Technological/practical "backward steps" we all just accept now

that other one about cars, Ready to Start

cars have never broken down til now

used to be unusual for a car manufacturer to remotely cause their product to break down, because they felt it was a good time for your car to break.

he doesn't even want his car to start. he wants tesla to "help (him) explain to (his) wife."

i don't know where this fits but there's a computer system in our Honda which needs to be calibrated exactly right for the car to pass a smog test, even though its emissions are very little. I went in for the test and it failed, and the guy told me "you need to drive your car up the 2 freeway to the 210 freeway and head west for a couple miles and then exit and get back on and come back here and then it should be good, you just need steady nonstop freeway driving for at least 25 miles and that's the only route that won't have traffic."

I did it and it worked but wtf.

Jon: I can't take you to the dentist because my car broke down,
wife: I don't understand. You can't drive it?
Jon: No
wife: Impossible. If you can't drive it, is it really a car that broke down?
Jon: I've been tricked.
wife: I don't understand.
*tweet*

i don't know where this fits but there's a computer system in our Honda which needs to be calibrated exactly right for the car to pass a smog test, even though its emissions are very little. I went in for the test and it failed, and the guy told me "you need to drive your car up the 2 freeway to the 210 freeway and head west for a couple miles and then exit and get back on and come back here and then it should be good, you just need steady nonstop freeway driving for at least 25 miles and that's the only route that won't have traffic."

I did it and it worked but wtf.

― omar little, Wednesday, September 11, 2019 12:52 PM (five minutes ago)

fuuuuuuuuck

xxp that sounds fishy, like the VW emissions cheating stuff.

there is widespread fraud in smog testing

just need the turbo or whatever to be heated enough to burn off that shit iirc

head down the n4 at 120 and throw her into 3rd is the common advice here

in these cases, I don't think the emissions are necessarily even out of bounds. it's a software issue. the sort of issue non-teslas aren't supposed to have.

A car's "Check Engine" light 99% of the time has nothing to do with the engine but rather the onboard cpu/diagnostics.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, August 14, 2019 9:06 AM (four weeks ago)

i get the "check tire pressure" light for no reason at all but it inevitably comes on while on the freeway and i have to pull over and do this other calibration thing so it goes off.

My wife's CRV has that shit too. Lame.

issue. the sort of issue non-teslas aren't supposed to have.

You’re working overtime to miss the point. Cars break down and have quirks, not working because they need a software update like it’s Windows 98 is new.

also the smog test isn't *not* checking emissions as much as it can't officially and legally pass the test until the dumb software gets its kinks worked out. i asked the guy if there was something wrong, he said the car seemed fine, but i had to literally drive 25-30 miles and then it would be ok and pass the test. he said it happens all the time and he tells people to take the same route and it always fixes it.

There was an article recently about people getting locked out of Zipcars because they were out of cellphone range, in a parking garage, etc. That’s not a problem people had to worry about in the old days of rental cars.

The software determines a lot about how the car drives now. Check out some car forums and you’ll find people hacking the codes to get higher performance. The potential performance is literally held in check to meet efficiency and emission standards.

You’re working overtime to miss the point. Cars break down and have quirks, not working because they need a software update like it’s Windows 98 is new.

― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Wednesday, September 11, 2019 1:41 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm not missing the point. I just don't think the point, which overstates the difference between "needing a software update" and other car computer "quirks," is so profound.

Allow me to break it down for you: yes, I agree that analog/mechanical cars experience wear & tear sometimes rendering the car inoperable...

Yet the title of this thread is focusing on technological "backward steps", and one of those is not just that these newer, more technologically "advanced" cars will also have the same wear & tear issues as their analog/mechanical predecessors, but will be additionally hobbled with firmware cooldowns, be prone to hacking or theft, and other quirky complications that will render them inoperable.

Thank you.

"advanced"
this thread is ridiculous

More ridiculous than sitting in your inoperable vehicle on the phone for 38 minutes with tech support waiting for your firmware to push?

I'm not saying it isn't inconvenient. One person does that with an electric vehicle. Another fails a smog check in their Accord. trade offs. but the spirit of this thread is to low pass filter one's perception of convenience vs. time and then complain about the subzero regions and how they are "backwards steps".

excuse me *high pass filter

Sorry, which way is the comb-filter effect thread?

now the wah wah pedal was a real backwards step

then a forwards step...then another backwards one...forward again

drol wah-wah

I'm not missing the point. I just don't think the point, which overstates the difference between "needing a software update" and other car computer "quirks," is so profound.

It doesn't "overstate the difference." Your car still runs with other computer quirks like a check engine light that's on for no reason or even an open door ding or even if you can't get your emissions test right away.

there are yet other quirks, such as a bad crankshaft position sensor reading, that can make a car (without firmware updates pushed over the air) refuse to start.

Except then it won't work and you have to take it in before it will.

Your Tesla will work the moment the software update is done.

can make a car (without firmware updates pushed over the air) refuse to start.

There are very, very few cars aside from Teslas with OTA updates. Ford and GM are only starting it on a limited scale with 2020 models.

When your 2020 Focus also does this, feel free to complain.

the parenthetical is saying the failure mode exists in non-OTA vehicles

I've never had a car just arbitrarily break down. It's always been a dead battery or a flat tire or the reverse gear not working any more. And in any of those cases, the cause has been me not replacing the battery soon enough, me running over a nail, or me noticing that the clutch was feeling a little soft lately, but kicking the can down the road because I didn't have any money.

What that Tesla could do and what Microsoft Windows could do is what my office's silly little photo archive service does (or your browser) "An update needs to be installed. Would you like to schedule a time?"

The Tesla thing feels of a different category to all other car failures, though, because it sure feels optional: what exactly about the upgrade means that a car that could start and drive an hour ago can't now? Even if it was talking to APIs over the air to do ~stuff, presumably there must be offline modes available. "We want to make you update the software" is not the same as "the car needs this update".

Or are do we think they're saying "we've found a bug so terrible (like your brakes won't work any more) that we had to push a fix"? That's more defensible, but also terrifying.

(This is a general thing that pisses me off, because it's so often just shitty development. Had to stand in the cold to download an update recently because the bike app had pushed a mandatory upgrade out and refused to work like it had the day before. Could they really not have made their new API call backward compatible?)

my iPhone just died, completely, and i'm going to be going without a phone for a few days til i can get into and pick up a new one. a) it's nice to be disconnected tbqf, and b) we don't have a land line which would be considerably easier to replace and also my parents i think still have the same phone in their bedroom from when i was in elementary school. my iPhone lasted two years, just out of warranty.

In our expensive new kitchen I can't grill food, or roast or bake it at temperatures much over 200 degrees celcius without activating the smoke alram, which in turn sets off every smoke alarm in the house, at deafening volume for about five minutes.
The house is not burning down, its inhabitants are in no danger, I am preparing dinner.

I hate my smoke alarm deeply. It it ever saves my life it won't be enough

Oh, and then one of them starts beeping becuase the battery is low. At 3am. Again. Didn't I change it a couple of months ago? Oh wait, it's not the one in the hall beeping, it's the one on the landing, etc. etc.

well you joke but

i have in the past smashed one up with a broom but that was before our fire which refocused my priorities somewhat

Batteries in my smoke detectors are fine, the carbon monoxide detector needs new ones every two months though, is this normal? Maybe I should stop buying cheap batteries.

this is off-topic btw, I do appreciate having a co detector, someone I knew died from co poisoning because they didn't have one

I appreciate they might save me from dying in my sleep, but do I have to forego a browned topping on my cauliflower cheese?

i mean isn't that a ventilation issue with yr cooking setup tbrrwu

my smoke detectors are wired to the mains yet also have batteries that need replacing (i guess an electrical fire could short them out?). the little covers are absolute murder to remove

yep, dealt with one at the weekend and noticed that the actual removable part itself also has an expiry date, which was news to me.

(three years out of date if yer asking)

Websites that only load as one scrolls down, rendering ctrl-f useless

Otm

Yes

I'm shopping for a phone now and who decided that all phones need to have huge screens? This is ridiculous, a phone should fit comfortably in your pants front pocket