My curmudgeonly rant of the day on modern technology.

syncro87

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Ok, so...

1) I have had a really stiff neck for the last day for no apparent reason, irritating as all get out. Grr.
2) There was no milk in the fridge this AM. Khaaaan!
3) No coffee yet.

So, prepare yourselves. Better yet, stop reading now.

Anyway...

This morning pissed me off, on top of the three things listed above, when I drove our Civic down to the convenience store to get the milk I should have picked up yesterday. There are two convenience stores caddy corner to each other about 3 blocks from my house.

It is misty outside, rained yesterday. I get in the car to make the 60 second convenience store drive. Start it up, get ready to back out of the driveway. Can't see a doggone thing. Every window fogged over. So I'm in reverse, can't see, need some damn airflow NOW to try to get something cleared, except I can't adjust anything on the climate control because the stupid backup camera is holding my hand since I'm in reverse. Punching the climate button is useless, because the backup cam is mandatory.

Now, I'm going to come clean here and admit to being a defender of the Civic's (EX-T) touch screen up until now. The lack of volume knob thing. Well, I was wrong. Whoever designed a system where the climate control shares the same screen, and hence the same controls / display as the backup cam and stereo system should be flogged to within an inch of their life. I need to increase the fan speed. Very simple. I should not have to shift into park, press a CLIMATE button, wait for that screen to appear, and touch an iPad to get the dang fan to work.

Annoyed Rant #1: stupid touch screen controls for climate control functions are stupid. There should be a knob to adjust the fan. Knobs have been the standard for decades because some very intelligent design engineers figured out a long time ago that knobs made the most sense for some things, including fan operation.

Use the backup cam, you say. Well, it is totally fogged over and useless. Which brings me to rant point #2...

Grouchy Rant #2: I do not need a mandatory backup camera on a car the size of a Civic. I especially don't need it shoved into my face when it is obscured and useless. If I can't back up a car the size of a Honda Civic, with the good visibility of a Honda Civic, without the crutch of a backup camera, I need to have my license taken away. A camera might be of use if I had a vehicle the size of a Suburban. It is completely unnecessary on a car the size of this car. Backup cameras that are covered in condensation are not helpful. If you are going to cram crap like this on my compact car, I want a mandatory heating element to clear the camera lens within .1 second of me putting the car in reverse. Maybe a Dyson high velocity air thingy like they have in restrooms to dry your hands. I mean, go all in on the high tech, eh? Maybe put a frickin' shark with a frickin' laser beam in my trunk that can clear that camera lens.

It is probably relevant at this point to point out that I had my windows tinted a couple days ago. Therefore, I could not simply roll down a window to see outside. There are neon green stickers plastered everywhere that scream at me that my fingers will be chopped off if I roll a window down before 5 days have passed.

So, at this point I can't see out the windows, the backup cam is worthless, I can't roll my window down to stick my head out, and hitting the CLIMATE button with my forehead is not making the A/C controls pop up. It is one of those mornings where as soon as your wipers make a pass, there is fog on your windshield again about half a second later.

I ram the dang thing in park again, the camera goes away, I'm able to get some air flowing. I back out.

At this point, I probably could have walked down to get milk, or ridden my bike. Anyway...

At this point some hand wringing safety ninny will chime in and flame me, but it is before 6 am in my little story, and there are like ZERO cars on the road except mine. It is literally three blocks through a residential neighborhood to the convenience store. Now, I will wear my seat belt almost without fail under normal circumstances, but in this case I had not put it on, and I am not going to put it on, for a trip of less than one minute past a few neighbor's homes at 25 mph. Go ahead, get all excited and jump on board, I should wear it all the time.

Here is the beginning of Rant #3. The seat belt DINGER. I want to know who implemented the first seat belt dinger or buzzer. I want the name of every engineer on the team, I want to know who signed off on this. If it was a government agency that mandated it, I want to know who was responsible. I'm going to systematically find their grave sites, as I'm sure they are all deceased, and I'm going to pee on their graves. I should be able to drive on a deserted street for three blocks at 5:45 AM at 25 mph, the only soul on the road, without DONG DONG DONG DONG scolding me periodically. I don't need a little red thing flashing at me and an exclamation point on the dash. Yes, I know I am not wearing my belt, and I am not going to die on this particular trip by not doing so. At some point in life, you have to live a little. My big rebellious act of the week was driving a couple of blocks at low speed to get a gallon of 2 percent milk. Can I do this without being chided to buckle up, I ask you?

I don't smoke, but the annoying seat belt dinger made me want to buy a pack of Marlboros along with the milk, and chain smoke a few of them on the way home while singing the Star Spangled Banner at the top of my lungs. It made me long for the days when you could ride in the bed of a pickup truck as a kid, and you might have acquired measles while doing it.

Can we please have cars with actual windows you can see out of, and not pillbox gun slits? Can we please have actual knobs to operate things where knobs make sense and have been used forever? Can we please be spared excessive driver aids?


*(Somewhat related side note here. Yesterday, it gave me great pleasure to disassemble the gauge cluster of my Scion xB, and de-solder the LEDs for the little red seat belt guy and the TPMS warning. Yes, I did that, and it made me FEEL GOOD to do it. It was like my little fist in the air at The Man. A) I wear my belt 99.999% of the time, but I don't need to have a flashing red guy searing my retina if I want to get milk at 3am down at the corner store that I can almost see from my driveway. B) I'm not paying $250 periodically because Ford put some crappy tires on Explorers 20 years ago, and because some brain dead folks at Toyota decided to use the kind of nanny system that depends on transmitters in the wheels rather than the kind that uses wheel rotation speed via the ABS system to detect a low tire. I've made it nearly 5 decades on this planet checking my own tires and have not died yet as a result.

It gave me great joy post cluster replacement to notice that there was no little red seat belt demon or TPMS light when I turned on the Scion's key during the warning light cluster test)*



Seriously, though, the climate control having no physical fan speed knob is annoying, as is the back up cam locking out the digital controls.

And yes, all of you who griped about the lack of volume knob on the high level stereo all these years were right. I retract my former statements in defense of the same, and humbly ask your forgiveness.




Going to get coffee now. You all have a great day. :)


Oh, for those of you too young or not hip enough to get my Khan reference:

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syncro87

syncro87

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Do you see the buttons just below the climate button? The ones that say "front" and "rear"? This is kinda what they're there for.
2016-honda-civic-first-drive-sg-33-1280x720-jpg.jpg

Aware of this. Wanted to be able to control the air speed and direction without being overridden by a backup cam. Also, post was intended to be a touch of morning humor as I was already grouchy about other stuff prior to the touch screen thing, and I just in the mood to be annoyed by things...i.e., I know I'm being ridiculous. lol

We got rid of our LX and just have the EX-T now. As the former primary driver of the LX, I find the upper trim level interface to be unnecessarily fussy now that I've inherited the EX-T.
 
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boosted180sx

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Aware of this. Wanted to be able to control the air speed and direction without being overridden by a backup cam. Also, post was intended to be a touch of morning humor as I was already grouchy about other stuff prior to the touch screen thing, and I just in the mood to be annoyed by things...i.e., I know I'm being ridiculous. lol

We got rid of our LX and just have the EX-T now. As the former primary driver of the LX, I find the upper trim level interface to be unnecessarily fussy now that I've inherited the EX-T.
you can swap the climate control to your LX one if you want the basic fan control/knobs without having to use the infotainment system.
 

mathdydx

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Interesting read, thanks. Sorry about the annoyances which you dealt with (especially the seatbelt chime thing which I hate).

But seriously, when a car is in testing mode before it goes on sale to the public, do they have outsiders (or testers) come in to drive the new car around to get feedback (like they do for most products)? Or is it only Honda people that get to decide what works and what doesn't for a new car without any outside input? Because you could learn a lot from the customers (us) and we would provide a lot of valuable feedback about the Civic (or whatever car is about to come out). Just to parrot what syncro87 said, it's just ridiculous that an engineer/designer wouldn't see a problem with some of the Civics current "features" (no volume knob, can't use some of the features like climate control right away, etc.) How do they not pick up on it?
 


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Interesting read, thanks. Sorry about the annoyances which you dealt with (especially the seatbelt chime thing which I hate).

But seriously, when a car is in testing mode before it goes on sale to the public, do they have outsiders (or testers) come in to drive the new car around to get feedback (like they do for most products)? Or is it only Honda people that get to decide what works and what doesn't for a new car without any outside input? Because you could learn a lot from the customers (us) and we would provide a lot of valuable feedback about the Civic (or whatever car is about to come out). Just to parrot what syncro87 said, it's just ridiculous that an engineer/designer wouldn't see a problem with some of the Civics current "features" (no volume knob, can't use some of the features like climate control right away, etc.) How do they not pick up on it?

The volume knob was missing last generation as well this is not something new. It’s been gone for years
 

dmitri

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To me the most annoying thing (for keyless entry models) is, by a long shot, the inability to shut off the engine while still being able to listen to music or talk on the phone. Freaking stupid, that one-way-cycling 'Start' button/ignition sequence design... :nono::crazy::banghead:

Can KTuner reprogram that thing by any chance? I might get it just for that...
 

unr1

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To me the most annoying thing (for keyless entry models) is, by a long shot, the inability to shut off the engine while still being able to listen to music or talk on the phone. Freaking stupid, that one-way-cycling 'Start' button/ignition sequence design... :nono::crazy::banghead:

Can KTuner reprogram that thing by any chance? I might get it just for that...
I’m not sure if this works on the civic but on the older accord you press and hold the gear shift button and then press the ignition button. This will turn the engine off but keep accessory mode on.
 

dmitri

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I’m not sure if this works on the civic but on the older accord you press and hold the gear shift button and then press the ignition button. This will turn the engine off but keep accessory mode on.
It might be the case in CVT models, I'm not sure, but I've got the Si (i.e. manual) and it definitely does not have any way to do that, at least not according to the manual...
 


Rickmeister 48

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I would have said to have remote started it and the rear defroster could have had your window cleared when you got in, but if your car is like mine, it wouldn't have worked.
 

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you can swap the climate control to your LX one if you want the basic fan control/knobs without having to use the infotainment system.
You’ve done this? I’m interested. Is it PnP? How much is the unit?
 

boosted180sx

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You’ve done this? I’m interested. Is it PnP? How much is the unit?
I haven't done it cause I've been lazy to order the part. The only function you lose is the dual zone climate control which not many ppl really use. (I don't). Oh, and the heated mirrors I guess if your car has those things.
The LX with the fan control/position control fits, the EX with the fan control on the rightside instead of the dual zone fits.

There are a few people here that posted pictures of it functioning on their SI and Type R with zero issues. The part itself is probably like $80 new or like $40-50 on ebay used probably.
https://www.civicx.com/threads/swapped-out-the-climate-controls.23252/page-3#post-395962
 

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Going to get coffee now. You all have a great day. :)
:headbang::headbang::headbang:

This part:
Now, I'm going to come clean here and admit to being a defender of the Civic's (EX-T) touch screen up until now. The lack of volume knob thing. Well, I was wrong. Whoever designed a system where the climate control shares the same screen, and hence the same controls / display as the backup cam and stereo system should be flogged to within an inch of their life. I need to increase the fan speed. Very simple. I should not have to shift into park, press a CLIMATE button, wait for that screen to appear, and touch an iPad to get the dang fan to work.
Bugs the hell out of me, too.

This Sport Touring is my first car with a touchscreen for anything. My EP3's most high-tech feature was ABS; no traction control, rear view camera, or adaptive cruise. I feel like I've jumped into the deep end but with those kiddie water wings on all four limbs.

I usually just let the automatic climate control do its thing, but sometimes I just don't need the fan to be on full blast, like when I switch it to Defrost (I turn it on at the first hint of fogginess because I have a thing about keeping my windshield clear -- so it only takes three seconds to clear anyway). My routine now is to hit Defrost, hit the Climate button right away, wait for a while for the screen to change, then tap the fan speed icons to put it at "2" instead of "jet engine".

I don't like doing this on the move since it takes my attention away from the road for so long. Some controls should just be a simple button that's always in the same place and always does the same thing. Turn signals, wiper controls, radio volume, and climate controls should be in that group.

Reviews of the Tesla Model 3 have only briefly touched on how almost all of its controls are all on a big touch display, and that the two small thumbwheels on the steering wheel change functions depending on what's selected onscreen. I think this is a terrible idea, and it's enough to put me off from considering the Model 3 at all.
 

exyia

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I usually just let the automatic climate control do its thing, but sometimes I just don't need the fan to be on full blast, like when I switch it to Defrost (I turn it on at the first hint of fogginess because I have a thing about keeping my windshield clear -- so it only takes three seconds to clear anyway). My routine now is to hit Defrost, hit the Climate button right away, wait for a while for the screen to change, then tap the fan speed icons to put it at "2" instead of "jet engine".
this. so. god. damn. much.

Seriously it's infuriating. If it wasn't for losing heated seats, I'd totally swap out for the lower trim AC control bezel just to not deal with this hassle anymore. I can't believe how nobody at Honda realized this would be a headache over the life of owning a car.

And I don't understand why it was done. Even luxury cars still have small dedicated temperature displays and controls. Centralizing everything into a touch screen interface sounds "cool and sleek" at first...until you use it for 5 minutes - then you realize some stuff is just better left independent.
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