Working on a crank idea that machines need to feel more like machines. When you run a car with an iPad you don't appreciate that actually it's more than a ton of metal that can kill somebody if you aren't careful.
Love to use the computer. Use one all the time. Probably too much. But the computer... doesn't belong in cars. Touchscreens in the car; operating systems I have to interact with — unnecessary, unwanted, a liability
i have a theory about this related to modern vehicle designs. Newer, bubble-shaped cars/SUVs have much better fields of view, that tuck parts of the vehicle out of the driver's vision, but not being able to see your own car as much tricks your brain into thinking its a screen, not a window.
so drivers begin to act like the world outside their car is something on a television screen or video game and not actually like, several feet away from them, heightening the alienation of driving and hostility to other cars and pedestrians and cyclists.
i started thinking about this back when I drove a 91 Toyota Celica, and how different the experience of driving it was when I had the stupid little pop-up headlights up (giving me a very firm frame of reference for where the front of the car was) vs down
I remember the pop-up headlights on the ’89 Honda Accord, my first car — and yeah, this thought of yours about the visual reminder created by that mechanical choice is a good one.
my dad had a spoiler installed on the trunk of my 1990 pontiac sunbird specifically because it would make it easier for me to see where the back of the car was when I was doing things like parallel parking.
The '72 Porsche 911 a friend sold me for a very friendly price in the 90's had fenders that showed where the front of the car was and a slope so steep in front of you that it never looked like you were floating over the road. The windshield was so close to your face it felt like a helmet visor
Interesting idea. Does this also apply to COE trucks and city busses? Maybe not as there really is nothing in front of the driver in such vehicles.
I wonder if it would make cars safer to have little flags or markers denoting the border of the hood.
I also believe that one of the best ways to get safer car designs is stricter laws around criminal charges for vehicular homicide. If drivers knew they were facing real time for killing someone in a collision, there would likely be much more demand for cars that protected other road users.
Also, hunting for settings on a glare-washed screen is a demonstrably worse UI than physical levers, knobs, and pedals. Whenever ease of use has clashed with what a 4:00am comment thread poster would find cool, ease of use has not won out.
I buy this. Sort of like how it's good to know how to break down a chicken bc it teaches you some degree of respect for the animal you're consuming. Fixing up an old car is a great way to understand a vehicle as a machine.
This is kind of another one for the healthy masculinity/dudes rock files
