Re: repairs and obsolescence ish

On 5/7/2025 12:38 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On 7 May 2025 00:17:10 GMT, Roger Merriman <roger@sarlet.com> wrote:
 

Rather depends on the how and the why, I believe has been a push back by
consumers for example with car dashboards in that while screens and so on
are fun, they’d like some buttons still please and so on.

 There is hope for push buttons, in the name of safety.
 "Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again
Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than
being drunk or high - no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using
touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its
senses."
<https://www.wired.com/story/why-car-brands-are-finally-switching-back-to-buttons/>
"Automakers that nest key controls deep in touchscreen menus forcing
motorists to drive eyes-down rather than concentrate on the road ahead
may have their non-US safety ratings clipped next year."
 Sorry, but you'll need a Wired Magazine subscription to read the
entire article.  If you don't want a subscription, you might find the
reader comments interesting.
 In my never humble opinion, buttons, touch screens, haptic feedback,
voice control, gestures, sign language and AI all have their good and
bad points.  The trick is to attach numbers (fatality rate, accident
rate, cost, fashion, etc) to the various schemes and settle on the
least disgusting and most tolerable method.

I greatly prefer physical buttons, switches, etc. while driving. Fortunately my EV mostly uses those for common functions; but there's still a problem. Many switches are flat, low profile and all in a dense row. Even if I did memorize that something like "Defrost" was the third one from the left, it would be difficult to locate it by touch.
A possible solution would be switches with covers, etc. molded in different shapes that gave a clue about their function. I'm reminded of the increase in airplane safety (in WW2, IIRC) when the pilot's lever for "flaps" was shaped like a wing cross section. The adjacent lever for "landing gear" was shaped like a wheel.
What I eventually did was get a pack of ~5mm self adhesive hemispherical rubber bumpers. I stuck those on certain buttons, the ones I push most often, so I could find them by touch. It was a big improvement.
--
- Frank Krygowski