Hacker News Reader

Comment by devindotcom | Hacker News Reader

Hate this. I'm presently torn between the desire to get an EV and dreading the inevitable tech quagmire I'll be wading into as a result. My car is 23 years old but will hopefully last long enough that the pendulum swings back towards simplicity and accessibility, even if that costs more money.

I forgot, I asked for this already, no luck so far: https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/29/please-make-a-dumb-car/

View on HN

I would LOVE to have an EV that’s a “dumb car”. I have no interest on my car providing me all of the extra bells and whistles that I already get from my phone.

What kills me too is the giant screen with smart features on these cars is extremely unreliable. The GPS/LTE frequently disconnects. The apps randomly crash or are very slow. I’d much rather just use my phone with Bluetooth for any of these features.

I'd be happy with a single 3.5mm jack and a volume knob.

For all the fancy aspects of CarPlay or whatever the Android version is, what most people really want is a phone mount that charges and can play music.

CarPlay is miles better than most any in-car "infotainment" crap, but all of it is basically not needed.

I just want a “big buttons” mode on my phone with the 4 apps that I might need while driving taking up the whole screen.

There might be something in Accessibility that could work; unfortunately phones are so strongly built around "one user" that it would be hard to turn on and off.

I liked Android Auto for this

no, what I want from my car display is Google Maps. Music control is a bonus, but my CD player works fine. My very old OEM maps with no traffic insights are the only thing that pain me when I get into my older car after driving a newer one.

I don't want a phone mount, where my phone can fall off. I don't want the rest of the apps available, either. I don't need a DuoLingo practice reminder while I'm driving, get it?

I dunno, plugging my phone in and having it automatically pop up a suggested route for getting home, that avoids the traffic jam on the freeway I was unwittingly planning on taking, is pretty sweet.

Is there a consumer advocacy group or the like that could please formalize and oversee a "Dumb" certification? I would love to buy a certified Dumb TV.

Do you think the retrofit gas-to-EV conversions will help, as options there expand and improve?

I bought an WV eUP! (2014) this winter and it is basically a "regular" car with normal physical buttons + a small Garmin GPS.

It's nothing like new cars, electric or not, with big screens and almost no buttons, and a bunch of privacy violating sensors and telemetry tech built in. It does have a 2G GSM and a GPS antenna, but the 2G network is soon turned off here in Norway.

And it's hacakble! You can buy an open source replacement for the remote control of charging and climate control! I love this car and I'm not tempted at all by Tesla and the like, they are a privacy nightmare.

I have one too, nice little car.

Unfortunately Volkswagen stopped making them, and the new ID line embodies many negatives of new cars.

Any details about the open source replacement for controls?

They stopped production, but due to popular demand, they have started it back up! [1]

The open source remote control system is called OVMS [2]. I have not got around to order and install it yet, but my ambition is to get it done this summer. They have detailed instructions on their site [3].

[1] https://insideevs.com/news/568463/volkswagen-eup-available-o...

[2] https://www.openvehicles.com/

[3] https://docs.openvehicles.com/en/latest/components/vehicle_v...

If you like the styling of an older car there are plenty of conversion kits for a variety of torque/kilowatt outputs, sans batteries. Ford already sells factory kits, wiring harness and all. The downside is you're taking care of the fragile minutia of an older car, such as combating shock tower mount rust or the plastic gearing of the window mechanism. I'd still happily put up with 3D printing or machining a small, broken, long out of stock part than put up with all the forced technological integration of modern market EVs, though.

>but will hopefully last long enough that the pendulum swings back towards simplicity and accessibility

I'm not at all convinced that the pendulum exists. I think we fell down a greasy slope.

I guess there’s ever a huge market for any sort of aftermarket thing, but a mid 90’s small truck with an electric mod and a raspberry pi powered Linux touchscreen for the entertainment system would be much more interesting to me than any vehicle currently being sold.

There are people making conversions - but the prices are high enough that either you need to do most of it yourself, or you just buy a modern EV - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGyHM_5q31U

They can range from as simple as a Tesla with a different body to as complex as combining batteries and motors from various donors with custom controllers, etc.

it is ironic that while mechanically EVs are much simpler, they are only shipped with all the complexity from electronic side.

i am not an automobile engg, but the core parts required to run an EV (motor control, battery management, etc.) has to be comparable to the ECU that are in decades-old Hondas and Toyotas.

2016 hyundai ioniq here. (subjectively the best car ever.) Hopefully I got it just before "connected cars" were mainstream. Hopefully that changes someday :(

The Chevy Bolt is about as dumb as you're going to find. Manual controls for most HVAC and radio functions. AUX-in jack. Used models are cheap.

Used ones are back down to about $16k. Over 6 years that's around $10/day for wheels.

Don't buy GM and expect privacy.[1]

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/technology/general-motors...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com