this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2024
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Everyone insists to have HVAC controls as physical buttons. How often do you mess with them?
I set up my previous car to 20C when I bought it and it was at 20C when I sold it. Same with the current one, which has touch screen control. It heats the cabin in winter and cools it down in summer. If it's very cold or very hot, it automatically blasts on max.
What am I missing?
I don't know. Maybe you live in a place with low teperature variations. When I get into my car on a hot summer day, I like to turn the temperature down bellow regular comfort temperature to cool down quicker. When I'm stumbling into the car after shoveling snow and scraping ice from the windshield, I like to turn it a bit higher. On long drives, I sometimes get warm after spending several hours in the leather seat, so I turn the temperature down. My girlfriend likes the temperature a bit higher, so when she uses the car, it's turned up.
It's a comfort thing, and it's definitely something I change a lot with my mechanical dials.
I agree it might be a temperature variance thing. I will frequently use the heat in the morning going to work because it's cold and then be using the AC on my way home because it's hot out.
I don't have a separate heat or AC settings (I did in my '98 car). Any car modern enough to have Touchscreen HVAC controls (and many before that) will just have a temperature setting and will turn the heating or the AC (or heat with the AC) automatically to reach the setting.
I think many people have a car like the one on the right and assume that you need to tweak the HVAC controls on the touchscreen every 20 minutes because you choose a power setting or something. Cars have had thermostats for ages. You set a temperature, leave the power on auto and it does its thing. My new car even has automatic seat warmers, they just turn on depending on how cold is it in the cabin.
I would agree that modern cars temperature controls work well. My issue is just the screen for controlling it in some of them. I don't mind messing around with the controls in my old car, but it's very convenient to just set a temperature and go.
Exactly. I have "manual" HVAC controls in my vehicles right now, but I did have a car with an automatic one. I had that set for 21C 365 days a year, and it handled everything, including switching to defrost in cold weather. I did not touch the HVAC controls in the 3 or 4 years I owned that car. The manual controls need to get adjusted several times per trip.
When the car has been sitting in the sun it's 60C inside. When I get inside, the AC blasts and max power without me touching anything until it's comfy inside. It does that in my 2021 car and it did it in my 2016 car before that. Previously I had a 98 polo with manual controls.
Yes, but I enjoy a lower temperature when I'm feeling warm. ~19 feels good for cooling down after activities in warm weather. And when I'm very cold coming into the car from a blizzard, I might crank it up to 25. My ideal extrenal temperature is dependant on several conditions, it's not statically 20.
When I realize the car or truck ahead of me is emitting something I don't want to breathe (either because I see it coming out the tailpipe, or because I start to smell it), I want to switch to recirculation RIGHT NOW, not after I navigate through a maze of menus that require me to take my attention away from driving.
Also, I want temperature regulation based on how hot or cold I feel, not what some thermometer says (and often have different opinions about where the air should be blowing depending on how I feel).
Ok, thanks for the answer!
Everything should have physical buttons because touchscreens don't have haptic feedback and therefore demand more attention, which should be focused on the road. Physical buttons can be controlled via muscle memory much more quickly.
For HVAC, not all automatic systems are created equal and some people just prefer to adjust temps and fans manually.
Directing hot or cold air around the cabin and on to the windows when you come in from the rain and everything fogs up.
Thanks for the answer, but this is also done automatically in my car, even the "defog" function turns on if the humidity is too high...
Nice! Sounds like a sweet ride!
Dreading the day my car dies. I want more volume on my music? Turn a knob. Need to turn it off and focus? Slap that same knob. Weather got nice out and I want to let the air in? Spin another knob. Never have to take my eyes off the road.
Though my only experience with modern cars and their touchscreens has been 2-5 interactions to do any of the above. All on a touch screen so you have to look away from the road for it usually.
Just FYI: Both volume and turning music off can be done from the steering wheel in any car manufactured in the last 10 years. In some others (not many, tho) you can map the HVAC on the steering wheel too.
I’ll have to figure that out when the time comes. Being able to map things and customize how the controls on your wheel would be nice. From my limited experience though, that’s not a feature I’ve seen.
I’m not against newer tech, just the fact it’s often so locked down and buggy.
Good point and thanks for the response too!
Not everyone has that auto-climate feature, leaving us to manually fuss with the settings. Also, the windscreen defroster is not a "always running" kind of feature as it can fog the glass once it gets too cold; it is usually blended in with the rest of the A/C control scheme making life tough while moving.
Not everyone has Auto-climate, true... but (as far as I know) every single car that comes with a giant touchscreen does indeed have Auto-climate.
Mine's mostly set on 22. When I feel cold I bump that up to 24, 26, maybe even 28. When I've done at the gym (multiple times per week) I want cooling down so I turn it down to 16 or 14.
All the time! My girlfriend is lizard and I'm made out of magma. So if it's just me the temperature is colder, if it's just her the temperature is warmer, and if it's both of us the temperature is somewhere in-between.
They have the perfect solution for you. When you get in, the car sets your temperature, when she gets in, hers. It can recognize you based on your keyfob or phone.
When you both are in, whoever is in the passamger seat adjusts their temperature on the screen (most cars nowadays have two or three zone climate control).
I don't want my car connecting to my phone, and I don't want my climate control system to be that complicated unless they're going to release the information to troubleshoot it. Which they won't.
I would rather just move knobs or levers because they're cheaper and easier to repair.
I have never once have had trouble with the climate system in a car (got my first one in 2004, a 98 VW Polo), so 20 years of ownership total. It's definitely not the criteria I would use to chose a vehicle, but you are of course free to use whatever criteria you want to select yours.
Using my phone as a key is gloriously convenient, one less thing to carry and care about.
And if knobs were cheaper, rest assured every manufacturer would use them.
Thanks for your answer, I see we value very different things in cars.
car manufacturers should never make anything that relies on a phone to work unless they make the source available so that it can be ported to future devices.