Posted on 04/06/2019 8:58:30 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Auto makers and Silicon Valley are locked in a fight to control the dashboard display...
The current state of play is a confused free-for-all as the two industries circle each other warily. Some car makers are turning over their dashboard operating systems to Alphabet’s Google entirely. Others, including Ford Motor Co. and Daimler AG , wager they can muster the technological chops to compete...
With his wife’s 2016 Mazda CX-5, he can’t figure out how to turn off the radio. “We can turn it down,” he said. “But off is apparently a complex process we haven’t been able to figure out.”
A Mazda spokeswoman said there is no easy way ...
Amazon.com Inc. is in the midst of rolling out its Alexa voice assistant in BMW, Toyota and Volkswagen models, though it’s limited in what it can do...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
When I buy gas if the pump starts talking to me with the ads, I turn it off, pay my $2 or so, and drive to another station. And I will never knowingly buy any vehicle that thinks my driving experience is to be filled with their ad driven nonsense and data mining algorithms. It matters not whether its the OEM or Silicon Valley types responsible.
What irks me most is the number of marketing type people that think it is okay to cover every square inch of my life with ads. Who are these people? What kind of upbringing did they experience? Do they react with glee to every robo call they receive, to every stupid, insipid, lowest common denominator commercial on tv? Do they wander the world in search of quiets moments to pollute?
It all seems a terrible waste of human effort. The percentage of my purchases driven by any drive by ad is almost unmeasurable. And now because some consulting company thinks this will be a $750 billion dollar industry at some point, the battle rages.
A childhood friend patenented the led clock used in Fords from their inception until just a few years ago. He was a multimillionaire by 28.
Car stuff will make you rich.
I just want a trash compactor in my car .... come on tech wizards. Get real
Just bought a 2018 German sedan...so damn complex I’ll never learn how to do 10% of what it’s capable of doing.
massaging seats would be good too-
Well said.
Car stuff will make you rich.
Long ago, I had a school chum that claimed his father, a Ford engineer, invented the sequential turn signal?
A hot item in the 1960’s.
They get paid extra for that, who knew!
Can anyone else remember the days when a video screen in the driver’s visual range would have been unthinkable? When did that change?
I would like to see auto makers go back and introduce cars without electronics again, and include a do-it-yourself kit for repairs. Such a car would sell for under $5,000 and help out low-income workers.
It must be noted that the bigger screens, the more gadgetry, the more bells and whistle‘s, and the more electronic distractions that you have on a car will ultimately make it less safe. Whatever happened to the pure joy of driving an automobile? Without a dozen gadgets and gizmos?
After decades of owning Japanese and American cars, I bought a Volkswagen two years ago. It is a weird car. But you get used to the controls, dials and switches.
What about looking at the road?
I’m booking my car in for a checkup. It is over ten years old, in good shape, and blessedly simple by 2019 standards. I want it to last. It has the little tv screen but that is only for the satellite radio and mechanical things. It doesn’t talk to me, show me episodes of Games of Thrones or try to sell me term life insurance at stop lights.
It amazes me that a new card has to come with a user manual about 500 pages long. It’s like the car companies discovered computers and rushed out to hire competent IT kids fresh out of college and turned them loose to cram as much apps into the car’s computer as possible.
I strip away the old debris
That hides a shining car
A brilliant red Barchetta
From a better vanished time
Same with my smartphone- it's way smarter than I am!
Any time I hear a complaint about motorists texting and driving, insimply point out that the distractions we allow to be built right into the cars on our roads are probably just as unsafe as anything the motorist is doing while driving.
The right to be left alone.
When you think about it that is the essence of freedom and conservatism.
Some years ago a VP of Procurement picked up his new lease car from security and he couldn’t start it, raised all kinds of hell until someone told him he had to step on the brake first then start it. Funny times.
My wife just bought a new phone, it is so full of crapware it becomes tedious to use.
Each time I get a new phone, I swear to root that sucker!
Then I delete everything possible and deactivate still more.
Some shite is near impossible to remove or turn off.
I consistently use about a half of dozen apps, map, flashlight,camera, HRM training, security camera viewer and texting. And maybe six more occasional use specialties.
I swear I’m gonna root that sucker!
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