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Comment by usaphp | Hacker News Reader

I don’t think bmw or Audi are losing to Tesla in technology. They both have pretty good autopilot now and each has its own cool tech features, like the 360 camera in bmw or the digital dashboard in Audi.

I am sure bmw or Audi can release a fully electric sedan to compete with Tesla, but most people I know who own bmw or Audi - they don’t like the idea of a fully electric car. They want a sense of security in having a gas engine. I guess the market is just too small for bmw and Audi to even try and go compete with Tesla at the moment. Maybe later...

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I haven’t had an Audi, but I have had many BMWs and a VW (which, UI wise, is the same as an Audi). It’s not really close to a Tesla. The digital cockpit is OKAY, but the car still has 50 buttons and it’s buggy. The infotainment system resets itself all the time. Audio glitches with car play. It’s half assed and never updated like everything else with the auto industry these days.

I'll never buy a car that doesn't allow me to turn on the air conditioning without taking my eyes off the road. In other words, physical buttons and dials that are always in the same place. Something I can feel with my fingers and always rely on being there.

Touchscreen controls sure are flashy, but as far as I'm concerned when employed in a multi-ton piece of machinery traveling at 60+mph they're borderline homicidal. I know I'm not the only one who thinks this way.

I'm open to voice controls. I don't like speaking to machines, but having machines speak to me is something I appreciate (for instance I always have my GPS talk to me, I never look at the screen) and I could see myself coming around on talking to machines. But a big old glorified ipad stuck in the dash? No way.

The climate controls aren’t ideal on the Model 3, but “Auto” does the job 90% of the time. As a complete system the Tesla UI is everything that BMW and Mercedes has tried to be for the last decade with its stupid wheels and touch pads and other gimmicks. Audi/VW is probably best in class in terms of a streamlined and feature complete set of cockpit controls but it’s jus so damn buggy. Doubly so in the US where you have to go to a dealer just to update the software.

I much preferred the fully manual controls on the late 90s early 2000 BMWs without nav to ANYTHING they have put out since. Mercedes is even worse with multiple different input gimmicks, all of which are hard to use. It’s like every year they make it worse. Somehow.

Tesla can improve with voice commands and better mapping of steering wheel controls but everyone else really just needs to scrap their entire UI and start over because their current software is just 15 years of monkey patches from the first navigation control models in the early 2000s.

Aren't there physical controls for simple things like A/C on the steering wheel, and the tablet is just for more involved workflows? That was the impression I got.

If the controls for everything that I need are physical, then I don't need the digital controls.

this

I'll admit Tesla has a few quality issues to iron out but jeebuz, every modern car has HORRIBLE software implementation(s). Horrible UI, buggy infotainment, resets, etc.

At least with Tesla you'll get constant upgrades and updates. Tesla's choice of almost no hardware interface, again, mimics the iPhone. Before that, everyone crammed a crappy keyboard on the phone that it turns out you don't need. "But how will I compose emails!?"

> But how will I compose emails!?

Slowly, and not-at-all in the rain being the answer.

Yes, I'm expecting that it'll take a while for the market as a whole to get used to the idea that they don't actually need a gas engine.

So I expect that EVs with range-extenders to launch first, but there still doesn't seem to be any major commitments along that front.

This isn't 2010. It is settled, range-extenders have a very limited self-life. I've had a Volt for five years, love the car. For me and most of my fellow Volt owners, our next (and then on) car will be a full EV.

> our next (and then on) car will be a full EV.

Yep, but I think many others will have to go through the same journey before they believe in having a pure-BEV.

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