15 hours ago, birdguy said:

have a three year old Toyota Prius with a 12 inch touch screen.  I can't change the heater/air conditioner fan speed unless I pull over, park

 

Actually I agree with you there Noel. Some car manufacturers do things unnecessarily, not because it's better but because the designers think it looks cool.

Tesla and there big screen in the middle of the dash for example, so if you want to do something basic like adjusting the heater you need to fiddle about with menues. Even the speed is over to one side on the screen, so rather than flicking your eyes up to a conventional speedometer, you have to twist your head and look left at the small number on the display. And the absence of stalks for some controls etc.

The above isn't technological advancement, its designers doing things because they are cool.

The Plaid for example, with its silly yoke instead of a steering wheel. Round steering wheels work, stalks work, normal instrument panels work. Designers need to stop trying to justify their existance by incorporating features that make driving harder rather than easier.

A few ... a million $ + a few $ for ... speed camera fines😁 and for lovers of speed and manual driving of cars here is a catalog of 10 cars where the fastest one reached 331.151 MPH (532.821 KMH) .

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9t7M_V8F3E

7 hours ago, martin-w said:

Even the speed is over to one side on the screen, so rather than flicking your eyes up to a conventional speedometer, you have to twist your head and look left at the small number on the display.

That's one selling point that got my attention when I bought my Prius.  It has a HUD on the windshield for the speedometer and whatever else you want to put there.  I'm surprised a car like the Tesla doesn't have that.

I just have to flick my eyes down for second to read the speed.  I chose to have the ECO gauge on the HUD next to the speedometer.  It helps me drive most economically.  When it's in the battery mode the green line is way down at the bottom of the gauge.  When I accelerate the gasoline engine kicks in the ECO gauge is in the red area at the top of the gauge.

Noel

46 minutes ago, birdguy said:

It has a HUD on the windshield

Even my Honda has a HUD. Maybe it's becoming a standard feature.

41 minutes ago, dmwalker said:

Even my Honda has a HUD. Maybe it's becoming a standard feature.

Let's hope so Dougald.  I think it's an important driving safety feature.  It keeps your eyes on traffic.

Noel

2 hours ago, birdguy said:

That's one selling point that got my attention when I bought my Prius.  It has a HUD on the windshield for the speedometer and whatever else you want to put there.  I'm surprised a car like the Tesla doesn't have that.

 

Yes, I think a HUD is a technology that's  advantageous. 

I don't think Tesla's have a HUD, which is surprising. 

 

Edited May 1, 20224 yr by martin-w

On 4/30/2022 at 3:37 PM, Fielder said:

The book Dave2013 read was probably " I Robot" by Isaac Asimov.

No, it was a short story, not by Isaac Asimov.

Dave

In I Robot, the farther away from the human the robot went, the less protection the human had from any danger that may have been around. So the robot came closer. When it got too close, the human was in danger from the robot itself. The robot wanted to protect the human and was running away and then back closer and then away again, and then back closer. This continuous action overloaded the servos and the robot lost its ability to reason. It started to orbit around the human in an exact circle and babbling nonsense verse such as "The wages of sin is death, Jack and Jill up and down the hill, for I am Little Buttercup" or something like that.

The human had to figure how to turn off the insane robot. Robots would not permit that because then the human would have no protection. It was programmed to always protect the human.