Car "info-tainment" system crashed again today. Why is mass market technology always 2 steps forward 1 step back?

Does anyone know if these are actually made by car manufacturers, or is there a common subcontractor that does Apple Play and Google whatever consoles?

The basics of good UI/UX seem to have been lost to time, in favor of shiny touchscreens with no fundamentals.

Old car radio had a very basic single line LCD. Push a button, volume knob becomes bass or treble knob, screen reflects state. Wait for the timeout and it reverts to being a volume knob again. Keep it simple.

New car touchscreen clusterkcuf first of all doesn't respond to presses (but it blinks the "button" so you know it knows you pressed it). But when it does, you get a popup bass/treble window that blocks everything else.

The EQ "faders" are as worthless as the buttons [WHOA! Eyes on the road swerve back into lane!] Give up on that for now... want to change the radio station? Good luck getting the little X to close the window, because the designers forgot what a damn timeout is.

You can either drive the rest of the way with the worthless EQ window up, taunting you, or take your life into your hands trying to close the window at speed...

Or as the dealer recommended, pull over every time you need to interact with controls that used weren't broken and didn't need to be fixed on your old radio...

@float13 if i can't physically TURN UP the volume i DO NOT want the car
@partridge @float13
Whaddyamean it doesn't have a cassette tape player?

@float13
Agree 100%. Don't buy new cars but try to maintain and repair the old ones.

It wouldn't surprise us if manufacturers are trying to increase the number of #carAccidents again (from distraction) to exceed the number of accidents from #autonomousVehicles, to increase sales of the autonomous variety.

Apparently #selfDrivingVehicle accidents are already being suppressed, so the net gain for society is likely to be zero, with #plannedObsolesence boosting turnover and waste for good measure.