DesignAday

Race Conditioning

My Nissan Cube has a peculiarity that has conditioned me to behave in a certain way. When I have passengers in the car and we reach our destination, as soon as I have put on the brake to stop the car in my parking space, I go into race mode. I try to put the car in park, set the parking break, turn off the ignition, and remove the key from the steering column before anyone attempts to open their door.

The doors unlock when the key leaves the ignition. Until then, if you pull on the door handle, the door will not open. There are manual buttons to unlock the doors, but they are built into the handles in a way that they are not obvious.

Before I was conditioned to race, my friends would try to get out of the car and have a moment of confusion as to first, why their door wouldn’t open, and second, how to unlock it. Being sensitive to the experiences people have around me, I subconsciously began trying to get the doors unlocked before they tried to open them. I now do this habitually.

Oh no they didn’t!

I assumed the headline was tongue-in-cheek link bait. Wired would know better than to publish something so mind-numbingly stupid. “Car Tech Isn’t Failing. Owners and Infotainment Interfaces Are”. That has to be a joke, right? What’s the date on this article? No, it’s not an April Fool’s Day joke, and it’s not from 1996.

The gist of the article is that computer systems in cars have become very reliable—very few software bugs are reported. This apparently means, then, that any problems drivers have using the infotainment systems are due to their own stupidity. It’s the user’s fault.

Really?

Here are a few quotes from the article that blew my head gasket:

Reynier [owner of a small interactive design agency] admits that “it’s definitely user error. I never have the idea that something is broken.”

While investigating whether the current explosion of automotive technology will cause owners of a [sic] late-model cars to visit a shop more often, everyone we spoke with agreed that he [sic] biggest failure with in-car technology has little to do with vehicle systems and more to do with owners.

“The hardware itself is really pretty bulletproof,” Kato adds. “It’s very robust and reliable. Occasionally we’ll get a bad hard drive or a bad screen. We are having challenges, but it has less to do with the components of the vehicle and more with dealing with customers on how to properly pair their phones.”

And what is the solution to this problem? Is it to improve the usability of the user interfaces? Is it to make sure that the software is not becoming a distraction to the driver, giving them very clear choices that require little thought and minimal attention? No, apparently the solution is to educate drivers on the correct way to use the software. They’re stupid, remember?

To address this problem, luxury brands like Cadillac, Lexus and BMW are staffing dealerships with dedicated tech support specialists, and even everyman automaker Chevy recently doubled its “connected customer specialist” staff stationed around the country from 25 to 50.

Here’s a better idea: automobile manufacturers should pull their heads out of their gas tanks and, instead of doubling their support staffs, hire interaction designers to improve their software. Address the root of the problem, rather than the symptoms. But I wouldn’t recommend hiring Reynier’s firm.

And while I’m at it, here’s some free advice for Wired. Hire a proofreader, and have Doug Newcomb read some articles on Co.Design or Boxes and Arrows.

Credit: Dan Saffer get’s the blame for initiating this tirade.

Get angry this morning reading this incredible Blame The User article about lousy in-car systems: wired.com/autopia/2013/0…

— Dan Saffer (@odannyboy)

April 9, 2013

Why, this car is Automatic…

Cars are slowly but surely transforming into consumer devices, and it’s about time. I’m tired of buying cars and having their onboard technology obsolesce in a year or two without a practical upgrade method. My Cube is a great little car, but it can’t charge my iPhone 4S, as it still has the Firewire-based cable. I jealously read about the new features in Fords and other brands that are taking advantage of current mobile device capabilities, knowing full well that I won’t be replacing my car for another five years or so. Imagine what our phones will be doing five years from now!

But, there is a glimmer of hope. Automatic Labs has announced a truly innovative product that will allow me to get a little more out of my existing car. Check out the Automatic Link.

The device plugs into your car’s data port and communicates with your iPhone or Android via Bluetooth. It gives you the following capabilities:

• Automatic learns about your driving styles and gives you subtle audio cues when you do things that waste gas. It then scores your driving every week, and provides you with detailed information about your trips, like how much you drive and where.
• Automatic calls for help in a crash, reporting your name, location, and vehicle description.
• Automatic sends push notifications when your check engine light comes on, retrieves the Engine Trouble Codes reported by your car’s computer, and shows you what they mean. It even let’s you clear the light yourself.
• Automatic remembers where you parked.

When I first heard about this, I assumed it would be a subscription-based service. That seems to be the direction everything is headed these days. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that you can purchase the Automatic Link for $69.95. That’s it. It’s available for pre-order, shipping in July, and compatible with gasoline cars sold in the U.S. since 1996. I’ve already placed my order.

Idiot Tags

I love idiot tags. You know what I’m talking about: the labels, signs, and other message holders that tell you not to do things that you would never do anyway. Common sense makes them redundant. And yet, you know that many of them exist because somebody actually did do it, and the rest of us have to put up with the inane messages. I’m sure lawyers are to blame for a fair share of them. This is one I noticed while waiting on my coworker to get our Hertz rental car at the Hartford airport. When I read it, I burst out laughing, imagining somebody actually trying to drive around with the idiot tag hanging there.

The Car as an Accessory

I’m coming up on five years of owning my Nissan Cube, and while I hope to get another five years out of it, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I will want in my next car. There are certain features that I want to keep, like the continuously variable transmission. I’ll probably want at least a hybrid, if not a full electric, by then. But what appeals to me most is not the typical automotive options, but tight integration with my iPhone. I want full voice control while I’m driving. I want to control the vehicle’s systems with an app and view visualizations of performance data. I want the software in the car to be upgradable over the internet, so the next version of my phone is still compatible. I want my car to be a peripheral that seamlessly interacts with the rest of my devices, as well as a platform supporting development of additional applications. Seemingly more than any other automobile manufacturer, Ford is moving rapidly in that direction.

Trends in Distracted Driving

Kofi Opoku took a look at distracted driving for his time series assignment. While he was able to find auto accident data going back to 1995, incident data for distracted driving was only available starting in 2004. His first graph compares distracted driving fatalities with the steady increase in wireless subscribers. The second compares distracted driving fatalities with the number of people using a hand-held cell phone in a typical daylight moment.

2006 is a strange year. There is a sharp increase in fatalities and a sharp dip in phone use. Kofi was not able to find any reason for this.

The third and fourth graphs compare distracted driving fatalities to those caused by alcohol, as well as to general fatalities. While the numbers of alcohol related fatalities and general fatalities have been steadily decreasing since 2005, distracted driving fatalities have seen and 11% increase since 2004.

The final graph shows that 16 to 24 age group is most likely to be seen manipulating an electronic device while driving. Still, less than 15% of drivers in 2009 use devices while driving.

AUTOmatic-er

Quite awhile ago, I wrote about my Nissan Cube’s automatic headlights, explaining that they won’t turn off automatically if the windshield wipers are on. This is a useful feature, as it is safer to have your headlights on when it is precipitating, and in many states, it’s the law. I didn’t realize until recently, however, that the car will also automatically turn the headlights on, based on wiper activity. It was not readily apparent, due to the fact that it waits until the fourth consecutive wipe to turn them on.

Once again, nice touch, Nissan.

Set and Forget

It used to be that I could only control the temperature of the air blowing into my car, ranging from an unspecific hot to cold, and the fan speed. Cars now have climate control such that you can set a desired temperature for the interior, and the car will control the temperature of the air and the fan speed to meet and maintain that temperature. I don’t want to seem ungrateful for that advancement, but give me a banana, and I’ll want the whole fruit basket.

In the Spring, it can be chilly enough in the morning that I’ll wear a jacket, but warm enough in the afternoon that I won’t need it. I’ll pull out of my garage, drive up the hill, and eventually discover that the temperature is set to 70°. I don’t want the car heated to 70°. So I set it to 65°. Then, on the way home, I’ll realize that the car is cooling to 65°. I set it back to 70°. Wash, rinse, repeat.

It’s time for a car’s thermostat to work like that of a house. I should be able to set it to heat to 65° and cool to 70°, and then I’ll never have to touch it again.

A Failure of Service

I got a flat driving home from work yesterday. I drove over something that disagreed with my left, rear tire. I’ve had my Cube for 16 months, and this was the first time I’ve had to replace a tire. So, I pulled the owner’s manual out of the glove compartment (Have you ever actually kept gloves in there?) and looked up “spare tire” in the index. I found two references, one of which gave the specs on the spare tire, and the other pointed to a section on wheel balance. It didn’t say anything about where the spare was or how to get it out. So, I opened the tailgate and lifted up the cargo floor matt. There was a little square of plastic that said, “Pull here”. I pulled, and it popped up, revealing a hex bolt. Okay, so I’m assuming that unscrewing that bolt will lower the spare underneath the car. Great. Now, where’s the jack?

I searched the trunk. I checked the engine compartment. I couldn’t find a jack anywhere. “Jack” wasn’t in the index. I gave up and got the jack out of my wife’s car. I was able to figure out how to get the spare down and got it on without any further problems.

Tonight, I decided to solve the mystery of the missing jack. I went to Nissan’s website and got the PDF version of the manual. In Acrobat, I searched for “jack”. The first hit showed me an illustration depicting the location of the jack and toolkit.

Slide the driver’s seat forward and the rear seat in its rear most position, and open the lid located in the floor behind the driver’s seat.

I’ve never pulled out the floormat. I had no idea it was there. I’m pretty certain the salesman didn’t point that out to me when I bought the car—I would have remembered that.

There are several points of failure here:

• The manual is poorly designed. I can’t use it as a reference if it doesn’t give me useful access paths into the content. It contained the information I needed, but I had no practical way to find it, especially considering I was in a bit of a hurry.
• The tools are completely hidden with no affordance for finding them when they are needed. They weren’t collocated with the mechanism to get to the spare. They weren’t in any of the places they’ve been in other cars I’ve driven.
• But the biggest design failure was one of service. The sales person should have shown me where to find the tools and how to access the spare tire, just as he demonstrated the turn signals and headlights.