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...

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• nl4real@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  The older I get and the more I get into tech, the less I want of it in my life. Especially when driving two tones of metal on the highway. Fuck that noise.

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  • LordShrek@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    the “term” technology has been corrupted. what people call “tech” is not tech, it is gadgetry.

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• TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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 Anything the car makers produce will be woefully out of date before I sell the car.

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• TairikuOkami@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  When you need a manual just to find out, how to turn on the radio, something is definitely wrong.

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  • solstice@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yeah there’s something about choosing form over substance that triggers the shit out of me. I like nice things but easy simple user friendly designs are paramount IMO especially for something that can get multiple people killed like a car.

    Related: I stayed at a fancy hotel recently and the shower had a digital control panel to turn on the water, control temperature and pressure, multiple spouts etc. Take a guess how well it worked once it got steamy.

    Knobs and buttons guys, jeez.

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• 2lama@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • lolcatnip@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Nobody’s getting arrested for accidentally calling 911.

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• collegefurtrader@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Our Subaru nags you to check your text messages constantly while driving. Can’t be disabled if you want to use carplay.

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  • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Every time I’ve connected my phone through carplay I have to explicitly give the car permission to access my texts. If you refuse that permission, does the car still nag you about texts?

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• Empricorn@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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…

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• visiblink@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I just took my '91 Mazda off the road (undercarriage rust) and bought a '24 Subaru Crosstrek with an 11" touchscreen that I did not want. The best feature? You can turn it off and it stays off, every time you use the car.

  If you put the heat/AC into auto, there are physical buttons to raise and lower the temperature. The screen flashes on for a second to display the temperature change. There are also physical buttons on the steering wheel to skip through the radio stations (which display between the tach and speedometer) and adjust the volume.

  Perfect. I’m so glad not to have to leave that screen on.

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• LazaroFilm@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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• FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  My wife’s (2023) Rav4 shows texts on the screen when she receives them while driving. I’m just amazed at that.

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  • visiblink@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I hate that. I don’t connect my phone because of it.

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• MrBungle@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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  • ramjambamalam@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The ads for emergency braking are the worst, like the dad who is looking in the rearview mirror at his daughter, and then Screeeech the car slams to a hault because pops wasn’t paying attention. Everyone in the car has a sensible chuckle about it, and they go on with their day.

    No: are you crazy? Wtf are you doing? You almost ran over that woman! Pay attention!

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  • Locrin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    What a bad take. These things are safety additions and will by responsible drivers be treated as such. Backup cameras are standard safety equipment now, do you also hate those? Shitty drivers will be shitty with or without safety precautions from a car. When one of those shitty driver attempts to change into my lane while not checking if it is clear. At least I can hope their car prevents them from smashing into me.

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    • MrBungle@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That’s fair. I can understand your view.

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  • derpysmilingcat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I think you forgot that people have cell phones so those who were already couldn’t drive now can’t drive with a cell phone. And they’re driving giant cars. I need their car to scream at them because I can not.

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    • MrBungle@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Yea. I’m diligent about the phone staying in my own pocket while I’m driving. I forget I can’t always give others the benefit of the doubt.

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• zxo@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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  • boonhet@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Oh shit you unlocked a memory for me.

    Can’t find it right now because I’m at work, but I believe one of the “Real People” ads from Chevy that Zebra Corner parodied on YouTube, had a person literally say they like modern car tech because it lets them “look less at the road”, which is boring.

    I mean sorry, but wtf?

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• manitcor@lemmy.intai.tech ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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• aquielias@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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• malloc@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  True story. Next car I own will be a manual. Won’t even bother setting up the electronic junk if it comes with it.

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• Geek_King@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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• dan@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I wish my car’s interface was more minimal.

  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.

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• m3t00@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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• cpo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I used to be a techie, but my Nissan leaf of 2018 does not seem to work with Android auto for more than 20 seconds.

  And then there is the native system. It’s ugly, it’s slow. And it does not even update.

  This is my last Nissan…

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• dunestorm@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  The only tech I want in my car is satellite navigation, Bluetooth audio and Bluetooth headset support. Anything else is fluff.

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  • Getawombatupya@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Reverse camera is nice, too

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• bob_wiley@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I read an article about how much gas it saved over a long period of time and it was a trivial amount.

    Nearly every article I can find says they save around 3% with air conditioning on when it’s warm and around 10% with AC off or when AC isn’t very active. Saving 10% of fuel is really good over the life of a car. Saving 3% isn’t much over the life of a car for you, but it’s huge when multiplied by a few billion cars worldwide.

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• Blamemeta@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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  • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Okay a bit off topic but am I the only one who thinks that car companies are hiding bad design with back up cams? Like I feel like thats part of the reason why cars are getting bigger, cause they don’t need to make everything easy to see from the drivers seat.

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  • HeyJoe@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I lost the key to my car since last August and just found it a few months ago. Car needed a bunch of work since it had some problems and just got it back on the road this week. They finally canceled work from home so I needed the car. I have been using my wife’s since we both really didn’t need it much at the same time. Anyway my car is an 07 basic model car and hers is from 2015 and has a backup camera. Going back to my car is crazy just because of how used to the backup camera I had gotten. I immediately look to my center console area and go oh yeah… I then wondered just how many people have the issue of going backwards with car technology like I did!

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    • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I’d had backup cameras in my cars for 6 years, and my girlfriend’s car that I drive a lot has one, too. My current car is a 2011 work truck with roll up windows and no power locks. It has AM/FM with no tape, CD, or screen for a backup camera.

      I definitely miss the backup camera going from her car to my truck.

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  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Backup camera and more buttons than you’ll ever need

    cars.usnews.com/…/2016_volvo_xc60_dashboard.jpg

    I love my car.

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• BigilusDickilus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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  • DeanFogg@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Digital touch screen ac controls make me furious

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  • asparagus9001@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’ll be praying for you when the wave of recalls start coming out

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• 99nights@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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  • scottywh@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    There are extremely affordable aftermarket head units available that are also pretty easy projects to install even for a novice DIYer.

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    • 99nights@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      This is very true and I actually forgot about this lmao because my wife insists that we just wait until we get a new car…

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• soulifix@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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• StarDrek@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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• Froody@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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• pacoboyd@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  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.

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  • The_v@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I just bought a car for my son last month. Things I looked for:

    No major issues or recalls on the model for 5 years. Especially no major powertrain issues.

    Easy to drive and control the vehicle.

    Big mirrors and windows to make it easy to see behind.

    Comfortable seats for driving long distances.

    AWD or 4WD for our winters.

    Android auto on the screen. Buttons and knobs for all important vehicle controls.

    The number of cars that failed to have these features was terrifyingly sad. I saw some of the dumbest designs on car interiors while test driving as well.

    The most egregious was a couple of vehicles that put major vehicle controls (knobs) right next to the cup holders. Somebody has never spilled a soda on their keyboard.

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• Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Still rolling my old 2000 Honda CRV. I know nothing about any of this new car witchery.

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  • ramjambamalam@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Nice, how many miles? Did you buy it new, or how did it come to be yours?

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    • Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I bought it brand new 23 years ago! We’re at 208k. I’m pushing for 300 we goin all the way!

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