Comment by function_seven | Hacker News Reader

Comment by function_seven | Hacker News Reader

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Your second video horrified me. What the hell are they thinking with the touch-sensitive inputs on the steering wheel? Nevermind the weird shape and the issues with orientation when signaling during a steering maneuver. Those aren't actual buttons, they're no better than a touch screen.

When I drive, my hands aren't always in the exact same position on the wheel. Muscle-memory won't reliably have my thumb landing on the correct signal direction. If I have to honk the horn, I need to be able to do that instantly, without thinking. Some cutesy icon located away from the edge of the steering wheel will guarantee that the horn sounds simultaneously with the "crunch" of another car backing into me.

My proposed rule-of-thumb: If a video game company wouldn't design their controllers this way, you shouldn't do it either for the most common—or most urgent—functions. Turn signals, wipers, horn, and hazard lights should all be real buttons that are in a consistent location. Horn should be in the hub of the steering wheel.

Glad i'm not the only one who thinks this is insane. I could maybe see a yolk, but dear god get me AWAY from touch screen style buttons in any serious process, let alone ones that can wind up in different orientations.

And why in the hell does a yolk need to have the horn on a button rather than the center of the yolk as anyone would expect? Maybe there's some technical reason i'm unaware of, but this seems actively dangerous for no gain. I can think of several better ways to do this that aren't actively confusing and hostile to the driver.

> And why in the hell does a yolk need to have the horn on a button rather than the center of the yolk as anyone would expect? Maybe there's some technical reason i'm unaware of

No you're right, it's change for the sake of change. It is now a status symbol to show off how well you drive a vehicle whose management is more challenging than other cars.

I feel like that is a cost decision. Instead of making the whole centre of the wheel a button you assign it to some capacitive button on the side.

But I agree, that second video is insane.

They added cost by reinventing the wheel. It's a status symbol for bad drivers to pay more for something different.

> yoke

Used to turn the plane.

Also put on oxen to pull a plow.

> yolk

Yellow part of an egg.

Yeah I was thinking, "a yolk steering wheel does sound pretty dangerous."

The horn thing doesn't seem like that big a deal actually. I've never used the horn in a potential accident situation because there's always something better I could be focusing on to avoid the accident. As pilot say: aviate, navigate, then communicate. [0] Some studies seems to support that [1].

The only accidents I can imagine the horn preventing are ones where you are stationary, which almost always means the other car is moving slowly - like somebody backing into you in a parking lot. Overall pretty low consequence incidents.

So to the extent that horn use is nearly all elective rather than emergency, is antisocial and has few benefits: make it a small, hard-to-reach button.

(With important exceptions like heavy vehicles that can't maneuver well and non-Western driving cultures that rely on routine horn use to communicate intentions.)

[0] Granted aircraft have an extra dimension to play in for collision-avoidance. [1] https://slate.com/technology/2008/11/honk-if-you-know-why-yo...

They don't give you a massive "hey WTF, stop doing that!" button for you to not use it in blind religious adherence to a shallow rule of thumb or misguided attempt at politeness.

People with your attitude toward horn use likely cause substantial harm to society through fender benders, delays, frustration, etc, etc.

I think I can maybe count on one hand the number of times I've had to move out of a lane lest someone merge into me. The times that situation has been prevented through horn use are innumerable. And that's just one example.

> Those aren't actual buttons, they're no better than a touch screen.

Your comment fondly reminded me of my very first computer, which was a Sinclair ZX81.

Let's just say that it wasn't ideal for text processing.

About the same as this "steering console" doesn't look quite ideal for driving a fucking car.

I concur with your horrification.

And you just reminded me of my first computer. An Atari 400.

The 800 had real keys, but the 400 was just a membrane keyboard. Didn’t matter; we only used it to play video games anyway.

I can’t imagine having to type on that thing.

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