Modern vs Mechanical Controls

[Chetlaham]

Sadly, I don't think we'll know much. Manufacturers when sued typically settle out for large amounts of money (to avoid admitting guilt) with a party agreement not to share pertinent details. Government agencies do not have software or computer engineers on staff who specialize in automotive forensics.

I'll agree with you that the above is highly unlikely if not impossible in older cars, but with newer cars (drive by wire) I can certainly imagine it.

FWIW, the above incident is not isolated. There are at least roughly a dozen such cases every year across the country every year. And those are the ones where the driver lives to tell about it.

My honest opinion is that while there are logic fail safes in onboard car computers, there are certain not known at the time of engineering discrete failure mods and programming bugs that make run away acceleration possible. Its like playing a high paying slot machine, not likely you'll ever win on a casual night, but give the lever 1 quadrillion tries and the odds of winning become a given.

The manufacturers don't want to admit such problems exist, bargaining on shortcomings being placed on the user.

 

[combo52]

Post # 37

 

That is totally ridiculous all he would have to have done is step on the brakes, that is a little 4 cylinder car not an Indy race car.

 

There are no cars out there where you can't stop them with the brakes even if you floor it when you are going 60+ miles an hour, don't believe me try it, I have, if you floor the gas petal even at highway speed and stomp on the brake the brake will quickly win out and the car will stop almost as quickly as normal.

 

The kid in post #37 was trying to kill himself. there is simply zero possibility that could ever happen, it would have all over the news if anything had been found wrong with the wrecked car.

 

John L.

 

[maytag85]

Reply #40

The gas pedal got stuck because of the floor mat..

 

[ea56]

John,

Drive around with your right foot to the floor on the gas and your left foot on the brake and you’ll burn your brakes up. Not a wise thing to do in any car and not safe either. Unless you’ve had the accelerator stick on you before you don’t know what its like.

Its unexpected and happens just like that. Its not some planned experiment under controlled conditions. There are other cars around you that you have to immediately take into consideration while you attempt to get your runaway car under control.

I doubt seriously that the young man was out to kill himself. Automobiles have had mechanical/electronic failures since the advent of the automobile and there will continue to be failures. No automobile is perfect. And neither is any human being.

Eddie

 

[mattl]

Not really related but my dad used to do what he called power braking, left foot on brake, right on gas. Think he got in that habit driving cars inside the Buick plant he worked at. I've done it a few times it's an interesting experience.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Microwave ovens pioneered the use of electronic controls to the point where it’s easier to use with them than without, even making them hem trouble-free…

I have a range with numbered touchpads that was worth a few hundreds more spent than seemingly harder to use controls without which my previous range lacked—and I’m quite used to electronic controls on mine for the oven (the burners are knob-controlled gas) enough that I’d be lost without…

As for a washer and dryer, I will need a lot of convincing that I can operate those with, as my experience was a brother-in-law’s set I found I could instantly adapt to for a few loads of laundry I did there, as opposed to having to use on any multiple in a daily basis here, though there’s the occasional coin-op where machines there can be easily used by a novice right on the first try…

I had a timer knob on my washer just like that become inoperable and it was weeks before the repair person could finally get a new one for our aging top-loader, most-likely off eBay, yet…

So I can’t speak much for reliability as much as preferences as an old microwave would only be replaced for it’s leaking its evil rays, as opposed to anything beyond the appliance’s merely turning on and off to determine running operation in terms of buying on a preferable basis vs. what the modern market expects me to adapt to…

— Dave

 

[iej]

Ease of use is about good design. Some electromechanical programmers had awful designs, complicated numbers, letters, push/pull, weird option buttons and so on. They were fine if you were familiar with their quirks.

A lot of European machines with mechanical programmers often had a vast array of cycles and options - too many to print on the control panel, so you ended up with numbers and letters or symbols on the dial and a table printed, usually on the drawer. Others, especially older ones had pull out tabs with lists of cycles. It wasn’t always intuitive at all. It wasn’t unusual to have 15 or 20 cycles on some machines!

I remember using a washer-dryer that had: a mechanical programmer dial, with at least 15 settings (letters), a dryer timer dial (with drying level options, timed options and cool/hot cycles), a delay start timer dial, a wash temperature dial (cold to 95) and a slider for the spin speed, as well as half load, eco and some other option buttons that I can’t even quite remember. The further up the model ranges you went the more knobs and buttons got added.

Some European machines even had a second rotary display to indicate wash phase / status.

Others were very intuitive and well designed, but that it’s about design, not technology.

It’s the same with electronic controls. They can be well designed or a complete kludge of bad UIs, buttons and weird menu options.

Well designed electronic controls are usually very intuitive and flexible.

One thing I don’t like with current controls is cars with a big touch panel. It’s impossible to find my way through some of those systems without looking away from the road, and they’re often used for basic functions like the radio and air conditioning / heater controls. There was a lot to be said for a button or knob you could find without looking! That’s also an input option with electronics too. There’s no need to always have flashy touch screens.

Also cars that add stuff like text messaging and even Twitter to their infotainment systems. It’s like, what can I do to be as distracting as possible … I know !!! Needs more Pokémon!! A speedometer that also plays Tetris?