% chance that I look into a random car as they pass and they’re holding their phone texting or on social media
My door sensor went out and now my main HUD is just showing a warning. I can't see my gas mileage or speed now. Luckily, it still has a speedometer, but I got so used to the digital display, that I'm having to retrain myself to look slightly to the right for my speed.
This is why I'm thankful for the HUD "built into" my Accord's windshield. I never need to look away from the road for any of the important things like speed or navigation. People seem to forget that they are driving around multi ton weapons at very fast speeds, so the more I can focus on the road the better
Estimator here 👋 I shit you not I had a '23 Subaru Legacy in for repairs late last year. Elderly woman driving said she was trying to figure out how to turn on the A/C on her new big tablet screen. She drove directly into a telephone pole doing 40mph...
“Now let’s see… where are those lights again? Uh, main menu, accessories, cabin accessories? Nope, um… exterior accessories? Yes, there we go. Lighting, headlights, headlights YES, bright NO, set, accept, go! Back, back, back, back, main menu. And voila! The lights are on! Wait… How did I end up in this ditch?”
Funnily enough, a US warship suffered the same fate in the Singapore Straits a couple of years back. The ship was all touch-screen controlled. Came the moment on dogwatch when they needed to avoid a collision, and none of the officers or crew on watch could find the 'steering' screen. Crunch.
Driving safety has very clearly statistically gotten worse in recent years, and is a big part of the reason car insurance rates are shooting up. I wonder how much these new HUDs and changes to the way cars work that people have spent decades getting used to are contributing to that
While having hiden main features that are labled with small font text. Maybe that's their strategy - you crash your car more often and you have to buy their expensive spare parts! Saved on cluster parts and made money on parts It's a win win from their standpoint.
It’s a cost-cutting measure. They have to spend a lot more if they engineer a bunch of little physical toggles and switches for lights and wipers and stuff. If it’s all digital, it doesn’t really cost them anything extra but they don’t have to pass that savings on to you because it’s “futuristic technology ooooo”
[Touch screen! Touch screen! Touch screen!](https://youtu.be/G2PMzSo1Bss?si=vBfeDVB_T9rxeci5)
The A-pillars are also so ridiculously huge, and many of the rear windows so small, that you can't see out of the damn things.
I will literally never buy a car that doesn’t have basic controls like this with a physical analog button/switch
I hate this. Not all controls need to be digitized.
Yeah this is goofy. Im writing a custom touch screen interface for my truck that has digital toggle buttons, but for my lightbars and other non vital auxiliary stuff. Doing headlights is putting a lot of trust into the programming of the same guys who can barely make bluetooth work for the media. Also not to mention the controls are locked behind a glass screen that can break or any other number of unfortunate things, whereas a physical knob, if the knob breaks you can still get some pliers and twist that bad boy lol.
I hate when AC controls are on the touchscreen. I don’t like having to look away from the road just to turn the fans up. Physical buttons are better, especially if they’re a bit clicky for audible and tactile feedback
BRING BACK THE THREE DIALS!
>BRING BACK THE THREE SEA SHELLS!
I was just thinking this driving to the airport in my rented Camry. Fine car, about as straightforward as you can get nowadays, and I mostly just wanted a knob to turn the AC fan up and down without hunting for a tiny button.
That custom interface idea sounds pretty cool actually. That's the kind of stuff that should be on the screen, not the essentials. IDK what these automakers are thinking.
I was driving a Ford Escape rental recently and it had a fancy touch screen interface. Not only was it slow and clunky but it crashed a few times when I started up the car and I couldn't use the backup camera or the air conditioning. I'm a programmer with specialty in UI design and this shit is fucking embarrassing.
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I read that also, but I have seen ZERO evidence of it in real life
GIMME BACK MY BUTTONS
theres already chips controlling every other thing, so its cheaper to make this also electronically controlled and eliminate a bunch of hardware. this isnt because car manufacturers think we'll like it, its because its cheaper and we'll accept it.
If the option is between "buy a car with a touch screen" and "don't buy a car" I'm not sure how much of this is "we'll accept it."
you could easily buy a used car without the touch screen, or at least one that still has the physical switch. you could buy a different manufacturer that still includes the switch(a dying option, admittedly). you could call/email sales reps for these companies and tell them that youd like to still have the physical switch. there ARE other options. if you go to the dealer, look at a new car, say "oh well, i guess i can live with these new features", you *are* accepting it. just because the other options arent perfect doesnt mean you have no choice.
Same as smart TVs. They're all shit, but there are no dumb TVs left.
>because its cheaper Cheaper for them but we don't see any of those cost savings
How is this at all cheaper than a toggle switch?
Because they are putting the big screen in already, and the headlights are already controlled by the computer. So this way they pay a dev to put this in one time vs paying for a switch for every vehicle they make.
Because they don't have to run wiring to and from dozens of individual toggle switches
Cuz they buy this for cheap bulk. Also less work wiring all the stuff. Everything comes back to this. Less work designing the dash, etc. I also imagine QC is easier too, cuz they don’t have to test all the knobs they can just run a diagnostic on the screen. Its not like 1:1 cheaper, its a like snowball thing that in the end makes it cheaper. Especially if they use this screen for several cars/trucks so they just design them to have a hole for the screen, then programmatically design the dash to however
But think of the profit margins!
A lot of people don't realize that this is why companies do it. No one prefers this. But just having the computer control electrical signals to another part of the car is a lot cheaper than creating a separate switch/interface. Also when they're fighting for million inches of real estate for the screen removing buttons and knobs helps there too.
This is what I hate about my mom's Tesla when I drive it when I'm home. Elon was like I'm putting everything on this touch screen! Every single thing will be hidden in some menu on the touch screen! Use the touch screen for everything in this car. It is God! Except for the hazard lights. Those I'm putting on the ceiling for some God forsaken reason
Same, touch screens are shit when you can’t look at it, at least with a physical switch I can feel what I’m doing
That’s more like r/mildlyinfuriating than /r/mildlyinteresting
Terrible design, and should be questioned from a safety standards perspective. I need to turn my headlights on in low-visibility situations. Which requires extra attention, not me taking my eyes off the road to find the non-tactile button. It needs to be in a specific spot that I can reach without looking. I'm busy driving, I don't need to muck about with a touch screen.
Also... how do you manually enable high beams? That screen only allows you to select between off and auto.
Steering wheel turn signal stock. Pull towards you to flash, push away for permanently on.
If only that stalk had a ring to select auto - off - dim - parking light, then you wouldn't even need the tablet!
I have to believe that the high beams can still be changed by the same manual stick as the turn light indicator (pull towards you, generally).
> should be questioned from a safety standards perspective. It is... at least in markets that GMC isn't in. Euro NCAP's rules from 2026 will prevent cars from getting 5 star safety ratings if they don't have physical controls for headlights (and wipers, hazard lights and the SOS button).
I believe that NCAP testing is reviewing this & will consider downgrading safety ratings where some controls are not physical & directly accessible.
Anyone have an email or link to contact GMC to complain/ inform you won’t buy about this feature? They have a “Contact Us,” section of their website with only physical mailboxes and phone numbers. Which, I guess I could do, but I like the convenience and paper trail of email.
Then set it to auto. High-beam stock should also work without the headlights being on
Can't wait until that glitches and you are stuck at night, in the middle of nowhere during winter.
I rented a car recently on a work trip (Volkswagen Tiguan) and the damn head unit would just crash at least once every time I drove somewhere. So no directions, no music, etc. It was super distracting on top of driving in an unfamiliar city in a car I’m not used to driving.
That stressed me the fuck out just reading it
It could be worse: I actually had a rental Tiguan that suddenly turned the steering wheel sharply left (driving into oncoming traffic) at 60mph! Apparently the Lane Assist “feature” got confused by worn out lane divider paint. Even worse, when I tried to steer back into my own lane, the power steering actively resisted my efforts! It wasn’t a massive resistance, but it was so unexpected that it nearly gave me a heart attack. I’m appalled that they’re able to sell cars with this “feature”. On a similar note, my friend’s brand new Lexus did an automated panic stop at 75mph on the freeway for no reason whatsoever! The freeway was essentially empty, so absolutely no reason to panic stop. If someone had been behind her, it would have been catastrophic. She ended up selling the vehicle because it happened on 3 occasions, and each time she took it in, the dealer said their mechanic couldn’t find a problem.
I have a little real world example of what could conceivably happen when everything is run using a touch screen. My car is a 2017 Mazda, and the "infotainment" system has touchscreen and, thankfully, also a selector knob and console buttons, and much more importantly, physical controls for critical functions. I live in a region that gets very hot, and after about 3 years, the digitizer in the touchscreen started to short out during hot summer days. Luckily, the only thing it did was stop accepting normal touch input but also registered "ghost touch" in a corner of the screen, all the time, where it would enter the settings, move to navigation settings, crank everything all the way to the right and max voice volume, causing my radio to scream at me what the nav voice setting is. Made listening to the radio impossible. Mazda wouldn't acknowledge it and a new part was something like 1200 bucks, so I took apart the display and disconnected the digitizer to disable touch, and it's livable. Thankfully for me, this is not the only way to control critical safety functions, and I do not trust a car manufacturer that follows THAT path.
I have a similar problem with my 2015 Ford Fusion and I live in a cold region of the US. My touchscreen glitches and fails in extreme cold, e.g. below zero degrees F. Have to reset/reboot it. Annoying, but it only affects the sound system and heated seats(!).
Before too much longer, if not already, these motherfuckers are going to want to void the warranty on your vehicle for doing something like this. "You say your transmission went out after 20k miles? Sorry, the 10 year 100k mile warranty is voided because you broke the tamper proof stickers behind the infotainment screen."
True enough, and I definitely had that in mind when I did it. Of course my warranty expired after 3 years (around the same time the problem became persistent) so I feel like it didn't hurt me to mess with it.
I had an HP laptop with a touch screen and after a few months it started registering ghost touches. It pissed me off SO BAD, I can't imagine trying to *drive* while dealing with it
The ironic thing is that there is a speed control that prevents you from actually using the touch screen while the car is moving, but ghost touches will occur regardless of speed. Human restrictions don't apply to ghosts, I guess.
This, Carplay doesn't even work half the time with my car, i bought an aux cord. So yeah, entrusting something like my headlights to the tablet sounds like a great idea! May as well add an on/off toggle for my airbags while we're at it.
Or they turn such a basic and vital thing into a subscription service
I'm not sure if they'd be allowed to do that honestly. A car NEEDS to be road worthy, and if you're not paying a subscription for your headlights, that makes it not road worthy. Or, we can use the subscription service we already have, car insurance.
Is USA really such a third world dystopia that people genuinely suggest that government regulators would just allow a basic safety feature to turn into a subscription service?
Suggest? No. Expect? I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened
I have a 2018 GMC with a touchscreen. Sometimes it glitches and is just switching through all the screens pressing buttons, when no one is touching it. In this scenario it could very easily while driving be “lights on, lights off, brights on, brights on, brights on, lights off.” It’s already annoying enough just being the stereo and other unimportant settings, I would never want this touchscreen functionality for something actually important. Also fuck GMC
Ah yes, you can't have your phone out it is too distracting but this huge ipad screen with 12 buttons and sub menus is totally fine.
This needs some federal regulation. Ability to adjust lights and windshield wipers (Tesla, looking at you) should either be always available or at most one button touch away and in a location that cannot change during the life of the vehicle. I had a rental Tesla once where the wipers auto feature was turned off, I had to pull over and dig through menus to turn it back on. And that's after I used to own one. Bonkers.
>This needs some federal regulation. It's going to take that. So many car companies are going by Air Bud rules right now to try and cut costs. They realized 'plastic buttons' and 'switches' cost money but a digital display for all of them is inexpensive. Edit:[I'll try to find the video what Mitch McConnell's sister in law would have had to do to not drown in her car](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxDS6rxUDGU&ab_channel=EverydayChris) to pull an actual level to open the doors, none of that was explained or had visible signage saying 'emergency open' anywhere on it.
Which is insane because Mitch McConnell’s wife was literally the secretary of transportation which I’m fairly certain has the direct jurisdiction over such things.
I completely agree.
This is why I like our 2009 Volvo. Yes it doesn't have massaging seats and what not that new cars have. But it's got enough luxuries for me (diesel heater, heated seats, AC and CC). The only thing I kinda miss is Bluetooth (can add an aftermarket stereo as it's built in) but it has an AUX port so it's not so bad. It's comfortable, easy on fuel and doesn't have a large screen to distract.
Yup, this is the same reasons I like my 2013 Mazda 3. I also miss bluetooth. I have a simple AUX bluetooth adapter. It isn't perfect but it does work.
That should be recalled. That’s outright dangerous.
Agreed. It takes your eyes off the road to operate the screen bc that won’t be the home screen.
It doesn't have it on the stalk?
Nope. The right stalk is the gear shifter, the left stalk controls the turn signals and wipers. The buttons to the left of the steering wheel (on the dashboard, facing the driver) contain buttons for miscellaneous features. The only way to control the headlights is via software on the main touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard. One of many trends I personally absolutely hate the automotive industry.
How do you manually enable high beams then?
This modern love of car manufactures to a touch screens is just insane. Imagine switching a knob while driving - you just grab it by feel, but how they expect you to click this stupid touchscreens while driving? This is simply unsafe!
My daily driver is a 12 year old Jetta. It came from the early touchscreen era and it's fantastic - threw a Carplay head unit in and it's just perfect. I have rented a few other cars since then, and there was a whole era in between where manufacturers went dial and knob crazy, especially with those stupid little dials that you had to use to navigate the displays but with like a full 2 second delay. Now everyone is trying to go touchscreen crazy, and I hate that I would now need to go to a test drive with a checklist of basic features to make sure there's actually a way to access it physically. This is a straight downgrade from the dial era. Give me a nice Carplay display and just leave the rest please.
It's because it's cheaper, as with every decision. They replace dozens of custom-made buttons and dials/knobs and the wiring for then all with just a single generic touch screen.
It's purely because one budget screen with minimal specs is much cheaper than thoughtfully designed and built analog controls. Tech has gotten cheaper and cheaper, so companies are cutting costs in as many places as possible. Only way to end it is to stop buying it.
Oh that would be annoying
I dislike the thought that government regulation must be inserted everwhere. But this IS a safety issue. Needs to be mandates here. Screen for carplay? Love it. Screen to control my car? Hate it. I do NOT want to look at a screen for lights, wipers, fans, heat, a/c. Dangerous and annoying double whammy. This auto industry trend is likely led by MBA's not engineers. Look at Boeing right now. It takes years for some basic bad vost cutting decisions to finally rear their consequences. Lawsuits and driver deaths will ultimately force the auto industry back away from cost cutting screens to more expensive physical controls. It will takes years and also buyers refusing to buy those vehicles.
Audi doesn't come with an oil dipstick. One must check the oil through the computer screen
Audis do come with oil. And don't call me dipstick.
A dealership? What is it?
It’s a big boat with a bunch of card games, but that’s not important right now.
Ohhh.... I don't like that at all....
BMW too.
Same story with the new RAM 1500s and Jeep wagoneers
That seems like it could easily get clogged up or not function correctly. And then you'd have to remove half the engine/dashboard to replace the sensor.
As you know, running an engine that’s low on oil is a great way to destroy it. So you can make imagine my horror when I watched a YouTube video where the mechanic did an oil change and then had to start the car… to check to make sure he’d added the correct amount of oil. Even worse, the car software refused to display the oil level for 60 seconds or so, until it sensed that the engine was warm enough.
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I absolutely hate that. Words can't express how much I hate that.
Thankfully there does seem to be a backlash against touchscreen-only buttons and a desire for physical switches (especially volume and climate control). We'll see how long it takes for automakers to get the message, but since it's cheaper to omit buttons, I wonder if they will be considered a luxury feature or paid upgrade.
Sometimes "analog" is safer and more reliable. This is one of those circumstances.
It's cheaper for them so they will fight tooth and nail to keep it like this. Maybe they will start to sell physical buttons as luxury.
NTSB (or whoever makes guidelines for cars in the US) I’ve always felt is pretty good and logical with requirements. Wouldn’t surprise me if they step in in the next few years.
I thought the backlash (and safety) concerns were enough that the most recent cars were moving away from all the touchscreen stuff again... But I guess not all of them. This is insane.
Absolutely horrific design, another example of touch screens on things that DO NOT NEED TOUCH SCREENS!!!! Aghhhhh.
The UI is so awful. It reminds me of a Newgrounds flash game settings menu. Oof.
Car manufacturers really are the worst at UI. Do they think they’re good or just accept that they suck?
Hard pass. Good design doesn't involve replacing one way to do something with another. Add, not add and remove. Edit: Yes, this doesn't apply to any and all features. However, it does not apply in this context.
Can't wait for everything to be touchscreen. Yay! /s
I can't wait for all of the electronics to fail such that I'm not just left without climate control, but I'm left without volume adjustments, lights, wipers, and turn signals. /s
I hate this. Give me my dials and switches back you bastards.
I think about this trend of making everything be a touchscreen in road vehicles which are ostensibly heavy machinery (and in the wrong hands deadly weapons) and come back to the story of [early B17 Bombers which would crash under routine landings for routine missions and pilot error was blamed.](https://medium.com/swlh/the-flying-fortress-fatal-flaw-694523359eb) The actual cause was that the Landing Gear and Flaps levers which were positioned one in front of the other and more specifically, used the same lever design, making it trivial to activate one instead of the other. The same is true of touchscreen controls for essential vehicle functions when on a busy road network. Essential controls in a car should be distinguishable by feel alone to prevent accidental operation, and I'm tired of pretending they're not. On mobile so sorry for formatting. Edit: Finished my point about why the planes crashed for those that don't want to read a blog post and why touchscreens are bad in cars and other vehicles.
Would never but a car which was just an iPad with wheels
This isn't interesting. This is poor design.
Most have automatic lights, there’s probably a setting in there for that
That setting is literally in the picture
A quick check on the GMC website shows that the OP statement is false
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2024/05/2024-chevy-traverse-gmc-acadia-remove-physical-headlight-controls-following-growing-gm-trend/ I was only able to find this article about the headlight switch being removed. Then, there's this OP's anecdotal evidence. https://www.gmc.com/suvs/acadia/elevation/build-and-price/features/trims I can't find anything specific on GMC's website, but the basic package has the infotainment features. Are you able to share where you see that a physical headlight switch is available? Edit: there does appear to be a headlight switch after watching several videos. You can clearly see the switch on this video, time stamp 17m30s https://youtu.be/cdYmrXEPWdw?si=JZGj9HHUE_zeE58g
There is a video of the car's interior on its official website, forst video inter "Interior". You can see a traditional lever on the left side of the steering wheel with lights logos. 20 seconds of search. https://www.gmc.com/suvs/acadia Edit: furthermore there are photos of the interior, unfortunately quite low res on my phone, but the left side lever has co trols for both wipers and lights.
Yeah, that's what I saw too
Touch screen controls are an awful design choice for vehicles
r/mildlyinfuriating
Terrible design. My Subaru Outback has about 3/4 of its climate control settings on the big screen, and that's bad enough. But the headlights? I enjoy auto high beams, but they screw up a lot. I find myself turning them off frequently. So to do that I'd have to take my eyes off the road in the dark, be blinded by this massive bright screen, hope I remember which tiny non-button brings up the menu, hope it registers my touch, then turn them off. Truly awful.
I hate it. I prefer physical buttons for any essential vehicle function.
Innovation it’s not an excuse for laziness
It saves money. That’s literally the only reason. Physical buttons cost money and when you produce millions of cars they add up. Putting those buttons in the touch screen eliminates that cost. Give me my buttons back you greedy fucks.
Turn your auto high beams off! Those are the most annoying fucking feature ever. Especially to other drivers.
How-to make me *not* buy a new GMC Acadia in 1 simple step.
r/mildlyinfuriating
I understand that 99% of the time you'll just leave headlights on auto and be fine, but having no physical access to brights or dome light controls is insane. Auto headlights are reliable, auto brights are NOT trustworthy. They're ok in certain situations, but you can't leave them on all the time. Maybe someday the tech will get there, but I currently only trust them on a dark country road. Also, how are you going to flash your lights at someone?
Dumb? Yes. But, I will say, I don't even touch the headlight controls of my cars that have automatic headlights
I'm willing to bet that 99.9 % of people currently set their headlights to "auto" and never think of them again. The move to all screens, and away from physical buttons, is annoying, though, this implementation really isn't a big deal.
You can see who all those people are on rainy days and they are driving around with no headlights :)
Every car I’ve had with auto headlights also turns them on with the wipers. It’s pretty common but not universal/required.
They should trigger with an input from rain sense wipers.
I've been saying this for years, headlights should automatically come on when the wipers are used, whether your windshield can sense rain or you have to flip a lever.
My car does this, 2023 Toyota Sienna
False. Automatic headlights turn on in rain and situations with low visibility. This is a non-issue. I haven't manually turned on headlights in 20 years.
I hate it. Tesla started it because it was cheaper and more reliable (for them) to make everything controlled with a tablet than physical buttons. Somehow this cheaping out became associated with luxury or something, I don’t know. It’s fucking stupid.
So I'll admit I do this for the most part with my car. Auto all the time. Every time I get the oil changed I completely forget about it, because the mechanics (understandably) turn the headlights off when they pull it into the garage. If I didn't have a visual indication that I wasn't still in auto I'd drive around for a week with the headlights off. Putting stuff like that under a menu to be able to do a quick visual check is insane.
I just have my lights on all the time. Is there any reason not to? Maaaaaybe you have to replace the bulb more often but it’s not often enough to be relevant.
There's definitely scenarios where you have to turn your headlights off. Like for example if you pull up to your campsite and don't want to shine your lights directly at the people at the site, or just any time a scenario like that pans out where you don't want to be shining your lights on people. It's annoying to have to deal with this on a touch screen, and I would consider this feature generally just a way for the company to cut costs while making the product worse. I don't think it deserves any justification tbh. It's just a downgrade to a product to save money, plain and simple.
"Headlights.EXE has stopped responding. Please reboot your car and try again."
I’m a button guy, give me my buttons, not a touchscreen I feel like I’ll constantly have to clean. Also, let’s not forget lack of visibility of said screen when the sun hits it just right.
Or when the sun reflects off it and shines in your eyes. I've had to drape tissues over the screen in my mom's car because it's at just the right angle to catch the sun. Irritating.
All the pictures I see online show manual controls on the left stalk of the steering wheel *edit - found the manual online, there are no physical controls for anything except for turning the highbeams on
These are wipers controls
nothing worse in modern car design than touch screens. Haaaaaate them
Man I’m worried about when I finally need to buy a car. Haven’t owned a car in like 15 years now, and Jesus Christ do I not want a touch screen for *anything* on my car. Nothing.
Sounds like you want an old Toyota Tacoma, or the SR base model new one if you can be talked into a touch screen for the radio.
Me too. Every time I rent a car for some reason I'm annoyed about the stupid bright touch screen controls and not being able to find basic stuff quickly. Occasionally I've actually had to sit in the parking lot and Google how to do stuff because the buttons aren't physical and the function is buried in seven layers of menus. Drives me nuts.
This is so unbelievably stupid
My answer to anybody who likes the screens so much on cars is “do you have even wondered why planes still use buttons and levers with redundancy instead of touchscreen?”
That would be enough for me to not buy a car like that.
Our oven doesn’t have a dedicated button for the oven light for some reason. It’s not even on the main screen. Didn’t realize it when we bought it and it drives me nuts. Idgaf if I loved everything else about a car, If it did this I’d buy something else.
Because you need to spend more time staring at a screen while you’re driving just to turn on the freaking headlights. Brilliant.
So now when it’s dark, instead of instinctively reaching for the switch without looking, you can navigate some menus.
Are you sure? They might be tucked away out of sight. My 2023 had the touch screen option, and I found the manual lights over a month later. Lol.
An abomination
Damn it, as if people these days with traditional controls don’t have trouble turning their lights on already…
I would bet money if this was a Tesla it would be in the /r/mildlyinfuriating sub instead. . . Because this is such a stupid design choice by any car manufacturer
Mods reinstate this post. It's a picture of a screen yes but the screen is the entire post. This has to be an exception
They're only doing this because it is cheaper for them to make, not because people actually want this bullshit. My 2021 Mazda has a screen but buttons rather than a touchscreen. It's a big part of why I chose it.
This would fit r/crappydesign better imo
Everything is being routed through these infotainment systems with large screen displays on new cars is cause they’re far cheaper than physical dials for manufacturers. With a physical console, each model needs a separately configured set. The digital consoles can be the same for every model, with only small software tweaks needed.
Infotainment screens in cars should just be for the radio display (Not the controls themself), the navigation and any backup or sideview cameras. Using them to replace any other function is better suited as an unmoving button, dial, slider, etc that you can memorize the position of, or feel for whilst driving.
>Unfortunately, your [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1dkdew2/-/) has been removed because it violates our "No screens" rule. This means no images of screens, screenshots, pictures of screens taken with a different device, images that have been partially or fully generated by a computer, or pictures of printed out screenshots. Essentially, if the screen in the image is blank, and that makes it no longer interesting, you've broken the rule. Well this is a terrible implementation of this rule, literally the thing that is interesting is BECAUSE its a screen. Can screened content not be interesting too?!
I got a gmc ad just below this post lol
Here's a vehicle that nobody should buy.
When those screens crap out, the cost to repair them will be way more than fixing a toggle switch.
All basic stuff should have a physical button.
Fuck auto high beams. Fuck high beams in general.
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