I just wonder if this 'smart tech' will become like when you find a CD changer in the trunk of a car. Except these smart dashes won't be easily removable/swappable like an old cassette deck.
This will be much harder to find on new cars in the US. As our May 2018, all new cars are required to have backup cameras (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup_camera#Mandates). Now that a screen is required, it's harder to financially justify putting in a head unit that includes physical dials. Instead we're stuck with crap like "find the button for volume on the screen, then tap it 15 times to adequately adjust it". I'm hanging on to my 2011 Honda Civic for the foreseeable future, and pray the UI won't suck on newer vehicles or find a basic trim 2016-2018 that doesn't do everything on the screen.
I appreciate the safety aspect, but hate the UI of every car I've interacted with.
Any recommendations for cars whose UI doesn't suck?
In the premium space, BMW has always maintained a medium-high bar with recent iterations of iDrive. (There have been many revisions and trim variations of their system, but approximate rule of thumb for acceptable tech is 8+ inch screen, 2013 onwards.) It's not going to wow a UI nerd, but if you plan to own the car for multiple years, it's slick and effortless once you're familiar with it—especially as almost any menu item anywhere in the system can be programmed to one of the 8 or so preset buttons on the dashboard.
I therefore have dedicated buttons in my car for "Call my wife", "Trip computer details", "Open destination address book", "Spoken directions on/off", and "Begin navigating to home." And if you think that will get too complicated too quickly, BMW thought of that: each preset button has a capacitive sensor in them so if you place your finger on the button without pressing, the screen will remind you what that button is programmed to do. It's nice.
If for some reason you get a trim level that does not have cruise control, it's easy to add: drill a hole in the steering console, mount the lever, and plug it in. The car is already programmed with the feature.
Get a steering wheel with controls on it if the manufacturer doesn't offer physical buttons on the head unit. I'd be super surprised if you couldn't put a higher trim Civic's steering wheel on a lower trim Civic. Look for part outs from totaled cars (the sport and SI trims are good places to look - kids drive them irresponsibly, and they have high end tech that is usually salvageable when the body gets totaled).
I'm fairly happy with my Subaru Impreza - it has the head unit described in this post. The physical knobs and seek buttons make up for the dusty, stragnely-sensitive-sometimes, strangely-unsensitive-other-times screen.
The UI also doesn't control anything except the radio, navigation, and some system settings. All the climate controls are on separate knobs or buttons (I actually liked the physical dials for fan/temp on my old Mazda 3 Sport, the Tourings and above changed to electronic buttons and it's not as intuitive as the dials).
Anything before the late 90s? Buying an old car and then installing your own backup camera would be one possible way to get the useful features but not the annoyances.
And in a lot of modern cars the head unit is replaceable even if the manufacturer didn't envision it as such because of course the market has produced replacements anyway - like on Mercedes cars the entire head unit can be replaced by a custom one with a larger screen and running Android while not losing any of the factory functionality. On Nissan's you usually get a full dash replacement for custom radios. Quick search in AliExpress uncovers custom head units for nearly any car in existence.
Wrong. The basic model of a Dacia Duster doesn't even come with a radio. You need to upgrade from the Access (base) trim level to the Essential trim level to get a headunit.
All we need now is integration of biometrics to start the vehicle, so they know exactly who the driver is. For our safety, of course.
Old Guy checking in: no, they weren’t. They were saving themselves fifty bucks by checking the “No radio: -50.00” box on the form.
I’m responding to “Seems like it's the new norm, like how radio became the norm in cars after some time. I bet people were complaining about that in the same way you are now.”
In 1975, there was no danger your radio would become obsolete or outdated at anywhere near the speed that an awful touchscreen tablet built into your car in 2020 will. So, I’m not referring to buying a car now with an AM/FM radio. I’m not sure what one would use that for other than as an AUX input.
Many of the devices in cars currently have bugs, poor interface, slow performance, and are generally inferior to modern phones. So, continuing to perform as they do now is not a relief.
It’s like having a phone from 2014 built into ... uh, your car. I’ve upgraded my real phones and tablets 3-4 times since then, despite that the old ones still functioned same as they did when new.
One example is that it’s difficult to pair iPhones with some cars from a few years ago. What happens when software updates make me unable to connect to the Bluetooth in my car? I doubt that Ford or GM is going to release a timely update.
You might ask: why do people upgrade computing devices that still function?
They're starting to put cars on the same obsolescence train as consumer electronics. This is on a device that costs a helluva lot more. I suppose that EVs have the same issue.
The parts situation is going to be interesting. Lacking standardized design and only a limited number of years of guaranteed (and high cost) replacements, it should be interesting in a decade. Cars a tough environment and I'm afraid that wrecking yards will see a lot of usage in terms of both cars become obsolete/unfixable and as sources of spare parts.
It's interesting that the original sin of pushing towards this situation is the mandatory backup camera. Once the screen and a tolerably fast embedded system get installed, cost reduction leads you to a monolithic place for car controls. The modern fascination with cell phones probably helps the population go along.
I would think the best solution for this is to have swappable, upgradable tablets. Maybe basic operations built in, and a dock for a tablet that you could change whenever.
For any of this to function well, the manufacturers either have to work closely with competent consumer software companies, or become one themselves. It reminds me of the situation where cell phone carriers are expected to update the ROM on your old android phone, and often don’t do so regularly, because they’re not competent software or hardware companies.