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VW Is Putting Buttons Back in Cars Because People Complained Enough
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this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
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Seems the novelty VW engineers had to be reminded of the first item in the Unix philosophy:
Make each program do one thing, and do it well.
Buttons already had this. Each single button did one and only one thing: Turn a feature on or off, or in the case of the radio, switch stations.
We didn't need complicated menus to navigate. Press the appropriate button, and voilá. It was simple. It worked.
Who the fuck came up with the idea of having to use touch menus? I have no idea, but I really hope they got fired.
the more important thing here is that you can find and press a button without looking at it
I get what you're saying, up to a point. But you really don't want the dashboard to look like the average TV remote either.
would take TV remote over touch display any day, those things are horrible in so many ways, lack of tactile feedback and having to confirm it registered the input is literally a lethal hazard because it's another reason people aren't looking on the road while driving
Have you ever seen an airplane cockpit? Those things are crowded and confusing. A car, on the other hand, is simple enough that the average person gets used to all of the button, knobs, switches and dials in a few days.
Why? It's not an art peice hanging above your desk. You're putting from over function.
I mean, I get a bit jealous when I see the cockpit of an F1 car. So many knobs, buttons, and switches and they don't even have climate control or entertainment systems.
That level isn't necessary with daily drivers, but I'd rather have physical buttons for any action I'll want to do while moving and zero latency for any action that physically positions something like my seat or mirrors.
I would be down with that, 100%.
My car doesn't have nearly that many functions, though. Nor do I want it to. Owners of modern cars would shit a brick if they saw the dash on my '99 Silverado and how simple it is. It has a grand total of about 12 buttons on it, and three dials. That's it.
Somehow it manages to drive down the road just fine, heat or cool the interior, twiddle all the lights, change all the radio stations, play or rewind the tape. (Yes, tape.) Just with those few controls, all of which only do one thing. Except the turn signal stalk, and technically I guess the shifter lever because it has the tow/haul button on the end of it.
The amount of bullshit that's built into modern cars is astounding. The majority of that crap doesn't need to be in a car. Which is, you know, a transportation machine. If the passenger wants four touch screens, that's fine. I don't need one. I don't want one.
Not that airliners don't have a lot of things to press (and two people to press them), but the majority of the controls in that image are the navigation, radio, and autopilot controls.
I really just need the "fix" button
Edit: "legs" could also work of adequately sexy