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Comment by porknubbins | Hacker News Reader

This headline is hopelessly overbroad in its use of “quality” and “tech”. If this trend is real is it about OEMs cheaping out and using crappy UI and ergonomics. Touch panel door handles sound godawful but I haven’t seen those yet. I don’t think the tech used in the various ECUs in a modern car has demonstrably caused a decrease in quality, and it has certainly increased capabilities.

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Isn't Tesla touch handle doors? Not sure who else has them. Not sure what benefit they add anyway. I'd imagine there is some sort of manual override for when the 12v system dies and you can't get into the car?

My guess (based on living on a dirt road which gets everything in a vehicle coated in a layer of fine clay dust) is that it reduces the number of water/dirt ingress points so the door lock lasts longer.

I've had to take the door panels off two vehicles now to clean dirt out of the locks to get them working again.

25 year old cars with mechanical keys do fine on dusty roads.

How about my 19 year old car with a mechanical key, which happens to be one of the vehicles I mentioned having to clean?

Sounds like you had a run of bad luck rather than something systemic.

There's a manual override to open it from the inside, the only way to open it from the outside in that situation is to recharge the 12V battery.

There are also terminals accessible from the front to power the electronic hood latch from an external 12V source to access the battery.

So convenient if your battery dies in the middle of nowhere.

Let's hope it doesn't happen in a blizzard. :)

Not all of them. Model Y's and I think 3's you push on the big spot and that pushes the lever out to grab. I think it might only be the higher end S and X models that have the handles pop out electronically.

Our Honda has touch sensors in the door handle and it unlocks when I grab the handle. I find it awesome since the car is keyless.

The entertainment system is absolutely horrible. I just want a simple radio but I have about a dozen different “inputs” to select from just to move between AM and FM. I swear whoever designs these are purposefully making them bad just to fuck with us.

> I swear whoever designs these are purposefully making them bad just to fuck with us.

Nah, just making the data support a desired outcome.

"Our telemetry data shows that customers just aren't using the radio. It should be safe to stop offering it as a standard feature."

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