Comment by prng2021 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by prng2021 | Hacker News Reader

I hate that auto companies are trying to copy Tesla’s awful product design philosophy of controlling everything via a screen and software. It’s the worst thing to happen to the industry since its inception in my opinion.

1. We’re now introducing so many brand new problems to automobiles or tremendously exacerbating existing ones. I’m referring to problems inherent to all complex software. Bugs, updates causing various regressions, fragility, a whole new set of attack vectors for hackers, [insert 1000 other problems here].

2. Consumers are unable to appreciate craftsmanship and engineering prowess of creating physical interfaces (dials, buttons, materials, textures, precise stitching and assembly). People love and definitely pay for craftsmanship in things like mechanical keyboards and mechanical watches. We used to be able to enjoy this in cars too, but that’s rapidly fading.

3. It’s just so distracting and time consuming (and therefore dangerous) using a touch screen. Touch screens only make sense on devices that you’re expected to focus your eyes on. That’s why they work on phones but not to replace physical keys of a keyboard, for example.

This is basically what had us choose the Polestar 2 over a Model 3.

The Polestar 2 felt like someone with a lot of intent and diligence sat down in the cockpit of the vehicle and asked some flavor of, "Should this feels like a traditional car or should this feel like new technology?" about every single little thing.

The UX of the car is Swedish "functionalism" at its finest. We drove a VW, a Tesla, a BMW, a Hyundai, a Kia, a Porsche, a Ford, and a Chevrolet too. For both my spouse and I it wasn't even a close race. We ordered the Polestar. We took delivery of it a couple weeks ago, and even though the $7,500 tax credit expired after the recent legislation passed in the US, I would gladly pay $7,500 more for it than its competitors.

The drive feel and the cabin UX are the parts of any car that you're constantly interacting with. To me those two factors outweighed pretty much everything else.

What people say they value and what they spend their money on are usually very different things. The reality is that Tesla is selling well and companies that are investing in similar products are doing extremely well currently. For all their flaws, these cars are way better than ICE cars.

VW is getting a lot of criticism. Yet, if you try to order one now, you might be waiting until well into next year. They are selling pretty well despite the software issues. They have invested a lot in production capacity and they are on track to match Tesla in production volume in a few years. Few other manufacturers can say that. And most of those are based in China.

I’m not criticizing EVs in any way. I’m criticizing the industry trend to use a touch screen to control everything. That trend applies to both EVs and ICE cars if you look at interior car designs over the last few years. I view it as a huge regression.

I don’t see EV sales as relevant here. It doesn’t prove that people are lining up to buy them because of touch screens. There’s a wide variety of reasons to account for sales numbers and for wait lists: great EV cash rebates, high gas prices, the awesome feeling of instant acceleration, supply chain problems with batteries and chips causing multi year wait lists, etc.

People can also get used to lots of surprising changes, even if they’re for the worse, as I’m arguing. If TV manufacturers all started replacing tv remote buttons for touch screens, I’m sure we would eventually get used to it despite it being annoying at first. Likewise, I’ve been forced to get used to the touch screen in my car.

The Nissan leaf had a pretty traditional dashboard w/physical knobs IIRC. Last I heard it's being discontinued.

> They have invested a lot in production capacity and they are on track to match Tesla in production volume in a few years.

Are they? Because that's not what the actual numbers tell me. But that is what they are claiming. And its what GM claims as well (with far less credibility of course). Its just the trendy thing to say.

The underlying assumption is that Tesla will slow down, but that hasn't been happening.

VW thanks to Diselgate is in a good position with EV, to be sure.

I also vastly prefer to use physical controls than a touchscreen, but I’ve found voice control to be even more convenient (when it works, which should only improve over time). I don’t get all of the hate for cars with screens and voice when the latter is a very natural interface when driving.

I agree good voice recognition has huge potential, but I still feel the existence of a touch screen that controls most functions brings tons of problems with it.

My points 1 and 2 above still stand. A screen that can control everything means you have complex underlying software and all the problems that come with that. There’s another commenter here talking about a stack overflow bug from a software update in Porsche Taycans that caused the whole engine to shut down. I keep reading about serious bugs like this. I believe there was a Tesla bug that caused the entire screen to go black and become nonfunctional. I just can’t believe it’s 2022 and we’ve regressed to having to reboot our cars.

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