I almost never drive by myself. Things that lock out my girlfriend from using them are very annoying to me. Android Auto does this on some features.
It's not like it stops people from just using their phones anyway.
It's not like it stops people from just using their phones anyway.
I'm finding that more and more people are bringing a software mindset to cars.
If it can be done wrong, we should add a technology fix to stop them!
It hasn't always been this way to anywhere near this degree.
One can be a software developer and resist the urge to control the user through dark patterns/software interlocks; unfortunately it seems there is a type of person drawn toward software development in the first place by the degree of empowerment and capacity to control it offers.
I've always understood the impulse/satisfaction I've gotten out of writing it; but for me the end goal was writing the perfect tool to satisfy the end-user's workflow/experience. I've never been fond of using software as a means of mass coercion via "middle-users"; and when I see, or am asked to be part of it, it's generally a safe bet a philosophical rant/entreaty isn't far away.
And besides which, screw Software interlocks. If it's important enough, dedicate hardware to it, lest you feel like ending up as the next THERAC-25/737-MAX.
By that logic, doors needn't support locks, because people can just break windows anyways. Likewise, why put safety features in cars, people can just ride motorcycles?
When you're making a thing, your job is to make that thing safe. The fact that people can use other, less-safe things does not in any way abrogate your responsibility for the safety of the thing you make.