Ford recalls SUVs … to fix the UI Ford has issued a recall for its Lincoln MKC SUVs, because drivers trying to operate the gearshift are shutting the car down by mistake. As computers invade the world of motor vehicles, and car-makers replace the old ignition key assembly with a start button, it seems they're having to relearn the basics of interface design. …
"This story has to be fake. Completely unbelievable they would place the start/stop button near any other controls. "
I'm not so sure. My Volvo (a marque with a fairly good reputation for safe design) has put the heated steering wheel switch (something you often want to turn off while driving) BETWEEN the ABS and Lane drift warning switches (things you generally don't want to turn off).
They've also put the fuel cap release and the tailgate release side by side which has caught me out a few times!
Regardless of the power button placement, buttons for gears means you have to take your eyes off the road, although with an automatic I suppose gearshifts are minimal.
Oh well, at least their UI designers resisted the urge to implement gear changes by tracing the appropriate H pattern on the touchscreen.
Trust me, it can be worse - a button activated handbrake on manual which will work only if you put your foot on the footbrake so you can no longer "start off handbrake uphill".
The imbecile in GM which put that on the new Opels should be made to drive in mountains for a week as a punishment. I was in a place where 10% gradient is considered "flat" last week and it was "fun". Trying to join into traffic coming uphill from 15% gradient side street with such "hand brake" was definitely not a rewarding experience.
As far as push buttons for gears for auto, the UI for that has settled for automatic long ago as well. There is no point to reinvent the wheel - BMW M series and Daihatsu F-Speed have shown the "right" button based gear shift decades ago.
The other issue with button (or electronic) handbrakes are that they fail.
My mum's car was hit in a car park by a rouge car where the electronic handbrake failed. The owner, when he returned to find his car across from where he parked, said it had happened a number of times, but they couldn't find a fault with it.
Also it's not as flamboyant pulling handbrake turns with your mates in the back by pushing a button.
"The other issue with button (or electronic) handbrakes are that they fail."
As do ye olde fashioned ratchety lever type.
IMO the real issue of your story is that the other car owner was a muppet - if you're driving a car with a known issue in the parking brake system, then you really ought to be taking additional steps (e.g. leaving it in gear or chocking the wheels) to mitigate against any failures in that system, especially if you've experienced such failures on several occasions and know the cause still hasn't been identified, let alone resolved.
a button activated handbrake on manual which will work only if you put your foot on the footbrake so you can no longer "start off handbrake uphill"
I drove for Audi for a while after leaving university. Some of their models featured this. However, they also included a hill-start setup whereby you could just use the throttle (and clutch if manual) to set off. Once the car realise you were setting off (putting enough torque down to the wheels) the handbrake released.
Seemed like a brilliant idea. It seemed well designed. Most of the ones I drove were manual, and so you needed the car to be in gear, have high enough revs, and slip the clutch for it to work. I can't remember how it worked on autos.
I can see, though, that it could end up being dangerous in automatics. Left in drive with handbrake on, reach over to get something from the glove box and accidentally press the throttle enough for it to disengage, and you end up either shooting forward or rolling back.
"However, they also included a hill-start setup whereby you could just use the throttle (and clutch if manual) to set off. Once the car realise you were setting off (putting enough torque down to the wheels) the handbrake released."
Yep. Vauxhall / Opel cars operate exactly the same. Whoever sold the car to voland's right hand obviously didn't explain that method of releasing the brake - the dealer that sold my car didn't show the other way to me. The car will do both though I've yet to see a use case for the 'manual' method.
I've had it for over six months now and have never rolled back on a hill start. That said, not having direct control of the brake feels strange and I still don't really trust it so hill starts are scary.
Use case for manual disengagement is a slow downhill start.
I found this shortly after getting a Renault Laguna with automatic handbrake. I parked in a short drive that sloped steeply uphill away from the road, such that to start I had to reverse into the road, first easing back to check visibility. At the time I had not spotted that the brake could be disengaged by applying the footbrake then operating the manual switch, so achieved this by selecting reverse, applying sufficient torque to get the parking brake to disengage automatically, then getting very quickly onto the footbrake before shooting out into the road. Much nicer, obviously, to disengage manually then roll back gently.
I would guess they just get used to it; it doesn't take long to adapt.
My car is a left hand drive DS23; on that, you apply the parking brake by pressing a pedal with your left foot, and release it with a lever in your left hand. The clutch is hydraulically controlled, as it's a semi-auto.
And, after the first few times you just get used to the way of doing it. I found it fairly easy to adapt last time I used a Zipcar which had one of the fancy modern electric handbrakes (a VW Golf).
I don't think I'm particularly faster to adapt to things than other people, though perhaps having a DS I'm more open to the quirky.
Quote: Yep. Vauxhall / Opel cars operate exactly the same. Whoever sold the car to voland's right hand obviously didn't explain that method of releasing the brake - the dealer that sold my car didn't show the other way to me. The car will do both though I've yet to see a use case for the 'manual' method.
Rented car, figured it myself. As far as the use case - try driving in central/northern Italy or Spain. Somewhere in a city with 15% hills and try joining traffic uphill. Bonus points for doing so with a proverbial Sicilian driver stuck up your a*** behind you leaving only 15cm between yours and his bumper.
Quote "Seemed like a brilliant idea."
Bollocks. Now try to join into traffic from a 15 degree gradient side street uphill. With someone behind you and minimal visibilty (something quite common in Spain, Italy, Greek islands, Dalmacian coast, etc). This is not just "uphill start". It is uphill start with "hesitation" which is an essential part of driving there.
With a normal manual handbrake you can easily nudge out, see someone driving across, stop, wait, nudge, stop wait then join on the 5th attempt. Your hand is on the handbrake, clutch is down, other foot on the gas. You do not move any of them between controls. Trivial with manual . In fact it is a mandatory driving exam exercise in a lot of countries (I had to do it 20+ years ago when learning to drive). Trivial with automatic too - the gearbox does it for you (slipping back on a hill will light up a gearbox fault).
With a magic handbrake? The moment you depress the clutch it deactivates so you are now committed to behaving like the proverbial german car driver - accelerating the Me109e onto an attack vector and the other drivers be damned. You cannot abort "the attack" without _MOVING_ a foot or a hand to another control. This is why it is a bad idea. Utterly stupid design - both Audi and GM.
Now try to join into traffic from a 15 degree gradient side street uphill. With someone behind you and minimal visibilty
I agree, this is a less than practical system in such a situation. I certainly prefer a manual hand brake (especially as part of the reason behind a hand brake is for emergency use, when all else fails you have a simple mechanical method of getting some braking).
In this situation, I think I would be introducing a lot of wear on my clutch by balancing it, so I was ready as soon as a gap appeared, although this would depend on the precise circumstances. It would certainly be easier with a manual handbrake.
> a button activated handbrake on manual which will work only if you put your foot on the
> footbrake so you can no longer "start off handbrake uphill".
Unless they've changed it, it will automatically release the parking brake when you pull away.
If you want worse, try a 2013 Mercedes E-class. The "hand" brake is a foot pedal, released with a lever next to the steering wheel. Mine was an auto, so maybe the manual is different.
Except... if you have a Opel / GM car with an electronic handbrake you also have hill hold assist as standard, so you don't need to use the handbrake at all.
Take foot of brake, move to accelerator, release clutch, computer releases brake for you.
The electronic handbrake is only practicable when stopped for a long time or parking.
> Trying to join into traffic coming uphill from 15% gradient side street with such "hand brake" was definitely not a rewarding experience.
I drove one of these systems for the first time when visiting the UK driving a hire Passat.
One of the most convoluted and unintuitive systems I've ever encountered particularly for hill starts. It's not that it is particularly complicated once you understand how it works, it just lacks any kind of subtlety or sensitive control when trying to carefully enter traffic. I had the car for a week and I found it to be frustrating beyond belief and certainly designed by someone that doesn't have to drive in town/city traffic on a regular basis or where there are hills.
Also, as someone else commented, the hand brake is supposed to be a failsafe, mechanical fallback that you expect to work regardless of anything else including control systems, battery etc.
Similarly, every time I changed gear in my ancient Mini, my hand would rub against my g/f's thigh. That *was* rewarding.
I notice from the last picture that Ford have now put the engine start/stop button right next to the air vent adjuster, and it's still adjacent to the PRNDL buttons. Have their people actually driven the thing, on real roads rather than test tracks?
>Push-button gear change? Really?
>Regardless of the power button placement, buttons for gears means you have to take your eyes off the road
The button just toggles the Engine Management Unit to 'Sports Mode', so it isn't necessary to touch it. I've been recently driving a UK van, a manual 3 Litre turbo diesel, that has an 'Eco' button just in front of the gear stick. By default, the unladen van is stupidly fast - engaging 'Eco' mode makes it a bit saner.
I dunno, color me old-school, but it seems that with every passing year cars are looking less like transport devices that need to be actively controlled and more like barcaloungers that do all the thinking for you. Mind, I am not opposed to the idea of driverless cars (with all appropriate safeguards) but since we are not driverless yet, is it overly paranoid to be concerned that people behind the wheel of a new car might lose track of the idea that they are DRIVING and need to stay alert to what is on the other side of the windscreen? (Of course, our grandfathers said the same thing about automatic transmission and cruise control, right?)
Modern engines have been relying more and more on electronic control to improve performance and legislated efficiency targets. Some parameters in the ECU are set to the individual engine's tolerances when it leaves the factory, and adjust to compensate for engine wear over time (this is why ECU firmware can't just be downloaded and flashed - the original firmware needs to be cloned from the ECU, modified and then flashed back in).
It isn't a bad idea for the driver to be able to have one set of engine ECU parameters for, say, good road conditions, and another for poor road conditions, since the differences can manifest as the 'feel' of the accelerator pedal. I find it useful that a van I often drive has a button that might as well be marked "Don't be so over-enthusiastic on the throttle response".
At least it's PRNDL, as mandated by the USDOT for vehicles sold in the USA... the old "Christine" pushbutton drives killed a lot of people= until banned.
2012 brought a USDOT 2015 mandate to get drive controls off touch screens and brought back the PRNDL (Lincoln tried to comply= they forgot the adjacent stop button)...so all 2015 cars have the stop button at least 1 hand span away from the PRNDL ... some luxury cars use a rotary encoder to shift gears.
IMHO= Yet again we get more USDOT mandated uniform driving controls...RS.
I hope the rotary encoder is better made than the one on our office coffee machine (which controls the volume of coffee produced), you try and turn it back up to a full mug after someone made an espresso and the thing just skips up and down with about 5/8 clicks changing the value in the direction desired. That's after just a few years wear of a fairly industrial looking machine.
with the recent innovation of small headlights...
All the power of the old 55/60w headlight but concentrated into a point 5mm wide..*
Its more like like looking at a pair of lasers coming towards you.. and for 5 secs after they've passed you can see nothing.
Stir in cyclists on footpaths on the left side using bloody flashing strobe lights and you're left wondering why you're stuck in a hedge with 3 extra knee joints in each leg.
Boris... using sunglasses to see.......at night
*And its always bloody audis too
Not to mention the stupid EU allowing brighter headlamps on cars with self-levelling suspension - looks lovely in the showroom as the dealer sits on the boot sill but effing useless driving along on a bumpy road (aka every single bloody road in the UK), cresting a hill etc where oncoming drivers are all dazzled to death.
Yet another example of lack of the 'old grey auntie test' when the kids were designing this. It happens all the time in websites and even the bigger companies - have you tried using Firefox recently and then going to Amazon? For some reason, they are more interested in playing about with fancy stuff than actually testing usability.
Ford should get my old grey auntie to test it out - she would have switched the engine off right away as soon as she tried to overtake a mobility scooter. Ford should also sack its console designers and send them back to kindergarten, where they presumably found them.
Visiting a Mercedes Benz dealer I found that their 1990s E Class models' folding armrest interfered with manual gear changer. And that the car was only available with a foot operated parking brake (what you'd normally call a handbrake). Try doing a hill start in a manual car with that !
I was told that few Mercedes Benz buyers chose manual gearboxes -- and when I did (not an E class) I felt I could see why -- the clutch seemed heavy and initially I often stalled the car. Sold it after 12 months and since then my family have been riding around in a succession of BMW 5 and Jaguar XF models.
Mind you, I also tried one of the 1990s big Jag saloons and could barely fit my size 11 feet into the footwell so much did the transmission intrude. Confirmed my suspicion that only small men drive such big cars.
And that the car was only available with a foot operated parking brake (what you'd normally call a handbrake). Try doing a hill start in a manual car with that !
It's a skill you learn very quickly.
I used to drive XMs. They have the same arrangement[1]. My first hill start was a proper WTF! moment, but after a little while, it became easy.
Vic.
[1] Having once lost a hydraulic pump drive belt on the M3, I was actually very glad of that pedal. Stopping a car that heavy on a hand-operated brake could have been interesting...
"But then that's how I feel about 90% of recent "innovations" Like VWs that light the foglight when you turn the wheel. UTTERLY POINTLESS."
My Hyundai has cornering lights, but much neater solution than these bodge job designs. It has a sideways pointing light built into the main head lamp and it nicely lights up the kerb when cornering. Especially useful when reversing in a tight space.
Actually when think about my little i10, I can't think of anything that is badly thought out (except the sound system which sounds dreadful, another £20 on speakers most likely would of sorted this)
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
