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Comment by userbinator | Hacker News Reader

Automotive "climate control" has been around since the mid-60s, and the controls of the early versions were also far more straightforward; basically, one knob for temperature and another for turning the system on/off at various settings. Here's one from 1973:

http://i44.servimg.com/u/f44/16/54/79/13/1973_c12.jpg

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I had no idea that automatic climate control (i.e. user just sets the target temperature) dates back to 1970, because it was not a standard option for low/mid-price cars yet in 90s (at least in Finland). Heck, my parents bought a Toyota Corolla in 2003 with no automatic climate control. Fascinating to see it implemented with old-style analogous controls. Same for 6-way power seat.

Indeed, it was originally only on luxury models --- Cadillac introduced it in 1964.

https://ccco.s3.amazonaws.com/kb_photos/290/2284_1964_Cadill...

I thought most of YC HN was based out of/lived in a California bubble. Surely the rest of the commenters here have modern cars? I have a VW GLI that has climate control that beats the shit out of any car I've owned before it. There was also another posted complaining about their radio having to ''boot up'' before they could change the audio volume. I've literally never heard of these issues. This is ridiculous.

I know. I'm not saying they invented it. I'm saying that it wasn't a common feature on lower price cars.

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