• watson387@sopuli.xyzOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      101
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      In my defense, my 13 year old car died earlier this year and I needed a new car fast. I was completely unaware these systems had gotten as bad as they have until after I bought it.

        • watson387@sopuli.xyzOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          80
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          As much as I love technology, I hate the way it is being used. Car companies don’t make enough money selling cars so they need to collect and sell driver data? It’s dystopian.

          • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            43
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Capitalism requires obtaining more capital than ever every quarter or you’ve failed as a company. They’re getting to the point they have to violate the customers privacy in order to chaise ever growing profits

            • LazaroFilm@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              26
              ·
              1 year ago

              Capitalism only works in a growing company in a growing market. Once you’re reached a plateau it maxes out your client base you can’t go any higher other than artificially.

        • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          In US, maybe. But in EU things are already regulated enough that this can be avoided to a degree. It’s not there yet, but EC doesn’t like shit like this. We already have GDPR and forced separate warranties for hardware and software, ensuring you can fuck around with the latter without voiding warranty on the former. But at some point I fully expect some manufacturer to give you a kill switch from GSM modem and call it a feature, then everyone else will follow.

      • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        21
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Don’t you love it when it makes you read a disclaimer and click “accept” literally every time you get into the car if you want to use your infotainment center? Who’s the asshole who came up with that brilliant idea? Whoever he is, fuck him!

        • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I suspect that’s a hedge against getting sued for one reason or another. The disclaimer always seems to be designed to absolve the manufacturer if you, e.g., follow the GPS until you drive into a lake.

          But! The one on my boss’ Tacoma he just bought dismisses itself after the vehicle has been in motion about 5 seconds, though. I think that rather defeats the purpose. (What it dismisses to in this case is a nag screen begging you to subscribe to the navigation “service,” which he has not done. That sort of thing really makes me want to see about where to buy a cruise missile.)

        • Newby@startrek.website
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          My Subaru and every other car I’ve been in the disclaimer goes away if you don’t click it. I have clicked accept in two years.

          • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Our Honda puts up a notice that essentially says “I understand that I need to keep my eyes on the road”. Yeah, no shit, Honda. But what’s dumb is that it won’t go away until you tap accept, so it ends up causing you to have to take your eyes off the road and pay attention to this stupid disclaimer screen if you forget to close it before you start driving.

      • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        It depends on the manufacturer. My Hyundai infotainment system is great. The only problem I have is that it likes to randomly connect my wife’s phone instead of mine about 5% of the time.

      • thanks_shakey_snake@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Hey friend, you are not the one who needs a defense, IMO-- You’re just the end user caught up in the nonsense. Enjoy your new car as best you can, and just make decisions that make the most sense for you.

      • blazeknave@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        10
        ·
        1 year ago

        There are electric cars built by corporate oligarchs that are not Nazis. More disconcerting you missed that memo.

        • odium@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Unfortunately, in the US at least, there’s very little choice. If we’re only counting new electric cars(not SUVs) in the low end, there’s basically only Tesla, Chevrolet, Nissan, and Hyundai. Some of the least reliable manufacturers with frequent recalls. And Tesla 3 has the most range and tech out of those for a similar price.

          When you get to the $50k+ range, then you have a lot more options with all the high end luxury brands like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, etc., offering EVs.

          • blazeknave@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            8
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Sure. I’m upvoting you for accuracy, but anyone buying Musk’s products at this point is knowingly investing in and supporting his ideologies.

            • odium@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Yep, that’s why I went with a non-electric car when I was car shopping earlier this year. I have a 220 mile drive I have to do a few times a month because of my work and Tesla is the only EV which has an epa estimated range that can comfortably deal with that. All the other low end EVs were just so much worse, especially for highway driving, and I refused to condone Musk’s antisemitism.

              But I can see people wanting a low end EV with long distance capabilities and having no other choice. It’s either the climate or all of Musk’s shit. Not a clear answer between the two. I decided I was already doing my part and being better for the environment than the avg person by avoiding meat.

            • odium@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              I went to their website, it says a new polestar 2 starts at $50k and polestar 3 at $85k. Those are the only models listed on their website. That doesn’t count as low end for me.

      • thejml@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        24
        ·
        1 year ago

        I once had a car salesman try to talk me out of ABS because the one on the lot didn’t have it. He literally told me “ABS? You only need that in an emergency!”

        I replied with “I only need headlights at night and seatbelts in an accident but I want those, too.”

        I can totally see them charging extra monthly charges or even a charge every time you activate the ABS.

      • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I have a Tesla. It’s great. I’ve received dozens of new features OTA. There are no subscriptions (except a very reasonable $10 for additional cellular connectivity, that I do not pay for). It’s the best car I’ve ever owned.

        Also Fuck Elon 👍

        • RushingSquirrel@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          I own a Tesla, I can’t imagine buying any other make now. The full experience is incredible. Every time I hear what’s going on with the new cars, especially EV, my answer to all the issues is always the same: get a Tesla instead.

          Also: Musk is a shitshow on legs

          • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Yeah, I mean there are totally legitimate reasons to not like them and not buy one but they’re very hard to beat on fun, reliability, practicality and cost-effectiveness.

      • Takatakatakatakatak@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        I can’t imagine it’s a Tesla or it wouldn’t say anything about keeping the engine running.

        Either way, fuck all this bullshit. Every day I grow less and less likely to part with my old beast BUT the near doubled and still rising price of fuel will probably force my hand eventually.

        I just went on a touring holiday and fuel was easily the largest component of my budget.

      • sky@codesink.io
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Because they’re phenomenal vehicles? And if you live in the US they have the only charging network you can actually rely on.

        I’m driving 600 miles today in mine. No problem.

    • deleted@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Unfortunately most modern cars are built this way.

      After extensive 6-months search of new car, I concluded that you have to compromise.

      I went with Nissan pathfinder and the software isn’t mature yet. Engine runs rough with misfires when idle. The car assembled with misaligned parts.

      Nissan knows and wouldn’t fix the issue.

    • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      He is possible today to buy an electric car that is not connected to internet?

      I will have am to buy a new car soon and unfortunately I don’t see too many options.

    • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah I hope Infiniti never updates their tech. They added it right before internet connectivity was easy, so it’s still mostly unconnected but it still has the luxuries like phone connectivity.

      I’m going to cry if they get the new Nissan stack

  • Da_Boom@iusearchlinux.fyi
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    153
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    While I like driving. I hate all the shit modern car manufacturers put in modern cars. Sure they’re more efficient on fuel than older ones. But we should be able to have that without needing the car to be tracked and data collected, we have in the past.

    I feel like all these driver aids are also making people worse at driving. They need to do less, so they pay attention less.

    On top of that, can we ban touchscreens in cars? Physical buttons give physical feed back, you can feel for the button you want and press it without taking your eyes off the road. A touchscreen gives you none of that, and means you have to look away. It’s somewhat mitigated when they put buttons on the steering wheel, but not all buttons can fit in that spot.

    Sure some cars have google assistant, Siri or Alexa. But I actually get so frustrated when trying to tell my phone to navigate somewhere or just simply change the song. And that’s just the phone! The amount of times I have to pull over because it glitches out, or just fails to interpret some or all of what I’ve just said (sure it’s better than voice assistants used to be, but it still breaks regularly) is still too high. The amount of times I regularly tell it to do something, only to find it was still processing the activation voice command, and therefore was initialising the VA screen, and not listening to a word I said after the initial activation is infuriating.

    I love technology, but the technology has no place in cars if it detracts or distracts from the act and safety of actually driving the car.

    /Rant.

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      57
      ·
      1 year ago

      On top of that, can we ban touchscreens in cars? Physical buttons give physical feed back, you can feel for the button you want and press it without taking your eyes off the road. A touchscreen gives you none of that, and means you have to look away. It’s somewhat mitigated when they put buttons on the steering wheel, but not all buttons can fit in that spot.

      That’s, a damn good point.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        Android Auto has a good interface for integrating its functions into a car touchscreen, but it’s not controlling anything “important”.

        I agree that all the traditional car controls should be actual knobs and buttons. I rented a car once and they gave me a Tesla, and I couldn’t stand how all the controls were behind its touchscreen. I never felt the need to buy a Tesla, but that one experience turned me off from them entirely.

        • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          1 year ago

          The more I learn about Elon and how Teslas actually work, the more I feel justified in never falling for his hype train.

    • bleistift2@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      A touchscreen gives you none of that, and means you have to look away

      That’s the reason why I don’t like listening to music on smart phones. Want to skip a track? Fish the phone out of your pocket, turn the screen back on, find the skip button, tap it, wait a second until the garbage app acknowledges that you’ve pressed it, turn off screen, put it back.

      While on my 2000’s phone it’s just pressing one of the physical buttons.

      • dan@upvote.au
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        Want to skip a track? Fish the phone out of your pocket, turn the screen back on, find the skip button, tap it, wait a second until the garbage app acknowledges that you’ve pressed it, turn off screen, put it back.

        I had a HTC Touch Pro smartphone 15 years ago, and it had an optional headphone cable with buttons on it. You could use the buttons for pause/play, next track, and previous track, without having to get the phone out of your pocket.

        I never really saw something like that again for wired headphones. I did sometimes see headphones with buttons on the headphones themselves, but often they just have play/pause.

    • redline23@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      Bruh, get a 2019+ Miata MX5. It solves 95% of what you are complaining about and it’s fun to drive.

      • Da_Boom@iusearchlinux.fyi
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        Nah, I don’t have the budget for that, and here in Australia even an NB MX5 is over 10K- I’m actually currently looking at a 08’ fiesta XR4 (in other parts of the world that’s the 2L fiesta ST)

      • thoughtorgan@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I know what you’re saying. My '23 Audi a3 has all the things you would want to buttons instead of touch screen only.

        I have huge gripes with bad infotainment systems, only reason I bought this new car was because I have no issues with it. I’m coming from old American cars. All the benefits of physical buttons with tactile feedback while being way more fun to drive.

    • Spaz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      24
      ·
      1 year ago

      I agree. Let’s cut the middle man and force 100% automated driving. People can fuck in the back then with less likely to die than with humans with stupid cars without assistance driver aids. Driving is extremely dangerous and honestly I trust ai over other people (in USA).

      • Da_Boom@iusearchlinux.fyi
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Nah, I don’t know if AI will ever be 100% perfect, and I don’t want to trust it fully. Ai is human built, and it’s my personal belief that humans aren’t perfect, so AI will therefore never be perfect.

        Also, you will always want a qualified driver to be able to take over should some part of the car sensor systems fail.

        Sensors, unlike humans have a tendency to fail quickly, sometimes instantly, and even AI and autopilot can behave erratically if it gets bad or false inputs from bad sensors.

        It’s like in a airliner, autopilot even though at this point is pretty much practically capable of flying a plane completely from takeoff to landing, there will always be at least pilots on duty in the cockpit in order to account for unforseen circumstances and failures, even if they never actually fly the plane normally.

        • cm0002@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          AI doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be better than your average human driver. Which, you know isn’t a very high bar…

          Comparing to an airplane pilot isn’t the same, a pilot goes through years of training to be able to fly passengers (Well beyond a dinky Cessna or whatever anyways) and you need years of experience on top before you are even considered by the big airlines

          A human driver can get a license in as little as a few days

          • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Or hear me out… What if we had really long cars, sometimes chained together, put them on rails, and have just 1 human drive hundreds of them.

        • Spaz@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Oh seems I wasn’t clear. Sentient AI should drive us. Give it 30 years and I bet it will be close to the outcome if not on the cusp.

          • Da_Boom@iusearchlinux.fyi
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            ·
            1 year ago

            Even if we somehow manage to create a sentient AI, it will still have to rely on the information it receives from various sensors in the car. If those sensors fail, and it doesn’t have the information it needs to do the job, it could still make a mistake due to a lack of, or completely incorrect data, or if it manages to realise the data is erroneous it still could flatly refuse to work. I’d rather keep people in the loop as a final failsafe just in case that should ever happen.

            • wabafee@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              I see your point on this but when should an sentient AI be able to decide for itself? What makes it different from a human by this point? Human, us rely on sensors too to react to the world. We make mistakes also, even dangerous one. I guess we just want to make sure this sentient AI is not working against us?

              • Da_Boom@iusearchlinux.fyi
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                6
                ·
                1 year ago

                That’s why it’s layers of security. Humans have a natural instinct - usually we can tell if our eyesight is getting worse. And any mistake we make is most likely due to us not noticing something or reacting in time, something that the AI should be able to compensate for.

                The only time where this is not true when we have a medical episode, like a grand Mal or something. But everyone knows safety is always relative. And we mitigate that by redundancies. Sensors will have redundancies, and we ourselves are also an additional redundancy. Heck we could also put in sensors for the occupants to monitor their vitals. There is once again a question of privacy, but really that’s all we should need to protect against that.

                A sentient AI, not counting any potential issues with its own sentience, would have issues with sudden failed or poorly maintained sensors. Usually when a sensor fails, it either zeros out, maxes out, or starts outputting completely erratic results.

                If any of these results look the same as normal results, they can be hard for the AI to tell. We can reconcile those sensors with our own human senses and tell if they failed. A car only has its sensors to know what it needs to know, so if it fails, will it be able to know? Sure sensor redundancy helps, but there is still that minor chance that all the redundant sensors fail in a way that the AI cannot tell, and in that case the driver should be there to take over.

                Again I will refer to the system of an aircraft, as even if it’s a 1 in a billion chance there have been a few instances where this has happened and the autpilot nearly pitched the plane into the ground or ocean, and the plane was only saved due to the pilots takeover - in one of those cases it was due to a faulty sensor reporting that the angle of attack was too steeply pitched up, so the stick pusher mechanism tried to pitch the nose down, to save the plane, when infact it already was down. An autopilot, even an AI one will have no choice to trust its sensors as that’s the only mechanism it has.

                When it come to a faulty redundant sensor, the AI also has to work out which sensor to trust, and if it picks the wrong one, well you’re fucked. It might not be able to work out which sensor is more trustworthy…

                We keep ourselves safe with layered safety mechanisms and redundancy, including ourselves. So if anyone fails, the other can hopefully catch the failure.

                • wabafee@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Wow, I appreciate the response must have taken awhile to write.

  • Mr_Buscemi@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    95
    ·
    1 year ago

    Sometimes the updates aren’t even worth it.

    Toyota said my prius needed an update so I installed the app for it. All the update did was remove fucking features that were usable in the car. Used to have the option to use Pandora from the console but it got removed randomly by an update.

    Then they installed an Alexa search page that glitches my console if I every select it.

    Basically I’m saying FUCK TOYOTA

  • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    91
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    I really REALLY hope someone at some point starts a gasoline to electric car conversion company at some point.

    I love my car because it has just the right amount of technology: Bluetooth connectivity for calls and music. That’s it. That’s all I need.

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      40
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yup. Unfortunately, since most people seem to prefer the dystopian futuretech, all auto manufacturers are going to employ it. Just like with cell phones. The last phone I know of with 16:9 aspect ratio and no blighted hole punch or notch was in 2018. There’s a market full of us luddites who prefer the old ways, but we’re invisible to manufacturers because it’s more profitable to make something that more people want to buy, and we’re forced to buy that garbage as well anyway.

        • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, it goes further than just designing the hardware to only last a few years, all of these electronics ensure that the car is fucked as soon as the necessary online services go down. Meanwhile a well-maintained '93 Geo Metro, driven in the south where they don’t salt the roads every year, can last decades.

          • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            I’ve had my 2010 Mazda 3 for 13 years now and I’m taking every precaution to keep it as long as I can.

            • cordlesslamp@lemmy.today
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              hi, I’m looking to buy my first car and have my eyes on the 2015 Mazda 3 but it is a little bit over my budget. Would you recommend getting the 2010-2013 Mazda 3 in 2023? Or just downgrade to a 2015 Mazda 2?

              • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                The 2010-2013 ones have a few problems because they’re the first of a new series. And it was when the company was breaking off with Ford and still had crap American parts.

                There was a 2012 update where they added the skyactiv engine and made a few improvements to the body and a new facelift. I recommend you get that one. It has better gas consumption and has better handling while maintaining the same interior. Although I think the interior dash lighting is blue instead of red.

                You can see what I mean in the Wikipedia page here.

      • gullible@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        There are some positives and negatives to the desire for old form factors. Secondhand phones from 2018 cost much less than new ones but lack some of the new features like… I can’t think of any.

          • gullible@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            I believe you on 5g, but hasn’t nfc become rarer rather than more common over time? Has there been a resurgence of nfc in recent years??

            • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              6
              ·
              1 year ago

              All contactless payments use it. All your cards have it. All phones that you. Can pay from (which I don’t know any new brand that doesn’t offer this feature) uses it.

              I guess that covid was the resurgence, with all the banks and businesses setting up nfc cards and payment machines for zero touch payments.

    • RagingNerdoholic@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      There are likely a lot of complexities here.

      Battery tech will need to improve greatly and be minimalized. EV batteries are currently massive, heavy, and generally engineered as long, wide, flat modules to be installed beneath the floor so they keep the center of gravity low and the vehicle balanced. That’s not really possible in an ICE vehicle with all the frame molding around existing exhaust and drivetrain components, and you most likely can’t just have some sort of modular battery and motor unit that you just drop into the engine bay, as that would put a ton (literally) of additional weight on one end and mess with the balance.

      The draintrain components may need to be replaced or the motor outputs modulated to prevent the torque from ripping it apart.

      Power steering and brakes will need to converted to electric assist. AC and heat would need to converted to electric.

      Older cars (early 00’s and older) with cable throttles will need to be retrofitted with drive-by-wire, or use some sort of adapter module that connects the cable and converts it to digital inputs. Same with brakes.

      All of the electronics (lights, wipers, windows, locks, radio, etc.) will need to be rewired since there’s no longer an alternator.

      Probably will need upgraded suspension and brakes to handle the extra weight.

      There’s probably a lot more I’m not thinking about or not even aware of. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s going to happen outside of rich enthusiast circles, which is terribly sad, because I completely agree with you. Basically everything made after around 2010 is total dogshit.

    • BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      the only tech i need in my car is an aux port. i will forever buy used cars from before 2010 but after around 2004ish?

    • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I dont know the details, but Ive heard of companies that do this, or kits that can be used for it, existing, though I can only imagine that changing a car that one’s business has not manufactured and was never designed for such a conversion must take a lot of manual work, which would be expensive before even considering things like the cost of batteries.

      • IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Power train conversion is reasonably simple. Just throw combustion engine and transmission box away, make brackets for electric motors and attach them directly to the wheels (with axles if necessary). Conversion of controls is (I assume) is also somewhat simple since existing brake system and power steering is quite straightforward to run with electric motors since you just need something which can run a belt drive and gas pedal is most likely already electric. For all the electronics you have plenty of space in where the engine used to be.

        But. And there’s a pretty big but. Batteries are pretty big and pretty heavy. On any given combustion engine car there’s just no room for them (at least if you’re after a conversion with similar range/power than a readily built electric car). And even if you cut the floor panel off and modify it to accomodate battery pack (or whatever the route you choose might be) it’ll heavily affect weight distribution, frame stability and many other things, suspension included. Model S battery is apparently 540kg, so if you’ll do a conversion to your corolla you might save around 150kg of weight by removing old engine+transmission but you’d still have additional 300kg of mass to deal with.

        For a van which is designed to haul heavy loads from the start it might be pretty simple to just raise floor of the cargo space a bit but for a common sedan that’s a whole another thing.

        • GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          I looked into this for my car. The conversion has a 50 mile range, essentially replaces the engine with an electric motor, locks the car in 3rd gear, and replaces the fuel tank with batteries.

          It cost about £3500, which was a bit much for me considering the car only cost £3k, and I could just sell my car to buy a 100mile+ leaf for the same outlay.

          • IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            In our local craigslist for cars website someone has been selling a -84(or so) Nissan Sunny for ages with electric conversion. The seller did just that, took combustion engine out, attached a electric motor into transmission and the result is that you have 80’s car, with manual transmission and batteries so small that once you’re out of the driveway you’ve depleted 10% of the batteries (give or take, but that’s pretty much what you’ll get). And it had something like 15kW minus losses of the drive train.

            But the parts are so expensive (at least for now) that listed price is almost 10k€. I can understand that seller wants their money back and it isn’t the most serious conversion out there, but the reality is that you’ll get a shitty 80’s car with a even shittier EV conversion (since the frame has it’s limits and high quality components are expensive) while you can sell a similar car with a combustion engine for 350€ on a good day and a tank full.

      • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Swapping an engine is relatively easy if you know what you’re doing… If these kits can connect the electric motor to the existing drive train it wouldn’t be too bad. Messing around with batteries big enough for an electric vehicle can be really dangerous though.

    • atrielienz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Depends on what kind of car you have. I know for a fact there is a company doing this with classic mini coopers.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    105
    arrow-down
    21
    ·
    1 year ago

    I LOVE HAVING CAR DEPENDENCY. I LOVE PAYING FOR LESS EFFICIENT TRANSPORT AND ALL OF MY OWN MAINTENANCE AND FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF HAVING MY DATA SOLD. I SPEND EVERY MOMENT NOT DRIVING WISHING I COULD BE BEHIND THE WHEEL AND DOING NOTHING ELSE BUT FOCUSING ON DRIVING WHILE ON MY WAY TO [CONSUME] AND MAKE DATA FOR [BRAND]. PLEASE, NO PUBLIC TRANSIT, I LIKE MY FREEDOM THANKS.

    • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      60
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      Personally, as a non-car owning person, I love how I have to stick to the narrow patch of walkway next to roads where I get to inhale exhaust fumes whether I like it or not, have to stop and yield to oncoming traffic when looking to cross the road, and leave my life and personal safety in the hands of people I don’t know and pray they pay attention and don’t hit me.

      • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        21
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I hate it as a driver. I would love to walk or bike more, but I’m far enough from anywhere I want to go that it doesn’t make any practical sense to. I strongly dislike driving everywhere, and I wish our pedestrian and bike infrastructure (and public transit) didn’t suck so bad. I wouldn’t mind using the bicycle gutter, if I had one, but I’d be very nervous to let my kids use it because I don’t trust the magic paint strip.

        • samson@aussie.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          1 year ago

          Suburbs really suck in this regard. I get a choice between a 15 minute bus that comes every 2-3 hours to get to my local train station or walk 1:30 minutes along the same road with zero footpath for the majority of the journey on a 70kmh road.

      • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        I drive a hybrid in rural areas, and I try to always flip the car into electric only mode when I see a cyclist coming up so they don’t have to inhale my tailpipe. I’m sure it isn’t much in the grand scheme, but I hope they at least breathe a little better.

    • DrMango@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      41
      ·
      1 year ago

      Imagine being so braindead that “going for a drive” is a legitimate form of entertainment that you get excited about.

      • johnlsullivan2@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        26
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I get the sentiment but have you ever driven a fun car on a beautiful night? Driving a topless Jeep through the twisty highway in the redwoods of Northern California or a Camaro through the wide open Nevada desert? High schoolers driving their bro dozer around town in circles, yeah, I get that.

        • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          This but motorcycles for me. Cars with the windows down are a limp substitute for hitting the bottom of a hill in a fall or spring morning on a motorbike.

      • phar@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        25
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Other people don’t enjoy the same things I do! Harrumph!

      • Steak@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Obviously you’ve never went for a good ole drive before

      • Barack_Embalmer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I (maybe naively) believe a healthy society could find a way to build a robust public transport network and still accommodate the minority of enthusiasts who drive and work on cars for fun.

        Engineers aren’t just dry husks of people, robotically creating solutions to meet needs. The drive to create cars, planes, and motorbikes, which have significant technical overlap with trains, buses, and mobility aids, is at least partially borne from the thrill of piloting machines that extend human capabilities.

  • sigswitch@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    69
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m kind of surprised that car technology is so awful. How the fuck am I paying $35k for a car and they’re still like “lets run the UI off a potato via the least responsive touch screen possible”? At some point I’d rather they just gave up on providing a UX themselves and just ran everything through Android Auto.

    • SmashingSquid@notyour.rodeo
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s the most ridiculous part to me. Why isn’t this able to continue off the car battery? It should be do not disconnect car battery if anything. I hope there’s some sort of fail safe to prevent it from bricking that doesn’t involve a factory reset or dealer visit.

      • Poe@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        It’s because they don’t want the car battery running flat during installation. Kind of like how your phone requires a minimum battery charge to update

        • SmashingSquid@notyour.rodeo
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah but shouldn’t the power usage for the infotainment system be similar to a cell phone at this point with similar hardware where it really shouldn’t be possible to run a car battery dead during an update?

      • watson387@sopuli.xyzOP
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’m extremely curious what would happen if I just shut it down and left it as usual while it is updating but I’m not ready to test it out yet. Lol

        • Avg@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          So that sort of happened to me on the previous gen of this infotainment unit.

          I used the app to turn on the car and it keeps the car on for a short time, I started the update but it took way longer than I expected and the car shut off halfway through.

          It seems to me that the unit is kept in some low power standby mode, when I turned the car back on, it just continued from where it stopped.

    • bstix@feddit.dk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      Well, if it’s a new car, it might not use any battery from idling anyway. Still a stupid requirement though.

    • Shush@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Honestly, I figured that they collected data. But I didn’t think the extent of it would be stuff like my sex life and genetic data. How the hell do those work?

      • dansity@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        They track you and then different kind of tools are trying to profile you based on your data. Similarly how ads work on the internet. Saying your car collect data of your sex life more like means they collect absolutely everything about you and then they run it through different software to profile you then sell all this data for extra profit. If you daily drive to a school they will assume you have a family and kids. If you go to a random apartment complex once a week after your kids went sleep they will assume you have a mistress. Its all based on location data and the stuff you enetered during registration.

        • Steve@communick.news
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I’m betting the sex tracking is more about the pressure sensors in the seats for the seatbelt warning system.

        • Shush@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Interesting. Makes a lot of sense, though it sucks that it’s all based on assumptions because it sounds like it can easily be mistaken for a lot of things.

          • averagedrunk@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            That’s how most of them work. I got baby toys for a friend’s baby and the Internet started trying to sell me all kinds of baby things. You listen to a lot of podcasts about craft beer? They assume you’re a 40 year old white dude who needs beard oil.

        • Shush@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Oh that makes more sense.

          My mind went to a completely different approach, collecting your data when you fuck someone in the car. Length of sex, moaning volume and pumps per minutes is what I was thinking of.

    • Mothra@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Holy cow.

      And nobody can jailbreak and disable these “features”?

  • ediculous@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    40
    ·
    1 year ago

    I absolutely cannot stand Subaru’s infotainment system. It’s actually the primary reason I’ll never get another one.

    • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m still driving a 2016 Mazda, so sorry if this is a dumb question, but with these new cars are the infotainment systems integral with the car’s functioning?

      I’ve always thought of the head units as replaceable but seems like they are more integrated nowadays. Especially with EVs

      • Restaldt@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Pretty much yeah since rearview cameras are a legal requirement now

        Most vehicles will have these kind of screens

        • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Ugh I hate rearview cameras. They’re nice for people who can’t turn due to limited mobility but I prefer to be facing the direction I’m going and do the “turn and put hand on the other head rest” move. It would be fine, but some car manufacturers have decided rear sightlines don’t matter at all now “because you have the camera” so they take that option from me and make reversing more dangerous.

        • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          I’d be curious about what kinds of modifications people have been able to do with these. I imagine most people would want to avoid bricking their $50k car by pulling apart their dashboard and fucking with the internals, but someone somewhere has had to have been unhappy enough with the hardware/software on these things to make an attempt at switching it out, even if in part.

          Owning something that expensive and not being able to modify it to the way I like (and cutting out the manufacturer from data harvesting/control over the system) is a personal kind of hell.

      • dan@upvote.au
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’ve got a 2013 Mazda 3 and it was very easy to replace the radio, but my understanding is that way more stuff goes through it in modern cars, especially if they have touchscreen controls for some things.

    • ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      Looking for a new car and have been looking at Subaru. So I’m genuinely interested in what specific thing bother you about the infotainment system.

      • qwerty01@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 year ago

        Got a 2023 Outback in February. The processing power is nowhere near what it needs to run smoothly. Once the car is started it is best to just not touch any buttons for the first several seconds to let it catch up. It is like dropping back two phone generators and watching it struggle to keep up with a newer OS. The transmission must run off a processor two generations further back because the time difference between my big ape foot stomping on the loud pedal and anything meaningful happening is measured in countable seconds.

        • dhork@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          The transmission must run off a processor two generations further back because the time difference between my big ape foot stomping on the loud pedal and anything meaningful happening is measured in countable seconds.

          Does your Subaru have a CVT? It’s a belt drive transmission and when I had an (older) Subaru it was one of the first CVT units, and felt a bit laggy when you asked it to do anything with alacrity.

          • qwerty01@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Yep, my first. I was expecting the lag of the CVT and can feel it engage. There is a noticeable lag between the pedal being moved to one spot and the CVT beginning to work. So it is GoFaster = (TransmissioncComputeTime + CVTEngage) when each is about one full second. Two seconds sounds and feels unsafe when coming from a 2004 WRX.

            • qwerty01@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Oh, and if you change your mind and move your foot during the two seconds, the timer resets.

        • shastaxc@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          My Buick had the same delay with the transmission. It took a lot of getting used to, and was one reason I went with a high performance car afterwards. I’m super happy with her Kia K5 now.

      • Marcbmann@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        They are notoriously bad. And they don’t get fixed. Got my Subaru and

        1. The radio defaults to SiriusXM every time I turn on the car, even though I do not pay for it and do not want to.
        2. Android Auto and Apple Car Play would cut out regularly
        3. Eventually the entire system would just randomly crash and reboot frequently throughout a trip.
        4. Found out there was a TSB out on the radio for frequent issues, and had to get it warrantied.
        5. Even with the new radio, I have occasional issues with Apple Car Play freezing
        6. I can’t have both an android and iPhone connected at the same time, because I won’t be able to use Android Auto, I’m forced into Car Play

        And on the new cars Subaru made the screen narrow and tall. This effectively reduced the amount of screen space for Android Auto/car play in comparison with prior years.

        Add to that the entire display is now needed for HVAC, heated seats, etc and do you really want to depend on a glitchy computer that frequently crashes?

        • Resolved3874@lemdro.id
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago
          1. I can’t have both an android and iPhone connected at the same time, because I won’t be able to use Android Auto, I’m forced into Car Play

          Just got a new work truck, a Ford, with android auto and car play. This morning was the first time I plugged an iPhone and android in at the same time. I had plugged in the android first and a quick look I wasn’t able to switch to the iPhone without unplugging the android. I never plugged the android back in so idk if it prefers one over the other or just whatever is plugged in first. Could that be the same issue?

      • ediculous@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Others have already responded to you with many of the same complaints I was going to bring up so I’ll just highlight a few things:

        • First off, I have a 2019 Subaru Impreza so not the latest generation
        • There used to be this issue where, upon turning the car on, you couldn’t interact with the infotainment system for a good 10 seconds which includes volume adjustments. Let’s say you had the volume set to 20 (max 35) when you last drove, well it’s going to be blaring as soon as you start up the car again, but you won’t be able to do anything about it for a good 10 seconds. Luckily this issue has gotten better (I believe with a firmware update from the dealership after I complained), but it’s still not fixed completely.
        • Recently I took my car in for work and they needed to keep it overnight, so they let me borrow a brand new 2024 Outback Touring. This was great cause I got to test a brand new car “for free,” and what I learned is that they now put all HVAC stuff (seat warming, climate control, etc.) on this screen that has poor touch sensitivity. It’s obnoxious. Also the system itself is only marginally better than my 5 year old car, which is to say it’s still incredibly clunky and slow. They’ve made improvements, no doubt, but it’s built from the same trash.
  • Blue and Orange@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    People keep saying new cars are shit but nobody wants to trade me their new car for my 2004 Toyota 😄

    • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      While the need for cars is cancerous I wouldnt blame it on the tech, cars are fun. The problem is lots of companies realized they could make lots of money and fucked us over starting about a hundred years ago, atleast here in the US.