It turns out that more technology in cars isn’t necessarily something customers want, and it’s not really improving their driving experience. We know my thoughts on the matter, but I’ll do my best to stay impartial on this latest survey from JD Power that shows most customers don’t appreciate technology in cars unless they can see a clear benefit to them.
JD Power’s 2024 U.S. Tech Experience Index Study evaluated over 81,000 drivers’ experience with “advanced vehicle technologies” in 2024 model year vehicles after 90 days of ownership, It turned out to be a pretty mixed bag when it came to what people liked using. There are a number of tech features that customers like using because they feels that it answers their needs, but at the same time there is a whole lot that don’t get used very often or are continually annoying, according to the survey.
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That’s because they’re putting dumb shit in. We have the technology for example to -
Have high beams shine around other cars. (Regulators actually fucked this up)
Put all the speed and other needed information on the windshield.
Put a thermal image on the windshield so you can see the road as if it were daylight.
Use “fly by wire” controls instead of the same control scheme as a Model T.
And quite a bit more. But no instead we have the world’s worst mix of UI/UX and software in an attempt to save money and sell data.
Fly by wire would be a terrible design for a car, I’ve seen people driving on space saver tires or with taped up windows for months. If people already just ignore warning lights until something physically stops them from driving then at least having a physical steering column means there’s still control after the power steering fails so that they don’t go straight on into oncoming traffic.
On your other point about still using the same control systems as a model T, modern cars don’t. Hydraulic steering came around in the 50s and almost all modern cars have electric power steering, the model T had completely unassisted rack and pinion steering. I can’t find any definite answer on what the last car without any hydraulic steering was but I’d definitely like to find out if anyone knows.
You got me curious and found this article from 2019, it looks like the Alfa Romeo 4C didn’t have power steering. It was discontinued in 2020.
https://driving.ca/features/feature-story/these-six-cars-were-the-last-without-these-now-essential-modern-features#:~:text=A car without power steering is a,their steering inputs perfectly into vehicle movement
Yeah FBW is cool for like big super complex systems that are maintained and inspected rigorously.
Not small sporadically maintained, almost never inspected vehicles with two pedals and a two dimensional control wheel.
Don’t look at cruise control systems then.
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I was referring to the control scheme. Wheel, pedals, etc…
And we already digitally control speed. Direction can’t be that hard.
Even then we still don’t use the same control scheme as the model T then, the model T had a separate forward and reverse pedal and no clutch.
But fly by wire isn’t a matter of difficulty it’s a matter of redundancy and safety, like I pointed out before, people aren’t going to maintain the system properly and if there isn’t a back up it’s going to lead to accidents.
Okay fine, the model T was a bad example. But we have had this control scheme for a long long time.
And we already do fly by wire for acceleration. Why is turning suddenly so different?
I’ve driven a car that used a projected HUD like that before and hated every second. It is horribly distracting and unnecessary. The traditional dash is just better and has remained unchanged for so long for good reasons.
Okay. And I’ve driven stuff with projected HUD and loved not having to look away from the road. The best part about tech like that is you can turn it off. It takes literal pennies to implement.
… while pedestrians and cyclists get blinded.
Thermal imaging would mean we could reduce lights to just markers. But also those high beam systems should be able to recognize cyclists and sidewalks. It’s not perfect but it’s better than what we have now.