[–] cygon@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you were alive (and online) during the 90s, you may remember the banter between Microsoft and General Motors:

From https://crysa.fzu.cz/ondra/documents/cars_like_windows.html (the only online copy I could find)

Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five-dollar cars that get 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

[...]

The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car error" warning light.

New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.

The airbag system would ask "Are You Sure?" before going off.

Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed a hold of the radio antenna.

30 years later, some of those jokes are finally becoming reality, thanks to Tesla.

[–] Another3quenc@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Macintosh one is wild

“6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on 5 percent of the roads."

[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Love the scene from the Steve Jobs movie where Woz asks Steve if in order to send an email on the NEXT computer the recipient would also need to have an NEXT computer.

Of course!

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Basically iMessaging and FaceTime.

Blows my mind that literally every other brand of phone has settled on a standard for rich messaging and video calls, but Apple had to make a big stink about it and pinky-promise it'll be out this year.

And all the Apple users act like everybody else is inferior...while they're the only ones that are incompatible.

I bought an iPhone 12 specifically because I was tired of potato-grams between my wife and I. I switched back to Android a couple weeks ago on that pinky-promise.

Among several other Apple-isms, this one blows my mind then most.

[–] areyouevenreal@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Every other brand is running the same base OS which is Android. There are basically only two platforms for modern smartphones. Yes I know there are a few other options (mobian for example), but they aren't nearly as popular or functional.

[–] Artyom@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

I've heard of Tesla owners being unable to get into their car because their wireless-only key fob was to close to a radio dish and was being effectively jammed. The owner had to go under the car and hide the remote from the radar dish to get it to unlock

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't get this. I live in the sweet spot for ev ownership: in an area with rich liberals who like outwardly show they care about the environment.

4 people on my block have Teslas. All of them say they love the car. The guy who lives across the street from me says his only regret is that he didn't get the AWD version because his sucks in the snow. My boss owns a Tesla, said he would absolutely buy one again. My cousin leased one and said that when he goes to buy a car, it would likely be a Tesla. One of my best friends bought one, and loves it. I rented one (it was 15 dollars more a day, with free charging, so I'm pretty sure it more than made up the cost) and it was mostly a pleasure to drive (not a big fan of the touch screen for everything).

According to Consumer Reports, Tesla is one of the top brands for owner satisfaction.

Yet here on lemmy, you would think that owning a Tesla is some kind of miserable experience. I can't help but believe it's driven by a dislike of musk, rather than Teslas actually being bad cars.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think our bias is that a huge portion of us are scientists and engineers, so the things that bother us aren't the same things that bother everyone else. Most people don't worry about how their car works, or want to repair it themselves, etc.

It's not the car for a Linux user.

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Im not buying this. If it could be demonstrated, I'd be willing to bet that at least 99% of the people who upvoted this have never even changed a spark plug, let alone anything actually complicated or difficult with their car.

It's clearly en vogue on lemmy to hate on Tesla, which is almost certainly why this has so many upvotes. I just don't get why people have to pretend the cars are shit when seemingly it's really about hating musk.

[–] Th3D3k0y@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Elon Musk is a trash person, that's why I don't like Tesla

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Which is perfectly valid, imo. It's a very similar reason as to why people boycott Nestle products. It's not necessarily because Nestle products themselves are unsatisfactory, it's because people take issue with Nestle's leadership and the executive decisions they make.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago

I've changed a spark plug, and assume I'm typical here.

Dear readers: Please downvote this comment if you have never changed a spark plug.

[–] GrymEdm@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

`PC LOAD LETTER`

[–] rovingnothing29@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN!?

[–] letsgo@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's a small difference between US Letter and A4. If you have A4 in your printer but use "default" settings which would be US Letter, the printer warns you, correctly, in the same way that it should warn you if you've got a load of A5 in your printer but want an A4 print.

Never seen it but I hypothesise that if it were the other way round you'd see PC LOAD A4.

[–] meleethecat@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You’re exactly right. Those words just to you to load letter size paper in the paper cartridge (PC). You could also see PC LOAD LEGAL to load legal size paper or maybe MF LOAD LETTER to load letter size paper in the manual feeder (eg if you need to print something on letterhead).

[–] GrymEdm@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

MF LOAD LETTER

When your printer is voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 1 points 1 year ago

"Wiper fluid empty. Car shutting down."

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Most modern computerized cars are like this sadly, but i think tesla is the worst one them all

[+] TheRealCharlesEames@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

[deleted]

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So for the record, I had a non-EV car scream bloody murder, barely drivable, ABS triggering randomly, 10 warnings whenever you turned it on, and in the end it was one little burnt out sensor that caused it all.

I wouldn't buy a tesla considering all the dodgy stuff that has come out, but non-EVs are just as susceptable to the printer analogy.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I've had my car's transmission go out and keep putting itself in limp mode (won't go above 40mph) but I could still actually drive it and open the doors and windows. I just read an article of a woman who got locked into her Tesla because the fucker started updating. That's a problem literally no other cars have, nor should they.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

The woman was an idiot then, because the car has manual levers to open the doors, for cases just like this, or total power failure. It's required by law in most countries, if not all.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That kinda sounds like it might break some kinda law? A fire safety requorement comes to mind, but I'm not sure if it actually applies to cars and not just buildings.

But yes, you're right, a car you can't get out of at all times is a car no one should have.

[–] poppy@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Teslas have backup manual interior door handles but they’re somewhat obscure so not everyone know they are there.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I went through flight school in my mid-teens. The layout of aircraft controls are pretty tightly regulated per the FARs, things like the shape, texture and color of the throttle lever is set by federal law so that pilots don't mistake it for another by look or feel. Because "I'm used to the throttle being black and the mixture being red, but in this plane..." is a terrible reason to slam into a neighborhood.

I do not think it's morally right for the fail safe door latch to be different from the normally used door latch. If you are panicked because of an emergency or something, the way you're used to opening the door should be the way the door opens. You should not have to think "The car is on fire! I gotta get out! And because this is a fancy car that thinks electronic mechanisms are luxurious, the normal door release is not functioning in the event of an electrical failure. Fortunately I remember where the emergency latch is and how to use it."

[–] foofiepie@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ve spent a lot of my career amidst / adjacent to ergonomics experts and I have a feeling you’re 100% correct here. Industrial designers talk a lot about external and internal conventions and I’d wager this is one.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

For the last couple decades car manufacturers have been doing everything they can get away with to remove standard typical controls from cars. Put everything in the touch screen. Stalkless column. Let's win the award for least comprehensible gear shifter this year.

Like didn't the guy who played Chekov in JJ Abrams' Star Trek fanfic die under the wheels of his SUV because the gear shifter was confusing?

We should be regulating this stuff more strictly.

[+] shimdidly@lemmy.world -7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Elon Musk went against the establishment.

Now we hate him.

Gotta protect the establishment at all costs (those in power)

Let's attack Elon Musk!

[–] MetaCubed@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, people tend to dislike deranged narcissistic transphobes that parrot racist dogwhistles all day while also driving multiple companies into the ground and endangering people's lives with his vehicles

[–] Nevoic@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Agreed on everything, just want to make sure it's clear he's endangering people's lives by artificially restricting access to FSD. Supervised automated driving (that is, the car drives often drives itself point to point with no interventions) is statistically safer than the national average.

The fact that access to this is behind a $12,000 paywall (outside of the currently running free trial) is limiting access to a software safety feature. This should be illegal.

[–] MetaCubed@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorry, have to disagree. Tesla's special blend of vision-only driving and software built seemingly with generative ai leads to unsafe situations.

On top of that, self driving is a solution that keeps cars on the roads.... Yucky. Make the driving tests stricter to weed out idiots and build much more robust transit infrastructure for everyone else.

[–] Nevoic@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You want Tesla to create transit infrastructure? I hard disagree, that should be something the government does, not a private company. Tesla should stay in the business of making cars, and the government should move to make that obsolete in cities with good public infrastructure.

Self-driving has pushed probably 0 people in the world from using public infrastructure to using cars. I've never met anyone that has said "yeah, I was using trains daily, but I decided to buy a $50,000 car with a $12,000 software upgrade to have it autonomously drive me". You honestly think there's a person that exists that has done this?

Leads to unsafe situations

Absolutely, it's just human drivers lead to unsafe situations more often. I understand it might not feel that way, but it's the actual truth, we have massive amounts of data on this, and your feelings don't outweigh that.

[–] MetaCubed@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorry perhaps I was unclear. (Or perhaps you willfully misinterpreted me)

You want Tesla to create transit infrastructure?

I don't think Tesla should be making anything as long as the current figurehead is in charge. Transit should always be public infrastructure... Not sure how you would have thought I was advocating for privatized public transit.

You honestly think there's a person that exists that has done this?

I also never intended to suggest that self driving is pushing individuals from adopting transit.... Moreso that the proverbial carrot of "fewer road accidents thanks to self driving" is likely to prevent regulators from taking the note effective steps of:

reducing the number of drivers on the road with stricter testing and enforcement of road laws
providing an alternative for those who can no longer drive via larger investment in public transit infrastructure

I understand it might not feel that way, but it's the actual truth, we have massive amounts of data on this, and your feelings don't outweigh that.

Yep. And fewer cars overall makes pedestrians safer as well. You dont want human drivers, I dont want cars

[–] Nevoic@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

you don't want human drivers, I don't want cars

I'm the one misinterpreting you, yet when I explicitly advocate for public infrastructure to lessen the amount of cars, I'm somehow in favor of cars? You're definitely projecting.

not sure how you would have thought I was advocating for privatized public transit

Go back and read your comment. You never said the word public, I did. We were in a conversation about Tesla and its failings, and you randomly brought up "transit". So either you were making a completely off-topic point about something the government should do, or you were making an on-topic point about something Tesla should do. I read it as an on-topic comment.

the proverbial carrot of "fewer road accidents" is likely to prevent regulators from taking effective steps

Actually stop for a moment, take off your argument hat, and think about what you're advocating for. The government has had 100 years of non-self driving cars to implement the changes you've wanted. They've failed, miserably. They've actually taken a ton of steps to do exactly the opposite, and have built the largest car-centric society the world has ever seen.

Now that we have something that is statistically reducing the number of accidents on the road (autonomous vehicles, which will only get better, but already statistically outperform humans), you want private companies to revert these safety features in the hopes that the uptick in human deaths will lead to regulation that the U.S hasn't implemented in the 100 years of sole human driving?

Please tell me you're just miscommunicating your position again, and that you're actually not against the development of safety features to reduce human deaths in cars just to encourage the government to do something it hasn't done in the past 100 years.

[–] MetaCubed@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Alright, let me walk back and apologize for my performative argumentation and be extremely clear about my opinion in the shortest, most sincere way I can do this.

Fewer human drivers is good
Fewer cars on the road at all is better
Self driving does significantly increase the safety of roads, however increasing transit and reducing cars on the road increases safety for everyone by a larger margin
While selfdriving is good to reduce the number of human caused accidents, telsa's implementation is has no secondary sensors, and no map correlation for it's vision results
Even with self driving, car centric infrastructure steals valuable space that could be used for housing, transit or pedestrians
Ultimately, I think our disconnect is that my argumentation made it seem like I dont support both (I was really unclear, I apologize) self driving is really awesome for road safety, but on it's own, it still means there's generally the same amount of cars on the road. Implementation of (reliable) self driving in combination with other regulatory changes such as larger public transit investment, stricter testing regulations, stronger punishments for breaking driving laws, and more regulation on where cars are allowed will do more than self driving on its own could ever do.

[–] Nevoic@lemm.ee -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Agreed on everything, like I said in my first comment. I was fairly confident we were on the same page on everything, less cars is good, less human drivers is good, etc. I hate Musk, you hate Musk, etc.

Also I appreciate the humility, it's something very few people have, and what you've done here is what I hope I'm also able to do when needed.

I'm fully in favor of the USSR/European/Chinese/Japanese/etc. model for public transit (prefer public transportation over cars as much as possible). It vastly outperforms the U.S in every important metric (safety, reliability, cost, etc.)

Also agree that self-driving is a small piece of the overall picture. It's just I think that's the only piece Tesla really has a part in playing, most of the improvements need to happen on the government's end.

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