Bad designs make me furious

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Bad designs make me furious

OXBALLS DOT COM: Sep 11, 2005; by FactsAreUseless; Young Orc

johnny sack posted:

The problem with GM's 'daytime running lights' of the late 90's/early 2000's was that, as the driver, you thought the headlights were on. So, when it starts to get dark out, you don't instinctively turn on the headlights because it looks like they're already on. As a result, you drive around like a loving idiot with headlights on but no taillights. It's unreal that every car that had this design flaw hadn't been recalled and this problem fixed. What a stupid loving design flaw. How could this have gotten past their quality department?

The solution to this is to make it so the headlights also turn on the instrument panel lights. Nobody is going to drive around when they cant see the speedometer

# ? Nov 12, 2015 01:07

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 21:09

nomadologique: Mar 9, 2011; DUNK A DILL PICKLE REALDO

Mange Mite posted:

The solution to this is to make it so the headlights also turn on the instrument panel lights. Nobody is going to drive around when they cant see the speedometer

you have never seen a person driving around without their headlights on in full darkness?

# ? Nov 12, 2015 01:12

Jenny Agutter: Mar 18, 2009

The Whole Internet posted:

having a car that's impossible and confounding for everyone including yourself to get into vs having a lock

hmm yes it's clear which of these is the dumb design

could be worse http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/06/11/texas-man-dog-die-trapped-corvette/71053474/

# ? Nov 12, 2015 02:07

Drifter: Oct 22, 2000; Belated Bear Witness; Soiled Meat

Jenny Agutter posted:

could be worse http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/06/11/texas-man-dog-die-trapped-corvette/71053474/

Ahahahahaha

# ? Nov 12, 2015 02:11

Parity warning: Nov 1, 2009; 3rd Place, TRP Sack Race 2021/22

Voltage posted:

My '14 ford fiesta has voice controls and they are absolutely useless. If I say "take me home" it just yells at me to say "navigation or climate" first. So I say navigation, wait, then say take me home. And then it goes into a tirade about how I need to say the street address, which, in the two years ive owned this car i have yet to get it to fully understand and route me to a specific address. Also, how in the gently caress would it be easier to go through a poo poo load of terrible voice menus to turn on my ac when i can just turn a knob right in front of me? The climate controls are also on a menu in the terrible touch screen for no apparent reason.

Sat nav in my car was a $1000 option and i literally just use my phone for gps every time i need it, thats how bad it is. Just always loses gps signal and the traffic info is never correct. Utter trash.

Just give me the 3 knobs for climate and an aux/usb jack for sound everything else can gently caress off forever. Except steering wheel audio controls those own.

Why did you buy it then

# ? Nov 12, 2015 02:24

Kirk Vikernes: Apr 26, 2004; Count Goatnackh

The salesman probably said, "The GPS in this car is both cool and good."

# ? Nov 12, 2015 02:26

Lawrence Gilchrist: Mar 31, 2010

quote:

5.) All teenagers should be in manual transmission vehicles. One hand on the wheel + one hand on the shift = no hands for texting.

yeah i dont trust this man's opinions

"He could not call for help because he had left his phone inside the Waffle House."

A man died because he didn't want to break the window on his dream car

Lawrence Gilchrist fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Nov 12, 2015

# ? Nov 12, 2015 02:28

thathonkey: Jul 17, 2012

Touch screens loving suck almost always. Unless you can hold it in your hand like a phone in which case it ... Still sucks

# ? Nov 12, 2015 02:41

Woof Blitzer: Dec 29, 2012; [-]

I'm the huge internet fight about an electric car or whatever

# ? Nov 12, 2015 02:42

Burt Sexual: Jan 26, 2006; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS; Switchblade Switcharoo

I exclusively use my ToMTom. No cell phones as they suck. Don't get gps op.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 02:46

Voltage: Sep 4, 2004; MALT LIQUOR!

I'm leasing it and giving it back in a few weeks, not because I want to, but because I'm too poor right now to buy it outright and I'm most likely going to replace it with some 90's shitbox nonsense.

It's actually a loving awesome car in every way except for the voice controls and touch screen (its the Fiesta ST not the pleb base model).

# ? Nov 12, 2015 02:47

criscodisco: Feb 18, 2004; do it

The Whole Internet posted:

stop pretending you own a tesla or know anyone who does (it's p obvious you're not the type of person important people would associate with)

It's sort of ludicrous to think that Teslas are only for important people. I'm not out and about much, and I see at least 2 every time I run to the store or work. There's one in my neighborhood even. If I head up to the mall or across town, I'm more likely to see half a dozen. There aren't that many important people in Columbus Ohio.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 03:27

johnny sack: Jan 30, 2004; One day, this team will play to their expectations...

Just not this year..

Lawrence Gilchrist posted:

yeah i dont trust this man's opinions

"He could not call for help because he had left his phone inside the Waffle House."

A man died because he didn't want to break the window on his dream car

He was 72. It's entirely possible that he couldn't break the window with whatever he had available. I doubt very much he could get his legs out from under the steering column to kick a window. Not in a tiny Corvette cab.

If the man was in his 60's (or younger) I would be more likely to say "why didn't he just break a window", but at 72 he probably didn't have a whole lot of strength left.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 03:30

SulfurMonoxideCute: Feb 9, 2008; I was under direct orders not to die
🐵❌💀

Mange Mite posted:

The solution to this is to make it so the headlights also turn on the instrument panel lights. Nobody is going to drive around when they cant see the speedometer

You've never been in a car with my dad. Spedometer broke but it was okay, he could determine his speed by how fast the lines on the road were going by.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 03:37

Fuck da Mods: Jun 27, 2013; fina get poz'd?

thathonkey posted:

Touch screens loving suck almost always. Unless you can hold it in your hand like a phone in which case it ... Still sucks

Lol this guy ok man let me get you a sidekick

# ? Nov 12, 2015 03:53

criscodisco: Feb 18, 2004; do it

gently caress da Mods posted:

Lol this guy ok man let me get you a sidekick

Most touchscreens I've used have left some to be desired, but the one on my phone is seriously top notch, maybe even too good, in the sense that it picks up the tiniest glancing brush.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 04:02

The Blue Pyramid: Mar 1, 2009; Kiepski to nie
kaktus;
Pić musi!

Picnic Princess posted:

You've never been in a car with my dad. Spedometer broke but it was okay, he could determine his speed by how fast the lines on the road were going by.

Hah, this reminds me of my 03 Oldsmobile Alero. After a decade, direct sunlight would cause the instrument panel to short out for about 10-20 minutes after starting the engine. After one hot summer, the panel was permanently dead. No more speedometer, fuel gauge, engine temperature, battery warnings, nothing. Also no AC or heat. By that point I only used it for a short daily commute, and its easy to estimate how fast you should be going based on who's in front of and behind you. Judging the contents of the fuel tank were a bit trickier.

I'm surprised that car lasted as long as it did before the engine block and internal computer both went kaput. That was a good car (while everything worked)

# ? Nov 12, 2015 04:07

Dial-a-Dog: May 22, 2001

Touchscreens are awesome for a tiny handheld computer like a smartphone. They are completely awful for something you should be able to use without looking at, because it turns out there aren't a lot of reference points on a featureless piece of glass

# ? Nov 12, 2015 04:07

Megillah Gorilla: Sep 22, 2003; If only all of life's problems could be solved by smoking a professor of ancient evil texts.; Bread Liar

XYZ posted:

Anything beyond 'Pull handle, open door' is, in fact, bad design.

There was a video on the BMW i8 showing how utterly loving abysmal its design was. The doors are electrical, but in case of power failure or fire, there's a manual release which is almost impossible to use without breaking it and ending up stuck inside.

The bonnet cannot be opened without at least two people and needs to have screwdrivers jammed into it to stay up. You also can't close it again with cracking the super expensive carbon fibre. As such, only the dealer is ever supposed to open it. Hope you don't run out of wiper fluid.

Want fuel? There's a minute and a half delay from when you press the button to when the filler cap opens.

For some reason, every video showing this has been scrubbed from the web.

Ever wanted to disable the annoying beeping your car makes if you turn it on without wearing a seatbelt? Hope you have an hour.

Three-Phase posted:

Also a really bad design to me is a control screen that has temperature measurements for different things in Fahrenheit and Centigrade.

Windows 10 weather tile has temp in Celsius and wind speed in miles per hour. And you can't change it to kph either. I mean, what the gently caress?

# ? Nov 12, 2015 04:26

criscodisco: Feb 18, 2004; do it

The Blue Pyramid posted:

Hah, this reminds me of my 03 Oldsmobile Alero. After a decade, direct sunlight would cause the instrument panel to short out for about 10-20 minutes after starting the engine. After one hot summer, the panel was permanently dead. No more speedometer, fuel gauge, engine temperature, battery warnings, nothing. Also no AC or heat. By that point I only used it for a short daily commute, and its easy to estimate how fast you should be going based on who's in front of and behind you. Judging the contents of the fuel tank were a bit trickier.

I'm surprised that car lasted as long as it did before the engine block and internal computer both went kaput. That was a good car (while everything worked)

I had an 03 Aurora for a while, and it had the sensors that would automatically turn the windshield wipers on if it detected water. There was no way to turn them off. So, on any muggy day, the wipers would go full speed the entire time the car was running, leading to me needing new wiper blades every few months.

Gorilla Salad posted:

My god. I just know that on the third time pulling the belt all the way out and letting it retract it would do that floppy thing where it goes halfway in and stops, and I'd have to start over.

The car I have now (a Fiat) has the seatbelt chime that never, ever goes off. I always wear my belt, but sometimes I'm just moving the car across a parking lot or driving out to the mailbox, and it makes me insane, because it's a particularly annoying chime.

EDIT:
Since people were talking about annoying automatic climate control in cars, I had a Nissan Maxima a few years ago that had the thing where you would set your temperature. I liked the concept, but I wanted it to work like a home's furnace does, in the sense where it gets the air up to a temperature and turns off, until it cools a bit. Instead, it would just constantly blow on high, but turn the air temp cooler and warmer as needed. It was impossible to drive for 45 minutes without getting chapped lips.

criscodisco fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Nov 12, 2015

# ? Nov 12, 2015 04:47

blugu64: Jul 17, 2006; Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?

thathonkey posted:

Touch screens loving suck almost always. Unless you can hold it in your hand like a phone in which case it ... Still sucks

Treo supremacy

# ? Nov 12, 2015 04:50

XYZ: Aug 31, 2001

Gorilla Salad posted:

Want fuel? There's a minute and a half delay from when you press the button to when the filler cap opens.

For some reason, every video showing this has been scrubbed from the web.

What the gently caress :psyduck:

# ? Nov 12, 2015 05:02

CloFan: Nov 6, 2004

Sounds like a lot of new cars suck, glad I drive a 2004. I didn't even realize fully-electric doors on vehicles were a thing.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 05:10

Nutsngum: Oct 9, 2004; I don't think it's nice, you laughing.

enraged_camel posted:

"This article is based on published 'facts' and not at all based on real world experience with current production manual transmission vehicles."

Right. "Real world experience" AKA anecdotal evidence.

You're an idiot. EPA results are based on specific tests that rarely emulate actual driving conditions accurately. It's not "anecdotal" evidence when people enmasse calculate their consumption and find it to have been greater then the EPA reports.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 05:12

Stick Figure Mafia: Dec 11, 2004

You all are the "isn't there an easier way" people in infomercials

# ? Nov 12, 2015 05:31

Jenny Agutter: Mar 18, 2009

criscodisco posted:

I had an 03 Aurora for a while, and it had the sensors that would automatically turn the windshield wipers on if it detected water. There was no way to turn them off. So, on any muggy day, the wipers would go full speed the entire time the car was running, leading to me needing new wiper blades every few months.

lmao

criscodisco posted:

EDIT:
Since people were talking about annoying automatic climate control in cars, I had a Nissan Maxima a few years ago that had the thing where you would set your temperature. I liked the concept, but I wanted it to work like a home's furnace does, in the sense where it gets the air up to a temperature and turns off, until it cools a bit. Instead, it would just constantly blow on high, but turn the air temp cooler and warmer as needed. It was impossible to drive for 45 minutes without getting chapped lips.

Thats strange, i have a nissan and in mine the temp control works mostly by varying the fan speed. Sure once it hits the correct temperature the fan always stays on at the lowest setting but i like having moving air in a car so its perfect for me.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 05:32

Veskit: Mar 2, 2005; I love capitalism!! DM me for the best investing advice!

johnny sack posted:

This is from a few pages ago, but why hasn't someone just cut a hole in the bathroom wall and moved the light switch?

edit: it would take like 30 minutes all said and done

Not to poo poo on your idea but there's a cabinet in that corner so it's not that easy.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 14:28

thathonkey: Jul 17, 2012

gently caress da Mods posted:

Lol this guy ok man let me get you a sidekick

let me amend what i said: for typing they suck* (even if it were a fuller-sized keyboard like you can basically get on the new huge ipad)

haptic touchscreens WORK very well. unless you're wearing gloves.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 14:57

DrBouvenstein: Feb 28, 2007; I think I'm a doctor, but that doesn't make me a doctor. This fancy avatar does.

My car is an 03 Corolla, so too late to still have a tape deck, but to new to have any USB, Blurtooth, or even Aux input, so to get my phone to play music, I had to buy a new head unit. I didn't need a fancy one, and have no CDs anymore, so I bought one that doesn't have a CD player, only radio, and Bluetooth, USB, and Aux inputs.

Here it is, in all its dusty glory:

Notice anything missing? I guess because there's no CD player, they figured they didn't need basic features like a PLAY/PAUSE button. So when I connect my phone to it, I have fumble with my phone to play/pause my music/podcasts/whatever.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 15:12

Hammerite: Mar 9, 2007; And you don't remember what I said here, either, but it was pompous and stupid.; Jade Ear Joe

Gorilla Salad posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ATjR06h8Tw

# ? Nov 12, 2015 15:17

thathonkey: Jul 17, 2012

DrBouvenstein posted:

My car is an 03 Corolla, so too late to still have a tape deck, but to new to have any USB, Blurtooth, or even Aux input, so to get my phone to play music, I had to buy a new head unit. I didn't need a fancy one, and have no CDs anymore, so I bought one that doesn't have a CD player, only radio, and Bluetooth, USB, and Aux inputs.

Here it is, in all its dusty glory:

Notice anything missing? I guess because there's no CD player, they figured they didn't need basic features like a PLAY/PAUSE button. So when I connect my phone to it, I have fumble with my phone to play/pause my music/podcasts/whatever.

it's kind of your fault tho for buying a JVC product. they're all poorly designed and utter garbage. like did you not check out the unit before buying it?

# ? Nov 12, 2015 15:18

DrBouvenstein: Feb 28, 2007; I think I'm a doctor, but that doesn't make me a doctor. This fancy avatar does.

thathonkey posted:

it's kind of your fault tho for buying a JVC product. they're all poorly designed and utter garbage. like did you not check out the unit before buying it?

To be perfeclty honest "double check there is a play/pause" button isn't something on my list, because I never thought they wouldn't exist. I read reviews, and most were basically "it's ok." which about sums up my feelings. No one mentioned the play/pause thing.

Once I got and installed it, I assumed some button must do double-duty as play/pause, but nope.

I got the car when it was already 7 years old, and got the stereo soon after. I got a cheap one because I honestly didn't think the car would last this long.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 15:43

1gnoirents: Jun 28, 2014; hello

nomadologique posted:

i can' teven understand really why there is the option to turn off headlights ever, unless you are driving a police car

headlights aren't just so you can see but so you can be seen

they should never be allowed to go off

think of all the times you drive by idiots at dawn or dusk who don't have their headlights on because they can see, but they are invisible to you; or during rain, who don't turn their lights on

weeeee the option to commit crimes!

I have a $34,000 2013 car that doesn't have automatic lights. Also it doesn't have cruise control.

I solve this by turning my lights on lol. really pro move imo.

You should always be able to turn OFF your lights, im not sure what kind of sheltered life one must lead to not be able to think of any situation where this might be applicable. However, lights should be automatically on in general... which they are in 99.99% of cars sold in a whole lot of years so this is a non issue.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 15:58

Johnny Aztec: Jan 30, 2005; by Hand Knit

1gnoirents posted:

I have a $34,000 2013 car that doesn't have automatic lights. Also it doesn't have cruise control.

I solve this by turning my lights on lol. really pro move imo.

You should always be able to turn OFF your lights, im not sure what kind of sheltered life one must lead to not be able to think of any situation where this might be applicable. However, lights should be automatically on in general... which they are in 99.99% of cars sold in a whole lot of years so this is a non issue.

Both vehicles I've owned, something was jacked up somewhere, so the Headlight control knob did nothing. Lights would come on at dark, but no way to turn them off. Well, sometimes when it gets really cold, I can actually control them for a little while.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 16:31

boom boom boom: Jun 28, 2012; by Shine

1gnoirents posted:

im not sure what kind of sheltered life one must lead to not be able to think of any situation where this might be applicable.

Yeah, like if you're being hunted by Terminators in the future.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 16:49

nigga crab pollock: Mar 26, 2010; by Lowtax

Maoist Pussy posted:

Any automobile that isn't a stick shift is automatically Bad Design. People who can't drive stick should take the bus or stay at the convent.

agreed but i live in america where any car with a stick shifter is a RACING CAR!!!!! and therefore has a premium

02 civic automatic w 60k miles, fully loaded & clean interior? like five grand where i live.
00 civic 5 speed w 200k miles, poo poo interior, no bells or whistles, you're also looking at 5 grand. this option also probably has aftermarket wheels and a fartbox exhaust, maybe a cold air intake because the previous owner was an actual retard, and don't expect the paint to have any enamel on it because if its not spray painted the paint is gonna be gone.

unless you are driving a truck in which case trucks with manual transmissions are WORK TRUCKS and therefore nobody buys them. unless its got rims on it

nigga crab pollock fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Nov 12, 2015

# ? Nov 12, 2015 16:53