[HN Gopher] Review of the Buick Riviera's 'touchscreen' from 198...
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Review of the Buick Riviera's 'touchscreen' from 1986 [video]
Author : giuliomagnifico
Score : 71 points
Date : 2021-10-12 05:52 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| marcodiego wrote:
| Is it better than most modern dashboard computers?
| tpmx wrote:
| That chime sound at https://youtu.be/mEzEbS4uvuo?t=207 - it seems
| very familiar in auto contexts. Is this where it originated?
| evilbob93 wrote:
| As I heard that, I had a flashback to the first moments in many
| rental cars in my life.
| tyingq wrote:
| The note/tone sounds similar to the "ding" sound on a passenger
| aircraft...just repeated quickly.
| p1mrx wrote:
| The aircraft chime reminds me of the Home Alone theme, but I
| guess they're not in quite the same key:
| https://youtu.be/g3H9cnQDdvM vs
| https://youtu.be/nPNNFa3jF3g?t=26
| evilbob93 wrote:
| When I worked in the auto industry at Buick/Oldsmobile/Cadillac
| Engineering , I got to see one of these while it was in prototype
| stage.
|
| One reason this didn't take hold is that they found that this
| interface forced a driver to take their eyes off the road to do
| basic functions like changing the climate settings.
|
| When I got to ride in this, there was a maintenance screen you
| could pull up by pressing three of the buttons. This screen had
| functions like displaying and modifying the throttle angle, fuel-
| air mixture, etc. While driving around, we were able to change
| the fuel air mixture such that the car started running badly and
| we could smell gas.
| theodric wrote:
| FFWD to 20xx and we've learned nothing, cf. Tesla, et al.
| ddingus wrote:
| Oh, we learned it.
|
| That's not really the discussion, in my view. It's all about
| revenue and marketing.
|
| The perceived value of those exceeds potential costs and
| liabilities.
| riffic wrote:
| There's nothing like good physical controls. I believe
| designers call these "affordances", don't they?
| cf100clunk wrote:
| I have a shopping list of wishes for new cars: physical
| controls that are shaped/textured/otherwise laid out in ways
| that make them recognizable by feel or distance from the
| steering wheel. Don't make me have to try to figure out which
| rocker switch in an identical row of them performs the task I
| desire. Likewise, a set of steering wheel mini-paddles
| similar to those on new Subarus would be appreciated, but
| especially if they are reassignable by the driver. As for
| radios, go back to the old paradigm of a left volume knob and
| a right tuning knob, with concentric controls for
| reassignable features like balance, fade, bass, treble, etc.
| that can be easily achieved without scrolling through all of
| them first.
| ddingus wrote:
| Yes. I like older cars for these reasons.
|
| Basically, if one can drive at night, no cab illumination
| beyond a dim dash, the controls make sense. They make
| better sense when fewer of them are not modal.
| romwell wrote:
| >One reason this didn't take hold is that they found that this
| interface forced a driver to take their eyes off the road to do
| basic functions like changing the climate settings.
|
| ...which still applies today just as well as it did back then.
| Arrath wrote:
| Yet now the common sense reasoning is ignored.
| 0xbadcafebee wrote:
| Common sense in tech went out the window with touchscreens
| on phones. They even make the cases out of glass now. So
| not only do they break immediately, they slip out of your
| hands easier.
| ddingus wrote:
| Basically, case required. I gave up, and went for a
| battery back case. Once I got used to the size, it's all
| good and I pretty much do not care what they make the
| phones out of.
|
| That said, man... I sure miss my Note 4. Plastic back,
| plastic all over the place. Great phone, removable
| battery, fast, the works! Cat peed on it. Total loss.
| leoh wrote:
| Yes, but -- we now have far richer, more colorful, displays
| with skeumorphic design. They can be more distracting, but
| it also can mean that it's much easier to figure out how to
| do what out of the corner of one's eye.
| IncRnd wrote:
| And a person still needs to take their eyes off of the
| road to look at that wonderfully designed touchscreen.
| theodric wrote:
| Guess they can put that on my tombstone as I fiddle with
| the touchscreen or BMW iCrash trying to turn down the
| airco in traffic
| DoingIsLearning wrote:
| Android Auto and Apple CarPlay generates worse reaction
| times then driving drunk. [0]
|
| The large touchscreen trend in automotive is a
| unnecessary risk for everyone on the road and needs to be
| reverted.
|
| [0] R Ramnath, N Kinnear, S Chowdhury, T Hyatt, (2020)
| 'Interacting with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay when
| driving', TRL, Transport Research Foundation, UK
|
| https://trl.co.uk/publications/interacting-with-android-
| auto...
| Arrath wrote:
| I sincerely hope you're being sarcastic.
| evilbob93 wrote:
| I would say that we have learned, collectively, some
| strategies that work, for various definitions of "work".
| ddingus wrote:
| Vacuum Phosphor Display!
|
| Oooohhh. That's just nice, and that is all. I love those
| displays.
| FearlessNebula wrote:
| I feel like Doug would love to check that out
| varelse wrote:
| I drove a 1997 Riviera for about a decade (I know I know down
| vote me because it wasn't a 1986 Riviera). But it had some very
| interesting interface elements for the time that were less
| advanced than this but also ahead of the 1999 Camaro I had driven
| previously. I would have kept that car, it only had about 100,000
| miles on it, but one of the neighborhood CHUDs rammed it and no
| one wanted to repair the door that was destroyed by the ramming
| because no one knew where to find parts for it. Bay area by the
| way and it's a real shame because I really loved the car in all
| its gas guzzling glory.
| anonymousiam wrote:
| The Reatta control system was one of the outcomes of GM's
| purchase of Hughes Aircraft. (Another was increased plant
| automation.)
| Der_Einzige wrote:
| I love this sort of aesthetic so much, and wish that the car
| around it was better (e.g. RWD) such that it would be worth
| buying and fixing up.
| tyingq wrote:
| It was a terrible quality car, but the 86 model was front wheel
| drive, not RWD. They were FWD from 1979 until the end.
| frosted-flakes wrote:
| I think that's what GP meant; they wish it was RWD.
| tyingq wrote:
| Ah. I see. Must not live in a wintery place :)
| Mister_Snuggles wrote:
| RWD is fine in winter.
|
| Good winter tires (Nokian Hakkapeliitta in my case, but
| there are plenty of good winter tires to choose form)
| plus traction control and ABS will help a lot, but you
| also need to modify your driving behaviour as the car can
| only do so much.
|
| Give yourself more time, apply all inputs (gas, brake,
| steering) slowly and deliberately - sudden movements are
| more likely to give you a bad time. Understand how your
| car behaves in various conditions, empty mall parking
| lots are good for this. Leave more distance between you
| and the car ahead of you. Know what do to when you lose
| traction. Keep your car maintained - properly inflated
| tires, functional wiper blades and keeping the washer
| fluid topped up are important. Keep your gas tank at
| least half-full, which helps during unexpected delays and
| the additional weight helps with handling. Know what
| spots are bad in your city and avoid them. Know how to
| get your car free when it's stuck in snow - if you're
| going to rock it out, you'll probably need to disable
| traction control to do it successfully.
|
| Personally, I also avoid driving the first day or two
| after the first big snowfall. This gives the city time to
| deal with the snow and gives other drivers time to re-
| learn winter driving.
|
| Source: I've daily-driven a RWD car for years in
| Edmonton, AB.
| protomyth wrote:
| _RWD is fine in winter._
|
| Compared to 4WD, AWD, or FWD; its the worst setup for
| winter driving.
|
| _Good winter tires (Nokian Hakkapeliitta in my case, but
| there are plenty of good winter tires to choose form)
| plus traction control and ABS will help a lot, but you
| also need to modify your driving behaviour as the car can
| only do so much._
|
| That and the paragraph that follows applies equally to
| any other drive setup. Traction control is a mixed bag
| depending on manufacture. If you are stuck in the snow,
| you probably want to disable it for a bit to help you get
| unstuck. Its amazing how some manufactures (looking at
| you Chevy) goofed that up.
|
| _Personally, I also avoid driving the first day or two
| after the first big snowfall. This gives the city time to
| deal with the snow and gives other drivers time to re-
| learn winter driving._
|
| Most folks cannot take the time off and need to get to
| work.
|
| Source: North Dakota rural driver.
|
| As a side note, keep a survival kit in the car. Some tire
| chains and a tow rope are not out of line. Know where to
| attach a tow rope to your car is a good idea, you don't
| want to end up on YouTube.
| cf100clunk wrote:
| >Compared to 4WD, AWD, or FWD; its the worst setup for
| winter driving.
|
| I don't think the person was comparing them, just stating
| that RWD, when handled properly, is indeed fine for
| winter. Having driven extensively in Canada and
| Scandinavia I agree with that, although 4WD, AWD, and FWD
| are superior.
| [deleted]
| cure wrote:
| The subject is misleading; the touchscreen is shown in a Buick
| Reatta.
| p1mrx wrote:
| It looks like the Reatta was basically a smaller version of the
| Riviera, with the same control system available.
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