{"id":87128,"date":"2024-03-11T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=87128"},"modified":"2024-03-10T21:08:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T02:08:26","slug":"87128","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=87128","title":{"rendered":"Touching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve joked – or, really, “joked” – that I may just make my millions by developing a line of televisions and other technology products with mechanical <\/em>power switches, channel selectors and other key controls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not Luddism – at least, not directly. I actually design things for people to actually use effectively<\/em> in the real world. And much of the world we interact with is designed by people with more enthusiasm than empathy for the person who’s actually trying to use their product in the real world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m looking at you, company that built my washer and dryer control panels with little tiny dark gray letters on a slightly lighter gray background, which if you’re over 40 and have a dimly lit basement makes things a lot more difficult than they should be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And at the idiots who put the touch-screen interfaces onto damn near everything in every post-2015 car I’ve rented lately:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Touch screens are ubiquitous in new cars. A recent S&P Global Mobility<\/em> survey of  global car owners cited by Bloomberg<\/em><\/a> estimates nearly all (97%) of new cars released after 2023 have at least one touch screen nestled in the cabin. Nearly 25% of US cars and trucks currently on the road reportedly have a screen at least 11 inches long according to that same survey. These \u201cinfotainment systems<\/a>,\u201d once largely reserved for leisure activity like switching between Spotify songs or making phone calls, are increasingly being used for a variety of tasks essential to driving, like flashing lights or signaling for a turn. Consumer Reports<\/em>, which regularly asks drivers about their driving experience,  claims only around half of drivers<\/a> it surveyed in 2022 reported being \u201cvery satisfied\u201d with the infotainment system in their vehicles. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So Im not the only one who wants to bring back mechanincal controls:<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Starting in 2026, according to The Sunday Times, <\/em>the European New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) will only award its top safety rating to new vehicles that use old-fashioned buttons and levers to activate indicators, hazard lights, and other critical driving features. The new requirements could force automakers who use the safety rating as a selling point to reassess the amount of driving features they make accessible only through touch screens. Though these voluntary standards are limited to Europe, a battle over buttons is gaining momentum among drivers in the US as well<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Any old time, people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll take the “W”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve joked – or, really, “joked” – that I may just make my millions by developing a line of televisions and other technology products with mechanical power switches, channel selectors and other key controls. It’s not Luddism – at least, not directly. I actually design things for people to actually use effectively in the real […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geekery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87138,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87128\/revisions\/87138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}