I was expecting a mention of the little tank-and-arrow icon on the gas gauge that tells you what side the filler door is on. Years of renting cars and randomly switching directions at gas stations before someone told me about that...
That was hiding in a little box in the middle of the article with the clicky title "How to tell which side the filler is on without getting out."
A bit of web trivia, one of the reasons web sites do this is because of Google. If you are using Google ads, and most web sites do, you have to conform to their guidelines with respect to ads when you come from Google. However, if you are transitioning from an internal link all bets are off you can do what you want. As a result you see a design pattern where a site tries to get you to the page with a search result, and then tries to get you to click to another page to get to more profitable (for the web site) ads.
It's still better than the old situation where you'd land on a page that was stacked full of heaps of ads. At least now if you're on mobile data, you see a page with a tiny bit of text and then 'next' and it warns you that the next page is going to be godawful and use half your month's quota.
> If you are using Google ads, and most web sites do, you have to conform to their guidelines with respect to ads when you come from Google. However, if you are transitioning from an internal link all bets are off you can do what you want.
The short of it is that Google penalizes pages if too big a percentage of the above-the-fold content is filled with ads. So if you want your pages to rank highly, you need to keep the ad real-estate reasonable. However, once someone gets to your site via a highly ranked landing page, there's nothing stopping you from getting a user to click on an internal link that takes them to a much more ad-filled page (which doesn't itself rank highly on Google).
The terms and conditions you have to sign as part of the application process to show Google ads. There is a fairly detailed list of do's and don't's which you are expected to adhere to.
I think Jalopnik and other Gawker media sites sacrifice too much quality for cash. Tangentially-car-related celebrity articles, clickbait galore, all their little SEO tricks. I was a long-time reader but I gave up on the site due to these tactics, which is unfortunate because some of their writers were (and presumably still are) very good.
But compare to TTAC, which manages to stay on topic, has excellent reporting, great stories, and uses simple ads.
One particularly odd exception I've encountered: lots of older Buick models have the fuel door hidden under the rear license plate. The rear license plate on these models is mounted on a hinged bracket that folds down to expose the fuel port, which isn't obvious at all by appearance.
I found myself rather confused by this when I noticed at a glance that my grandmother's car didn't seem to have anywhere to put fuel in it.
> (...) for cars that use a mechanical, cable-operated internal release for the fuel filler, it’s much easier to have the release be on the same side as the fuel filler flap (...)
The position of the mechanism that you use to unlock it can also give you a clue, on those vehicles where there isn't any arrow.
The classic design text 'The Design Of Everyday Things' praises the design of cars, and rightly so IMO. e.g. doorhandles are all intuitive and obvious how they are to be used, the knobs and controls are functional and well-shaped, etc.
Cars are getting worse as more things transition to touchscreens. As a driver, groping at a flat, featureless touchscreen to select something is far more difficult than trying to press a button.
Doors maybe, but I often hear "how do you open the trunk?"
Some only open from the cabin, some have an obvious knob outside, some have a concealed knob below the registration plate, sometimes you press the company logo...
Particularly now that backup cameras are mandatory, I often find myself pressing one thinking it's the hatchback release. Hopefully they designed for that.
Many are tempted to say "then don't operate the touchscreen when driving". But if e.g. air conditioning is controlled via touchscreen, you have little choice in case the windscreen becomes fogged while in traffic.
That touchscreen disabling is annoying. But luckily, it's pretty easy to hack into the system and disable it, so you can use the touchscreen any time.
Much of the time, though, the "commander" knob works well for controlling the system while driving. But once in a while, there's stuff that's just too annoying to do that way, like when trying to select an artist out of your large music library on the USB drive. If there's 100+ artists, and you're trying to pick one that doesn't start with 'A', it's much faster to use the touchscreen to select the first letter on the right side alphabet bar, then select the artist from there.
Also, entering in addresses on the nav system is impossible without using the touchscreen (you can only select favorites with the commander knob). So if you want to set an address while you're driving, you can't, without doing my hack above. Of course, it's probably not a good idea for you to enter an address or GPS coordinates while you're driving, but there's a second seat in the front row, next to you, which may have something called a "passenger" sitting in it, who can also easily reach the touchscreen. Preventing them from using the touchscreen when they're not even driving, and forcing the driver to find a place to pull over, is just asinine.
The Mazda3's HVAC system doesn't just have "good tactile buttons", it's entirely separate from the infotainment system. On the cheaper models, it's all mechanical, and on the more expensive models it's automatic, but either way it has no connection to the infotainment at all, it's all knobs and buttons just like it should be.
Temperature can be controlled using steering wheel controls. You do need to use the touchscreen to activate the defroster, though. I don't personally find it to be a problem, as the controls are right at the bottom (removing a dimension) and I never used the defroster often enough in other cars to be able to activate it without looking either.
That is just plain dangerous. There have been times that I needed the defroster, couldn't safely stop, and had to keep looking out of my rapidly-fogging window.
This probably doesn't happen where Tesla's engineering is located. The typical conditions are probably 100% humidity, then suddenly getting cold rain on the windshield.
The door handles on the rear doors of my Chevy Sonic are mostly hidden. I have to show people where they are. They usually conclude that there is no handle before I get around to telling them where they are.
That said, I love the way they look, so I'm not complaining. I don't usually have passengers anyhow.
I have to disagree. I think cars have pretty great UX. Do you remember learning to drive? At any point, was there any doubt as to what turning the steering wheel right or left would do? At any point, was there any doubt as to what the pedals did? Or the gear shifter? Or turn signals? The easiest, most intuitive software wishes it could be as immediately understandable as the control system for an automobile.
Much of that stuff has been standardized over a century. They weren't always that way on all cars.
For example, you cite the steering wheel as intuitive and obvious. It's actually not: in many early cars, there was no steering wheel. They had a "tiller" instead (a lever that you pushed from side to side to steer). There was a huge debate at the time over whether tillers or steering wheels were better. Obviously, the steering wheel won out, but if you could transport some people from 1895 to today, they'll complain that tillers should have been used instead.
The gear shifter is another example. If you drive a stick, you probably take it for granted that the gearshift is a lever in the middle between the seats. It wasn't that long ago that some cars and trucks had "3 on the column": the gearshift (manual transmission) was on the steering column. And automatic transmission gearshifts on the column persisted much longer than that; I think it took until the 90s for them to finally die out.
Turn signals aren't that obvious either; you're just used to them. My mom got a ticket in 1965 because her boss gave her his car keys to drive his car somewhere nearby. She had never driven a car before, only ridden as a passenger, but of course didn't tell him this because it would look really bad. She managed driving it ok (steering, gas), probably because she had watched others do it, but she screwed up with the turn signals and signaled the wrong direction for a turn while a cop was looking.
Most "intuitive" things aren't intuitive at all; people are just used to them because they're more or less standardized, and people have gotten used to them or have watched other people use them and learned that way. Take some primitive person from the Amazon rainforest who's never even seen a car and stick him in one (on a closed track) and see how well he figures out how to operate it. If he can't figure it out very quickly with zero instruction, then it's not "intuitive".
I just drove a 2006ish BMW and was confused at the turn signal as it didn't "click in" when pushed up or down but immediately returned to center. It operated correctly though, turning off when the turn was completed.
Also the windshield wiper control was "opposite" of what I am accustomed to: down was pulse and up was constant. I got mad the first two times I wanted pulse but then realized it was better as my right hand is typically above the stalk on the steering wheel and it is much easier to simply swipe down than have to swipe down then up.
My car was built in Europe so the turn signals are to the left of the wheel and the wiper controls on the right.
I'm used to it now but I can't tell you how many times I put the wipers on instead of indicating when I first got the car.
The car is a right-hand drive car (I'm in Australia) and a manual, so I actually think it's a bit stupid because both the gearstick and the indicator are on the left side of the steering wheel.
So it's not really possible to indicate while changing gears.
Perhaps that is part of the reason that people with European cars are so infamous for not indicating!
Unlikely. All the European cars I've seen also have the signals on the left stalk. However, this is the US, where the steering wheel is also on the left.
It sounds like your car cheaped out and kept the same control layout for both LHD and RHD versions. Having never driven in a LHD country, I have no idea what other car companies do about this.
I suspect you're right about them cheaping out on my car, but I have also driven a LHD Audi that had the same setup. So it might be common to cheap out in that way.
Can any other LHD people with european cars comment? Are your indicators on the left side of the steering wheel also?
I never said it really was superior, just that some people (living around 1900) thought so. Also, we're talking about how "intuitive" a user interface is here, not about the safety implications. It took many decades for cars to finally get airbags, collapsible steering columns, etc. It was quite routine for people to be impaled on steering columns until the late 20th century.
I wasn't arguing about superiority. It was just a though of what things would be like if it had gone the other way.
Speaking of intuitive, a tiller on a car is only intuitive if you've used it on a boat. Pushing the lever in the opposite direction of where you want to go is counter-intuitive.
No, but I was learning on an 1985 Ford F150 with a 5-speed manual transmission. There were so few controls available that my lawn mower was more complex.
My 2010 F150 now has a baffling array of buttons and switches and extra levers hanging off the steering column. It's a crapshoot getting in a strange car and figuring out how the headlights and windshield wipers work in particular.
Cruise control and audio and sometimes hazard lights too.
There's a classic Star Trek movie scene where helmsman Sulu is trying to fly a helicopter, I believe in the movie with the whales, and the helicopter stick controls do the car thing of randomly turning on windshield wipers and things.
When I was a kid, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how my parents knew which way to operate the turn signals. It was to me unintuitive as the lever was operated up/down whereas the turn lights were right/left, and as on the car we had back then (a Saab 96, IIRC) the instrument panel had only a single blinking light for when either turn signal was enabled, instead of separate left and right turn signal lights.
But yeah, IIRC there has been research suggesting that cognitive load on aircraft pilots in old-fashioned aircraft (lots of separate switches and gauges) is lower than in modern aircraft with touchscreens.
Steering wheel and pedals, sure. Gearstick, mostly, although the positioning of reverse is different in different cars, and often there's a little trick to engaging it (push the stick down, or pull up a ring just under the handle). The shifter on automatics is often weird (but at least you never have to use it while driving).
Headlights, wipers, cruise control, trip indicator, window controls, A/C, radio -- all different on different cars.
Even the turn signals can vary. If I'm signalling left and want to turn it off, I expect to be able to cancel the signal by clicking the lever upwards, but I've driven cars where that causes it to signal right instead.
Shifters with the various "reverse lockout features".
I remember being flagged down in a mall parking lot, and being asked why they couldn't shift into reverse (this shifter required being physically pushed down to move).
I had a GTI with the shifter lockout was broken (reverse all the way left and up, where 1st is..)
I grew up in cars with column shifters and front bench seats, but they were all automatic (my mom had a 1985 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency (lemon!) and a 1993 Pontiac Bonneville SE). I can't imagine the awkwardness of operating a manual in that position.
That would be a 3-speed manual with the shift lever on the steering column. I never understood how all those complicated linkages from the column down to the transmission ever seemed like a good idea to an engineer...
When I worked for the Park Service, we had this positively ancient Chevy van we inherited from the Air Force. Thing was older than me, I think. No one knew exactly how many miles it actually had on it because the odometer only had five spaces.
Anyways, it had a 3-speed column shifter, and the top linkage off the column would often pop out first thing in the morning. You could tell when it happened because it would just shift with no effort, but you wouldn't move. Then, you'd have to pop the hood and fiddle with it until you got the link reconnected.
I had an '82 Chevy pickup with that shifter arrangement and it actually wasn't that bad even though the bushings had long fallen out all the joints so there was a good inch of slop in the travel of each of the arms.
Still shifted fine. Unless you didn't get it all the way engaged and the gears would bounce instead of mesh and jam the transmission into 2nd and 3rd at the same time requiring you go get out, open the hood and give the control linkage a good yank before continuing.
Haha I have enough problems with the shift linkages on an old tractor of mine, on which the shift levers are located 4" above the transmission. I'd hate to have to deal with what you're describing here...
When I got a ride from a friend long time ago, I was puzzled by how that operates. And, of course, there were two different W patterns manufactured at different times: one where R is top-left, and one where R is bottom-right (pictured above).
However, with modern Renault shifters you can't put it into reverse when you didn't intend to, because there's that ring that you lift before it goes to R.
Many years ago we had a Renault 4 hire care in Morocco and my wife was driving and she wasn't happy using that control so she got me, the passenger, to change gear.
She'd hit the clutch, shout the gear she wanted ("Second"), I'd change gear, she'd put the clutch in and on we'd go....
However, in modern Renaults some models (Scenic) have an electric handbrake near the driver door, where the passenger possibly cannot reach it. The electric handbrake is a hill start assist as such, though. And it's one of those electric subsystems that can break, is necessary for the annual MOT check, and is very expensive to fix... (900 € for the part, plus cost of work).
And all of the special electrical thingies in my Renault are keyed to the VIN, so you can't get a used/refurb part, they've got to be new. And the Renault dealer is the only one that can program the VIN into the part.
I think my electric hand brake was 660€, but I've got a mechanic who's good at finding parts. But he still had to take it to the Renault dealer for programming.
And it relies on a 161€ clutch position sensor (which is different than the interlock for startup sensor)
Mechanically, Renaults seem pretty good. Electrically, I'm not so sure.
I actually don't remember too many problems - we drove from Marrakesh over the Atlas mountains and stayed at Ouarzazate for a while before driving back.
The problem we did have was caused by a lack of clarity as to whose responsibility it was to keep an eye on the fuel gauge... :-)
I managed 20 years of driving without seeing the arrow, probably because I was never looking for it?
I heard it mentioned on a radio show once but they said the side the tank filler was on corresponded to the nozzle on the pump icon - no mention of an arrow.
I still didn't notice an arrow until the time the nozzle on the icon actually didn't correspond to the filler tank.
> I managed 20 years of driving without seeing the arrow, probably because I was never looking for it?
Or because most cars historically haven't had it. I've only seen it in relatively recent cars (last 5 years maybe?) and even then not on all of them.
> I heard it mentioned on a radio show once but they said the side the tank filler was on corresponded to the nozzle on the pump icon - no mention of an arrow.
That one's not actually true, at least not consistently. Sometimes it works sometimes it does not so it's useless. The arrow, when present, is always correct.
I have a 2006 Chevy Impala, and the arrow is there. I had it for about two years before reading about the arrow and never noticed ("saw") it, but now it's the first thing I notice when looking at another car's instrument panel.
I would love to see what your desired car interior would look like, with little plaques everywhere for "A/C", "Headlights", "Turn Signal", "Hazard Lights", etc.
Yes, I would. I have a car with dozens of icons on the buttons, and I still cannot figure out how to turn on the heat. I know I could read the 200 page manual, but I'm too lazy, so I just punch buttons and turn knobs more or less at random.
I nearly drove of the road the other day trying to adjust the volume on the radio. It got stuck in some incomprehensible mode where the volume knob meant some other madness. I gave up and had to wait until I was stuck at a red light.
What's wrong with the labels "heat", "fan", "defroster"?
> I would love to see what your desired car interior would look like
It's not hard to find out. Look at the dash on an older car, before the Mac came out.
Absolutely yes. I can read quickly and accurately. I'm terrible at guessing and remembering pictograms. Maybe if I were an ancient Egyptian... but I'm not. I like my alphabet; it's a very good invention.
This goes for other things too: home appliances, computer software, etc.
The picture is a bit fuzzy, but the switches and knobs are clearly labeled with english words. Including words like "on" and "off". It's deadly to confuse pilots with what the latest trendy icon for "aileron trim" is.
