• Dojan@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    There are places where touch controls make a lot of sense. Cars is not one of them.

    My stove also has touch controls and I’d like a stern word with whomever designed it because it’s the biggest fucking bullshit. I’ve burned myself on those controls, I’ve had the stove turn itself off and refuse to turn on again because of water splashing onto the controls, I’ve had it turn on and glitch out because I’ve cleaned it off with a slightly damp rag.

    When I’m driving I absolutely don’t want to dig through non-tactile menus just so I can adjust the climate or turn on my heated seat. Plus, the lack of tactility sucks for blind people. Sure blind people won’t drive, but imagine having to ask the driver to change your AC for you? In the dark of winter with ice on the roads that’s just horribly irresponsible of whomever designed it.

    • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      When I’m driving I absolutely don’t want to dig through non-tactile menus just so I can adjust the climate or turn on my heated seat.

      Look at Mr. Fancypants over here who can afford a heated seat subscription.

      • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        The day they try to sell me a heated seat subscription is the day I put a heated blanket with a cigarette lighter plug on my seat.

      • Dojan@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        lmao I wish. I’d fucking never support that kind of behaviour. I don’t have a car, but my roomie has a VW Golf with subscriptionless heated seats.

        I happen to have a pretty decent inside view into the whole “heated seats” bullshit too. See, I used to work for a company that did a lot of work for Stellantis. You literally can’t fathom just how much administrative bullshit work goes into the customisation of packages and spec sheets. It’s a constantly ongoing thing, thousands of man hours are wasted on it. Things change between markets, and in some markets it affect insurance levels and whatnot, so there’s just so much underlying complexity beyond “oh I want a red car with heated seats.” I’ve legit no idea how it came to be as complicated as it is, but it’s mindfuckingly idiotic. When I left I believe Stellantis was working on replacing the system with their own, but I somehow doubt that it’s an improvement.

        They are saving incredible amounts of money by flat out removing options and having them unlocked through a subscription fee. Lots of work is removed just from an administrative view, nevermind the fact that the manufacturing chain gets streamlined and money is saved there too.

        On top of that, you’re paying for the seat, it’s not like they’re including features out of the kindness of their hearts, you’re paying for all of the hardware, and then they’re trying to pretend like they’re doing you a favour by letting you “pay for it when you need it.” It’s 100% a scam, and the EU isn’t going to do shit about it because among the perps are some of the most valuable German companies, and they happen to hold the German government by their balls.

        • Bloodyhog@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          The benefit of unified hardware and not having subscriptions can be easily combined: just replace subscriptions with a one-off charge for any feature. Warranty void if enabled not in a dealer shop. I think that would create much less noise than offering a monthly sub. Yes, I know, not great for the quarterly results, but then - so much less hate from your customers. And yes, touch screens in a car should wait until there is a full, proper self-driving capability in place.

          • Dojan@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Sure, but you’d still be ripping people off. If your car has an option to unlock heated seats through microtransactions, you’ve already paid for heated seats.

          • jkrtn@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            The fact that a heated seat subscription idea didn’t completely end the consumer market for the manufacturers attempting it shows us that too few people are awake to impact their income. The manufacturer will do whatever they want, including recording every possible thing they are able to inside the vehicle.

      • prole@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        If I had read this comment even just a decade ago, I’d have thought it was clearly satire.

        But in 2024? Nope.

        Thanks capitalism!

    • lud@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Touch controls on induction stoves do make some sense though. It simplified cleaning a lot when all you have to clean is a single large pane of glass

      • Dojan@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I think there are ways you can execute touch controls well on induction stoves, but in our case I just don’t agree and overall I prefer actual tactile controls.

        The controls lack tactility, so if you’re blind you have no way of operating it. It’s also so stupidly set up, if I want to turn the top-left plate on to max, I have to hold the power button, then select the plate, then press the minus button twice, then press the plus button once, alternatively just press the plus button 9 times. The child lock has a tendency to automatically activate after I wipe it down, so if that’s engaged I have to disengage that first. Now if I were blind or visually impaired, it would be a nightmare to operate.

        Before I got somewhat used to this stove I’d keep moving hot pots onto the controls. This is obviously a user error, but it makes sense because I’ve spent the last 20 years cooking on electric stoves. Because of the inertia in hot plates, if something is too warm you move it off the plate, usually towards you or to the side. This stove has a fairly small cooking area, so if I have something cooking on the other plate, I’ll drag the pot towards me. Since it’s induction I don’t actually need to do this, but try to change a habit you’ve gotten used to by doing more or less daily for almost 20 years - it takes time.

        As a result the stove would turn off, or glitch out because it doesn’t handle multiple inputs, and then the controls would be too hot to touch.

        None of these things would be an issue if instead of having nine buttons it had four knobs. Also I keep calling them buttons, but they’re completely flat, non-tactile surfaces.

      • Ekky@sopuli.xyz
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        10 months ago

        Agreed for induction, but I’d mich rather use one or two minutes more cleaning the knobs than having to almost cook my finger on this 60-90 degree Celcius hot conventional stove’s touch surface to change the plate from step 7 to 4 for 10 FUKKEN SECONDS! OUCH!

        Having to restart it 2-3 times during cooking because it got confused (pan moved slightly to the side) is also rather annoying.

        Edit & tl:dr: Touch works decent on induction, just please keep it far away from any conventional stoves.

    • noobnarski@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      I think touch controls make sense in cars, but only for navigation and advanced settings, like for how long the headlights should stay on when you leave the car, should the mirrors fold when you lock the car, stuff like that.

      Everything else should have a button.

      • Dojan@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Absolutely, I agree with this. Controls one might want to operate while driving, or that have frequent usage should be available as tactile buttons/switches/dials/what have you. If it’s something I’m like to set once or twice a year, or in my lifetime, it might as well be in a software menu somewhere.