People are getting fed up with all the useless tech in their cars — For the first time in 28 years of JD Power’s car owner survey, there is a consecutive year-over-year decline in satisfaction, wit...
People are getting fed up with all the useless tech in their cars — For the first time in 28 years of JD Power’s car owner survey, there is a consecutive year-over-year decline in satisfaction, wit...::People are dissatisfied with the technology in their cars, according to a new survey from JD Power. They especially don’t like the native infotainment systems.
It's not your goddamn ads platform or subscription service.
It is, however, a piece of life-safety-critical equipment.
Because it's a car, the driver wants to deal with car stuff like driving, navigating, fuel, roads, obstacles, and not killing people.
They also want to make it passably comfortable by messing with the heat or AC, the fans, the windows, and the fucking moon roof.
Messing with your phone while driving is Actually Illegal these days in civilized parts of the planet. This is for good reason: people get killed that way.
If the car requires messing with your phone, or messing with something that is basically your phone, then you have failed.
There should be a big knob with a fan icon on it. Turning this knob all the way to the left causes the fan to turn off all the way. Turning the knob all the way to the right causes the fan to turn on all the way.
If I ever have to use a touchscreen to control the side mirrors, I will become an extremely unhappy ape.
I have been saying this for years. The last thing your car should do is take your eyes off the road. This is a 1-3 ton box of metal hurdling at 60+ miles down the highway next to a bunch of other metal boxes that can all kill each other.
And car manufacturers seem to be in love with the idea of you forgetting you’re even driving. Add on all the bs lane assisting, warning bells, alerts, automatic correction, and the driver is convinced that the car will protect them.
These are all systems built on software. Last time I checked, that shit has never been reliable. If the software fails, the manufacturer can just hide behind “They weren’t paying attention!”
Mfer, YOU TRAINED THEM TO IGNORE IT. I don’t know what I’m going to do when all the cars from before touchscreens and digital gauges are no longer running or affordable because I hate the idea of having to look at a screen to change volume or turn on the AC.
When the features are actually anti-features making you pay subscription fees for things that are already part of the car, and everything is buggy as hell, of course no one wants it.
The mindless march for ever-more pointless tech in cars has pushed me into getting into classic cars more and more. Hopping into a old car is such a transformative experience. My smartphone connected through Blutooth into the stereo system is the most advanced thing in the car. The windows are huge and visibility is amazing. The ride is smooth and very forgiving. I can actually feel what the road is like because there aren't 10 layers of computers and electronics between the steering wheel and the tires.
Nowadays, all these companies are doing is trying to use technology to solve a problem created by technology to begin with. I don't need a million cameras and sensors around my car, if I have good sight-lines. I don't need a sensor to remind me to look at the road, if the driving experience wasn't so goddamn boring and devoid of fun and excitement to begin with.
I use rental cars quite often. There's so much garbage in newer cars. Why is there something trying to control my steering wheel, seriously who thought that was a good idea. Also nothing is tactile responsive anymore. It's like being sold a bloat ware filled phone where you can only use garbage native apps. They made it so much more dangerous.
The more features the more they can charge. The more features the more things there are to break. The more there is to break the more the dealers make fixing things.
I want to replace my truck with an electric one. But no one is making bare bones electric vehicles. My current truck has an AM/FM stereo and HVAC. Those are it's only features and I'm fine with that. I use a FM Bluetooth adapter in my cigarette lighter. If it dies I can replace it myself for $20. My phone does the GPS. There will never be an electric vehicle that basic. And Trucks keep getting shorter beds that are higher off the ground. I need to be able to sling drywall and plywood into the top of my bed. That gets harder and harder as the bed gets taller.
I don't give a shit about the bells and whistles they're adding to cars and the infotainment systems. I am absolutely LIVID that they are starting to lock bits of hardware (or the complete functionality of that hardware) behind subscription paywalls. If i ever buy a car and discover they've locked the heated seats behind a monthly fee, i'm tearing the infotainment system out of the fucking dash and leaving it on fire in front of the dealers house.
What boils my blood is infotainment systems with icons and functionality for premium services that you can't hide or remove. It wastes space and it's just evil. I rented a Toyota Rav4 in Florida and I swear 1/4 of the front screen was for some satellite radio service that wasn't enabled.
I have a 2009 Mazda 3 with Bluetooth connectivity and steering wheel button activated voice commands to make calls, configure the phone book and connections etc. This was the sweet spot for technology in cars in my opinion. Oh but the best part is all the dials and LCD clock are all in red light which is wonderful when driving at night.
Everything else I do via voice commands on my smartphone that's mounted on a phone mount on my dash. Like asking for GPS navigation, playing music, sending text messages.
Nowadays the car infotainment system is trying to reproduce what your smartphone already does with controls that are less intuitive.
Also, what's the deal with all the bright white and neon blue colors lighting up everything? Can I get a red filter for night driving maybe? Is that so hard to ask?
I've never had a car with a touch screen or whatever fancy centre panel - but I have scrapped old cars because the ECU decided that there was an airbag fault which was not resolved with a new airbag. I'm a full time sysadmin/developer - my car does not need a computer to go, and if it must have one, it shouldn't be a brick covered in epoxy.
I somewhat long to return to dumb electromechanical components like distributors, rather than unimaginably expensive, irreparable, interdependent systems.
I guess I like the idea of having tech in my vehicle, but it doesn't work right. I've found so many flaws in the software that can't be remedied. It's not designed with user control/customization as the main priority. Furthermore, it's tied to main functionality of the vehicle which is restrictive in what it allows you to do upgrade wise.
As an audio enthusiast, it sucks that I can't upgrade my stereo/audio system.
What would be ideal in my world is open, user focused technology, upgradeable and repairable, and not this proprietary bullshit that we currently have. This is not intelligent design.
Also, while I'm thinking about it, it's bullshit that we are forced into these operating systems. Uconnect is garbage. Just give me stock android, with the ability to do what I want to with the hardware in the way that I see fit. The responsibility, freedom, and trust of the consumer has been predetermined. I don't like that.
Man, just wait until Mercedez and BMW get away with paywalling features like heating, seat adjustments and fucking max speed. Then you'll see satisfaction take a dive, to the surprise of no-fucking-one
Why do I need a camera in the dash , focused on the driver, Toyota? (Eyes off the road for 5secs results in audio reminder to watch the road)
How long until Insurance or LE can access it?
Yaaaa, extra insurance (or none) for you! “You look away from the road too often, and you cry in your car on the way home from work. Both say you are a risk. “. Now insert your LE scenario….
My car is 17 years old. It won't be long before I need to look out for a new one. Posts like these make me wary of buying a new one.
What would annoy me the most is having little to no physical buttons for trivial things, and the built in SBC to be slow as fuck. I hate lag on these systems. My wife has a smaller car with android auto and using the interface is just dreadful.
If there would be an electric car with the interior of my current car I would probably take it. It has a small chromosone display, just replace with a color one and let me control it with android auto and done.
Airlines have started to ditch their on board entertainment system and allowing people to use their smartphones instead. Cars should be like this too. Simply allow us to plug in our phones to act as the computer for entertainment, navigation and climate control. Keep tactile knobs and buttons for fall back.
I couldn’t care less about all of the proprietary “infotainment” stuff, but I’ll never buy another car that doesn’t have Apple car play or maybe Android auto if I ever switch back to Android one day. Some manufacturers have talked about killing support.
My buying habits mostly consist of living in the late 2000s and what little open source tech there is a available such as framework and pine64. I'm allergic to manufactured ewaste. If i can't maintain it, i don't want it.
I love the idea of a computerized car and fully integrated infotainment system. In the same way I would love a fully automated house. The automation and debugging benefits would be incredible. But only if I'm in control at an open source hardware / software level. Otherwise it's just manufactured ewaste to me.
This trend is why I am saving to swap the engine on my car when it blows. I don't like any screens in my car but a digital clock, and maybe a readout on the dash. I just want a fun, reliable vehicle with excellent AC, good safety ratings, and decent fuel mileage. Power windows are a bonus. Lol
The increasing tech-ification of (all) cars played a role in reducing how much I want a car. Now I'm yearning for the simplicity and visceral feel of a motorcycle, and I will give in to these temptations soon.
Same reason I'm still driving an older truck. While I've been wanting to upgrade to a new truck, I don't want to deal with the computer controlling every aspect of the vehicle (breaks, accelerator, lights, etc.) As it is now, if I want to turn my headlights on, a relay controls it. Same with the turn signal, radio, A/C, and the list goes on
My problem with it is that "standards" aren't really standards. I have a car from 2015. It has an LCD panel that's supposed to connect to your phone. Too bad that the standards changed in 2015... Now it sits there totally useless.
I am currently keeping my 2004 going as long as possible. These people need to just make everything configurable, like a smartphone, and then I'd make the switch. It's the last piece of bad design that's keeping me on an ice vehicle at this point.
<vent>I don't want to have to look down to change the radio station just because some jackass buried it under 3 fucking menus. That's dangerous, damn it! Fuck your research, let me configure my own shit! </vent>
I have a 2006 Chevy Malibu. It goes "vroom" and gets from point a to point b. I bought a Bluetooth thing that plugs into the cigarette lighter and a little hook for my phone so now I can make calls hands free, use the GPS easily, and I can listen to my music.
The older I get and the more I get into tech, the less I want of it in my life. Especially when driving two tons of metal on the highway. Fuck that noise.
It's honestly really stupid. I think that car manufacturers are trying to design their cars to look futuristic, while not understanding that the futuristic designs from the previous 30 years are impractical, fantastical, and stupid to pull into real life. You can really tell they aren't actually trying to improve based on user feedback when designing these things.
I don't have a problem with Auto Technology, but I have a problem with a small minor feature that has nothing to do with moving a car having an ability to disable the car completely.
swapped out my dumb dash unit for android auto and never going back. next car will either have android auto and carplay or it will be easily removable/replaceable or no buy.
Just give me an amp with Bluetooth so I can play my phone through the car speakers. Anything the car makers produce will be woefully out of date before I sell the car.
This is because knobs, switches and buttons are easier to use than touchscreens. I like having carplay/androidauto while still being able to turn a knob or press a button for AC, volume, radio etc.
It's not a joke, the majority of people carry around a crazy amount of technology in our phones.
And it's not meaningfully replaced in the console. I don't know what GM's thinking because I will never accept a business or personal vehicle that doesn't have Car Play/Android Auto ever again. It's that useful...
Cars should have a screen with HDMI+USB plugs. Then you connect the microcomputer of your choice, be it an Android box, an apple cad box, a Raspberry Pi. Hell manufacturers can even make their own Honda or Toyota box but make the screen connection an open standard. Then when the tech becomes old (every 5 years) you can swap it. Cars have a longer lifespan than tech.
Last car I bought was a 2015, infotainment in it is a disaster but completely ignorable/replaceable. If cars keep going the way they are, Ill drive what I have into the ground.
If something like the AC, gear switching, volume controls, or another essential function is only usable via the touchscreen, I'd just stop considering that car because it's unsafe and time consuming to use touchscreens in cars. They're right, too much tech in cars is very annoying and I think most people (like me) would rather have dedicated physical buttons to control most actions in a car.
they basically kill the car stereo and install scene, back in the 90 to like 2010 you could easly do alot of car stereo mods I mean alot, but then they started to put this screen with car functions embeded on them like AC etc. so you can't exchange them for what you want.
My prior car had no fancy features, the nicest thing it could do was read MP3's burned on to a CD, and hold 6 CDs in the player. I traded it in and got newer car, and I think it's level of fanciness is just right for me. It has a screen, I ignore it most of the time, unless I plug my phone in to listen to music. Then I use the screen to get into Youtube Music and that's it. Or the same situation as before, but I need to navigate with Google Maps.
So by and large I can 100% ignore the screen, unless I plug in the phone. But all control of Next Track/Back, volume up/down is controlled by buttons on the steering wheel.
The largest nightmare for me is tough sensitive controls FOR EVERYTHING! I've read that it's becoming more and more common in new expensive cars, and I have not interested in that bullshit.
My parents bought a 'luxury' SUV because it was the only electric vehicle that fit their needs. Despite all the 'luxury' features, I'd prefer a Honda Civic or something due to a number of incidents with the POS infotainment system, the most notable of which is when it TRIED TO CALL 911 because its voice command function misinterpreted some background noise as a prompt.
The only reason it didn't get us arrested for abusing emergency services is because we were in an area without cellphone reception.
useful technology has been neglected for years. simple thing like autostart and remote warm up/cool down have been outsourced instead of built in. some brands are light years ahead with apps/monitoring and people are figuring that out.
I don’t mean removing knobs, knobs are good. Hiding things in 5 level deep touchscreen menus is not minimal.
I mean.. removing visual noise. Removing unnecessary lights. Streamlining controls. Taking away indicators that aren’t important.
My dashboard dials are now a screen, why can’t I have an option just to display the speed and nothing else? Why do I need to see 4 dials, two driving modes, and some other crap all the time?
There’s a separate screen for the satnav, why does it need to have permanent menus displayed on it? Or visible buttons? Road names? Status indicators for various settings? I want an oled with a black pixels-off background, roads in gray, and my route in white. Nothing else. Not using the satnav, turn the screen off.
Why do I need a perpetually scrolling display showing the name of the current song? Like sure I want an interface to choose music, but I don’t need to see it all the damn time.
CarPlay is better than most native infotainment systems but it’s far from perfect in this regard.
I have a 2023 Tuscon and I love it. The car drives incredibly smoothly, the handling is amazing, I spend about $30 a month on gas total (hybrid), it practically drives itself on the highway, and its a super comfortable and spacious interior. That being said, I do wish it had more physical buttons on the console, I think they are going back to that in the future, but I can easily live with how it is now, I just dont really fiddle with things while I am driving.
The problem is that backup camera's are mandated safety equipment, and that means a screen. And if you have to put in a screen and all that infrastructure anyway, it's only a few more dollars to add a proper infotainment system.
I don't see why my vehicle has to tell me what song is playing through my IPod, on the screen where the wheel is, that displays more important information like tire PSI and speed. The bigger screen is more than sufficient.
I've never ever had the chance of experiencing it. My car is over 23 years old by memory, still runs great as Toyota's do but damn I'd love to have something more then a broken CD player and strip black and white interface.
Perhaps I'd be one to appreciate all this 'useless' tech.
The only app I need is Android auto or a decent equivalent. Heck I don't even need on board GPS. Just let me plug in my smartphone and have it display everything on the car's screen.
Yeah my 2013 Honda has Hondalink, whatever the heck that is and an outdated GPS system which I refuse to pay to upgrade. I typically buy a five or six year old honda which I don't look forward to next go round, bc I'm sure the tech will be woefully outdated.
I just went through the car buying process the other day and it was between a Odyssey Luxury or EX-L. Honestly I hated all the space age dash shit they tried to cram into the Luxury version so I went EX-L. Was definitely one of the deciding factors exspecially considering it cost 10k more for basically only tech upgrades that I would never use. Ridiculous.
My biggest gripe is the "safety" features that just enable bad driving. Too lazy to shoulder check? don't worry, blinky light on the mirror has you. Don't bother looking back when backing out? camera has you. veering off the road a bit cause you're not paying attention? lane keep assist!
Any one of these things can fail and the shit driving habits are all some of these people have to fall back on.
Let's go back to roll up windows, standard transmissions, and using your eyes to see where things are.