this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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[–] Nurgle@lemmy.world 127 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I know this is more about switching from ICE to electric, but this is kinda hilarious

Feedback about the company's new capacitive multifunction steering wheel was so overwhelmingly negative that last year, Schaffer promised to ditch the design. Meanwhile, much of the range—both electric and gas-powered—is saddled with temperature and volume controls that are touch-sensitive but not backlit, making them all but impossible to use at night.

[–] Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 75 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Every car I've ever bought had had glaringly terrible design choices that make it obvious nobody in development actually drove the car. This has got to be one of the worst examples of that though.

[–] TheCodeJanitor@lemmy.world 55 points 2 years ago (4 children)
[–] grue@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] buran@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

That vehicle had a recall out to replace the badly-designed shifter. It was ignored.

The fix would have been free.

That doesn’t excuse the fact that the design was clearly idiotic in the extreme from its inception.

[–] garretble@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago

Man, that's a yikes.

I hate those knobs, but I'm also lucky to just drive a simple standard car right now. It has a touch screen for sat nav (Carplay/Android Auto), but volume and climate controls are all physical.

[–] Aopen@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] DontTreadOnBigfoot@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

That's the shifter

[–] Nougat@kbin.social 19 points 2 years ago (2 children)

2015 Ford Fusion, the touchscreen is pressure-sensitive, but the physical "buttons" for HVAC right below that are, for some reason, capacitive. Which means you can't really use either one while wearing gloves; you need a bare finger for the buttons, and gloves are too bulky to accurately press the little touchscreen things.

[–] WashedOver@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The Fusion of the 2010-13 generation was peak for this car in my opinion. I owned a few from this generation and earlier. While I still after 12 years of ownership on my 2011 Fusion still need to look down at a block of buttons to figure out which climate control option I'm choosing it's not this nightmare or the newer touchscreen nightmare either.

It's too bad Ford left behind the simpler but trusty tech for flash and glam that wasn't practical but this has been a repeating cyclical pattern for them for a long time.

When I think back to older Fords it was slide controls. Jeep had the twist knobs along with others. Those knobs honestly are still the best controls for safety and ease of use but it's form over function these days.

[–] Nougat@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

We had a 2013 as well, the dome lights were weird capacitive touch. They made those physical buttons in the next iteration, which was an excellent idea.

[–] snooggums@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

This is why I will never own a car without knobs or paddles for AC and heal controls.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I used to own a 2003 Hyundai Accent (of all things) that I was surprisingly impressed with in terms of interior and interface design. I particularly liked how they managed to fit cup holders suitable for 20oz plastic bottles into the door pockets.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago

It's not that they didn't know it wasn't very good. But it was a money saver, and they thought people would accept it because "modern".

[–] Damage@slrpnk.net 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

capacitive multifunction steering wheel

Mercedes has those too... They suck.

[–] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world -2 points 2 years ago

I hate car manufacturers so much. First they whine about touch tech not being reliable, then after 10 years they implement the worst possible version of it.

The one thing I can praise Elon for is that he wasn't a dumbass that wanted to use bad 10 year old tech. He does make his fair share of unreliable car but most of that seems to actually not be software related.

[–] mayonaise_met@feddit.nl 9 points 2 years ago

You kind of get used to it. It's not as bad as it sounds. At the same time they should absolutely get back to regular buttons. The only thing that should be touch sensitive in a car should be the infotainment screen when it's displaying Android Auto or CarPlay.

Even then I think I'd like it to be a backup.

[–] buran@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Both of those things have been acknowledged and will be changed. Cars have very long design cycles, though.

The ID.7 has the new sliders as does the facelift of the ID.4.

Yes, there’s other problems, but this one is already on the way out.