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Comment by temporallobe | Hacker News Reader

Car manufacturers are easily the winners here. If your car’s audio system doesn’t have a simple knob you can grab and twist, well, that just sucks.

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Ford moved volume control to the touchscreen, but people wanted a knob. Solution? They stuck a knob to the touchscreen. Under the knob is an artificial "finger" that touches the screen.

I haven't used it personally so all I can say is it's a hilarious solution.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/02/im-obsessed-with-the-ford-...

Tesla’s have great physical controls for the stereo under your left thumb. For all the complaints about the Tesla touchscreen, the Model 3 has really well thought-out physical controls.

They took a simple device, that was easy to make, and every china basement factory could make, and made it needlessly complicated.

Now we have a chip shortage, and not even a radio with volume control can be made without a chip that is backordered for 1y+

Still unfortunately more expensive buying the component than just putting the dial on a touchscreen.

Even if it's objectively worse in absolutely every possible dimension you could ever grade it on.

It looks cool, and that's the only nice thing you can possibly say about it.

It's a work of genius, that's just not necessarily a compliment.

That is so ingenious, it's hilarious. I can imagine the collective cringe of all designers.

This reminds me how on some home audio systems when you change volume using buttons on remote control, a servo motor turns knob of the potentiometer.

My Nissan has a center console that cedes ALL controls to the rear camera app when the car is put in reverse. So if you have music playing you can twist the physical volume knob all you like while in reverse and nothing will happen!

If you parallel park daily you'll probably experience this every time: You jump in the car, start it and put it in reverse. The music will start playing after a couple of seconds at the level that you had during your noisy commute. You now have the choice to put your car in neutral, change the volume and then go back to reverse and exit your parking spot OR try to navigate out of your parking spot with music blasting.

Maybe it's a reasonable design decision. How often is the car going in reverse? Should you really be fiddling with the UI when the car is in reverse? Sure there could be a passenger, but is it such an inconvenience?

No, I agree that it's awful. I rarely want the volume when I get in and start the car to be the same as it was when I ended my last trip. And not "fiddling with the UI" is exactly why there should be a mechanical potentiometer knob that is always available by feel to let me quickly spin down the volume and get back to driving without being distracted or annoyed by the radio. The need for that in Reverse isn't any different than in Drive.

I believe Ford automatically lowers the volume to barely hearable while in reverse — since otherwise I think passing over the UI to a more important component is a good decision.

Does the power button work, or is it also locked out?

I just checked. The power button is locked out but the volume knob works now.

Now I feel stupid, but it's quite possible that it has been patched during a yearly service.

I can twist mine as much as I like, but the radio comes on instantly and the software that cares about the volume knob being twisted starts about 3 seconds later.

I had one that would work, but only if you rotated the knob very slowly. So if you turned the car on and the music was deafening, you had to oh-so-slowly turn down the volume with one hand, while trying to staunch the bleeding from your ears with the other hand.

While an awful situation, I couldn’t help but laugh very much at how ridiculous it is. Thanks for this comment.

That's hilariously bad design

The rotary encoders typically require quite fast sampling (~1000Hz) to be reliable when turning fast (it can be also done in hardware though). They are probably running a whole RTOS on that poor microcontroller that controls radio, so can’t afford so much processing power ;)

In our Subaru, the radio comes on, but you can't turn it off for at least 10 seconds, and then it might come back on, depending on exactly how many times, and when, you tried to turn it off earlier.

I have a Toyota Camry and I haven't timed it but I think it's more like 10 seconds. Before that neither the volume knob nor the on-off button work.

Mazda got this right on the CX5 (at least in my 2016). Not only is there a knob, but it is on the center console where you can easily reach it without looking. Same goes with the controls (the touch screen is disabled when the vehicle is moving)

Mazda got this right more recently by completely ditching touchscreens in favour of physical knobs and buttons. They've even been able to move the screen further away so that it's at a more comfortable focal distance -- less time for your eyes to adjust when you flick over from the road to the screen.

My 2016 MX-5 (Miata) has the same thing, and it’s one of the many reasons why as soon as I sat in the car, I immediately fell in love with it. Mazda seems to investment a lot in ergonomics and driver enjoyment. Case in point: the new Mazda 3 2.5 Turbo.

> If your car’s audio system doesn’t have a simple knob you can grab and twist, well, that just sucks.

And is an actual potentiometer with stops at min/max volume, not some kind of digital encoder wheel that debounces my input away when I spin it down fast because I want it quiet right now and both my hands somewhere else.

I dunno, I kind of like having a second volume control at the wheel, which isn't easily compatible with having a physical potentiometer. Just make it a digital control that you can spin quickly (also let me push it for instant mute).

I'm going to pre-emptively defend Tesla here, since they are usually the canonical touch screen example - Tesla cars have a volume thumbwheel on the steering wheel.

What about the passengers? :-)

They'll listen and they'll like it.

A passenger using a touchscreen doesn't normally cause distracted driving.

Ah yes that is a very good point!

Passengers would just reduce the carbon footprint per transported person, which goes against the greenwashing stance of Musk cars.

Or put another way: those potential passengers should get their own Tesla, because more teslas are better for the environment.

The digital clock in my car audio is half of the year correct and half of the year one hour off, except after replacing battery when it's a random number. The winner are kitchen devices with digital clocks. Recently visited house with high-end kitchen with build in coffee machine, dishwasher, fridge(s), oven, stove - half a dozen digital clocks, every showing different time, all wrong. Satan himself knows and cares what combination of buttons hidden God knows where adjusts these clocks.

The new Lamborghini Huracan Evo is especially bad at this with its touch screen volume control, no knobs at all.

Alright will not be getting the Lambo then..

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