[HN Gopher] Review of the Buick Riviera's 'touchscreen' from 198... ___________________________________________________________________ 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. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-10-15 23:00 UTC)