HN user
Especially after having read Ed Zitron’s piece on AI slowing down [1] and the app-slop chart [2] in mind, this is painful to watch.
[1] https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-slowing-down/
[2] https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/d8/24d8fcec-dfba-4f40-a467-823...
Wow.
Good luck with that.
Boring and conventional would be having physical controls on the wheel for volume, next/prev, ok/cancel etc.
So a complete lack of anything actually useful.
It's missing the Magic Mouse.
As a german, I say:
UIUIUI
It's not just the unions wanting to keep ICEs which are far from dated plus absolutely necessary to keep and further develop.
A monolithic EV-only approach simply isn't feasible since not everyone can switch to an EV - above all, the current state of charging infrastructure is lightyears behind.
Ditching ICEs is the worst thing that could happen. It's really just common sense that happens to be unpopular.
They didn’t know.
The reasonable approach to EVs becoming economically feasible would have been to cut through the noise and treat it as an add-on to the existing portfolio without compromising the core competence: internal combustion engines.
This they knew.
Dieselgate put them in a hopeless position in the discussion around all encompassing electrification demanded by the governent plus the greedy, short sited pressure from markets.
This led to massive (and forced) investments rushing out electric models nobody asked for by the dozens.
Compromising quality and a sound growth strategy along the way.
The worst possible timing for Dieselgate to hit - steering a whole country and all industry-related countries into an existential crisis.
It is delusional to think german car manufacturers will be anywhere near competitive in the much simpler EV mass(!)market - so thinking to order a whole industry, which is built around a way different technolocal foundation, to just make electric cars from now on without really looking into a viable charging infrastructure is still beyond me.
Plus ICE cars won’t be going away anytime soon and very few have the balls to call this out.
This is false.
The topic was a calculated decision by her and her cabinet, based purely on fear mongering to gain voters.
Blaming the green party or even calling this "woke" sounds wrong.
I would disagree.
The willingness to change is there, it's mostly the motives and what is being targeted where the problems are.
We as a country lost our balls.
Decisions are increasingly made on an emotional basis, and the poster child for this has been the politically calculated exit of nuclear power based on the Fukushima accident to gain an election win.
Most of senior management is trying to act like suddenly they are some cool nimble startup CEO that can burn through cash until the subscription fees for lane keeping assists and heated seats are paying the bills.
It's all buzzwords being thrown around without anyone really caring for reality.
Just looking at how the "dress code" changed over the last 10 years in automotive is funny by itself.
Hefty statements, zero backing and ever shrinking balls.
The bill is going to be huge.
It's not as simple as 100% of this is on the car manufacturers.
There's a lot at play, which in combination led to this "perfect" storm.
Energy policies and hence ever increasing energy prices, bureaucracy almost as bad as Italy, governements making technical decisions for unprepared manufacturers by setting goals of EV production numbers and above all phasing out the cornerstone of the countries engine, literally: ICE power units.
And yes, most management are of an era that truly doesn't understand the convergent challenges in a mixed market of ICE and EVs. Shortsighted decisions have been made, throwing out the baby with the bathwater - craftsmanship, vision and engineering prowess.
What was an engineering driven industry with a say in where all this is headed became a soulless marketing machine, merely scratching the surface of what needs to be done.
They created some very bad "sci-fi" by plastering screens everywhere in interiors while still treating software like some part you can outsource to the lowest bidding supplier, swapping these out every other model range or update.
Actual internal research and guidance got killed off around the early 2010s by outsourcing all of it externally.
Besides, the culture and politics within these corporations are the worst i ever encountered in my whole career.
It's a very grim picture we're looking at but there's nobody, neither in upper management across boards nor in politics actually being able to see the misery they're in, let alone doing something about it.
Glad i left almost 10 years ago but still sad, since all I had to witness is effecting society as a whole and not in a good way.
It's really just the beginning of what is to come.
Stay sober and mostly away from news.
What a letdown.
After having spent (way too much) time in automotive interior and UI-design and leaving the field based on the realization that classic car design organisations across almost all manufacturers are mostly driven by "aesthetics" and gimmicky "tech"-quirks but do not seem to care about actual usability and utility, i had high hopes that Ive would be the one to come up with an interior that actually makes sense.
This might be harsh, but I'm afraid, this will have the same effect on the car industry as Liquid Glass will spill nonsensical decoration for effect's sake across software outside of Apple, taking years to clean up.
Starting with the Steering wheel - Indicators as buttons, really? Then the control modules on the wheel: Good luck figuring out how to use the ACC. Zero buttons for Volume, Prev/Next or even OK/Cancel to navigate anything - meaning you'll have to take your hands off the wheel for almost everything.
Plus, it's a very thin rim and for a performance car not the best choice IMHO.
Good thing though there's ginormous paddles for "torque control". </s>
The instrument cluster is a giant housing for three display areas that are anything but modern, aka Retrobore and in some cases not very good or clear - eg. tire pressure or the three scales in the power dial per mode that are very similar and probably too technical for most users.
I hope there's going to be some customization.
For the head unit itself, while it's nice having the option to swivel the unit it seems overengineered for a secondary feature.
While I'm happy to see physical switches and a rotary dial, the choice for what is being used as switches seems not ideal since the length of the switches might make it hard to use. People won't feel a shape/form and press it, but rather have to put in some muscular effort to hit the switch from the top or bottom and at the right angle - even if you can rest your palm on the handle of the unit.
As for visual design within the UI it almost seems unfinished and not very polished, let alone "luxurious" - especially the climate control screen.
Overall a missed opportunity that carries on the clutter we see today coming out of car manufacturers and neglects core utility in the automotive context.
It's neither focused and clean like most Apple products have been designed nor very emotional or even close to being "Ferrari".
It's the same problem as with everything automotive interior today (and for way too long already):
Decisions driven by automotive-/industrial designers who are caring for sculptural appearances first.
I sincerely hope that at some point we can see this as a chapter from the past - at a point in time where the DRIVER/passengers and ACTUAL utility are paramount and developed with software (and it's established rules about usabililty and affordance) being an integral part.
To add some more snark: Maybe Ive should care less about being chauffered in a Bentley and spend some actual time behind the wheel.
Showing myself out now.
</rant>
Guess I’m not in a position in telling Apple how to structure their product offering and choice isn’t a bad thing IMHO.
But I’d highly encourage you to have a look into which Apple pencil is compatible to which iPad.
Choice, yes, a mess - no.
It will go down in HN-history as the one exception, where it was ok to not use the page title verbatim.
That was the original idea on how the icon should be used but obviously too subtle.
Moylan basically added a modifier icon for clarity.
Apologies.
For some reason ended up commenting here but should have gone here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46345897
Still curious, how Mein Kampf is in the top ten and the included link to a Channel 5 segment ist still relevant also.
But again: apologies for ending up in the wrong spot with this.
What is alienating to me is how a “chinese” owner seems so much worse than any other nationality in this discussion.
How is this different from anybody else?
and Ive’s utter disdain for Dye’s talent, leadership, and personality.
Ive was the one handing him that role within design at Apple bleeding into and ultimately taking over a significant influence over their whole product line from a UI standpoint - if he disdains him that much, he had all the power to right his wrong.
Anyone here with insights on how this came about and Dye stayed in that role for so long?
Margaret to the rescue!
The iPod comparison is a bit apples vs oranges.
The CEO confessing in trial that their core product is useless and unwanted to escape consequences of their conduct.
Just wow.
Do NOT follow this link:
Good luck with that.
In addition to this, glass also reflects light from around you, thus there is not the slightest chance of realistically recreating a glass effect on any device without having some sort of ambient vision which is incorporated into a real time rendering.
This is wrong on so many levels and I sincerely hope there will be an option for not just choosing less transparency but an entire UI-skin that is mature, clean and above all: legible.
All clarity and precision thrown out the window for effects nobody asked for.
Calling it a “meta material” in my eyes is the same ballpark as “You’re holding it wrong”.
So sad that this is opening up the floodgates for bad UI which won’t be restricted to just their platforms and will take years to clean up.
Username checks out : )
So upselling a supposedly “green” product by throwing away a sizable portion of energy while charging it.
What a world we live in.
For those of you who never saw it - Squatty Potty’s hilarious commercial:
If personas in this context resonate with you, I highly recommend - even if only remotely related - to read Rich Gold’s The Plenitude.