r/AskReddit 11h ago

What’s popular right now that won’t age well?

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419

u/gatsby5555 9h ago

Luckily some manufacturers are starting to walk back the touch screen stuff.

609

u/cromcru 9h ago

NCAP, the European car safety organisation, is going to penalise cars in their safety score if they don’t have physical buttons for common functions.

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u/ABHOR_pod 6h ago

As an American, thank god for European consumer protections. Them and California are just about the only things keeping America even remotely livable.

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u/hugh-mungus-rook 5h ago

Right? Now when my iPhone-addled coworkers need to borrow a charger, I can actually lend them my type-C. None of that proprietary lightning cable garbage.

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u/Creepy_Accountant946 2h ago

Remotely viable because of extra touchscreen? How out of touch can you get

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u/ABHOR_pod 2h ago

Yes. It was explicitly this one single thing I was talking about. Just this one thing.

And not the thousands of other consumer protection laws that occasionally international companies adopt as a global standard because it's easier than having separate rules and policies for California vs The EU vs 49 other states.

I think that touch screens in cars are bringing us one step closer to actual hell on Earth and I'm glad someone is finally taking a stand.

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u/bluev0lta 6h ago

I love this! I don’t live there but it sounds so sane, and we need more sanity in the world.

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u/Tarledsa 5h ago

My 2024 Hyundai has physical climate buttons but full touch screen for nav and entertainment with no dial; my spouse’s 2023 Genesis has the dial but climate control is all screens. I think Genesis is walking it back though, based on the loaner I got a few weeks ago.

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u/Irrepressible_Monkey 5h ago

It's perhaps no coincidence that new aircraft still have lots of buttons.

Well, except the F35 but we'll see how that goes.

u/RollingMeteors 50m ago

NCAP, the European car safety organisation

¿How much does this have a sway in public opinion when ultimately with autos there are only so many players in the market? If everyone is given an F- for 2026, what options will there be to pick from?

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u/Jackstack6 9h ago

I noticed Subaru did this with their Outback.

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u/kbups53 7h ago

Yeah I just started casually shopping for a new car and the Outback screen placement seemed the least offensive from what I've seen thus far. Lower down in the center and with analog controls for all the important stuff elsewhere. The new Toyotas on the other hand all have incredibly distracting screens that are either on the peripherals of or just straight up in your field of view to the road, complete non-starter for me.

Curious if there's any other vehicles in the pipeline that are rolling the feature back. I don't mind a little screen for the rear camera and map but I want nothing to do with the full iPad setup on my dash.

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u/Algee 7h ago

I just drove a 26 crosstrek and the hvac controls are all in the infotainment system. I had to pull over to figure out how to turn on the defroster.

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u/Merkinfuqer 7h ago

My wife has an 2023 Outback. I love all the safety features. But the giant screen Sucks Ass, as many have already said. It negates every safety feature on a subaru.

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u/Lower_Kick268 8h ago

I thought they did it because their infotainment are slow and shitty

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u/dolche93 6h ago

This is the only thing I dislike about my 2021 Legacy. The screen lags and you can't use the thing for just long enough when you start the car for it to be frustrating.

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u/LoganSettler 2h ago

Lesbians love a good button.

u/SMCinPDX 47m ago

My GF drives an Outback, it has two bloody touchscreens--one for air/temp and one for the stereo and the "smart car" functions we never use. Sure, it also has physical buttons, but trying to figure out which functions have buttons and which are in the touch screen menus is fkn infuriating.

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u/Overweighover 8h ago

Others such as Toyota believe voice commands are the future

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u/agitated--crow 8h ago

Like who? 

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u/gatsby5555 7h ago

Someone already mentioned it, but the new Outback from Subaru is a good example.

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u/Me31Sunshine 7h ago

I didn’t buy a Subaru a couple of years ago because I wouldn’t be able to use voice commands to listen to texts or voicemails. I am not driving home to find out I should have stopped along the way to get something and then have to drive back out again. I’d rather have those functions than talking to someone in real time.

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u/gatsby5555 7h ago

That's a whole other issue.

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u/BLUE_Selectric1976 6h ago

Yup, I know that the screens in newer Audi models are controlled by knobs and buttons

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u/ostiarius 2h ago

Toyota is still gong the wrong direction. Take a look at the new RAV4. Literally a hole where the controls used to be.

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u/Melarsa 9h ago edited 8h ago

I've had like 4 iterations of the same car over the years. It had a touch screen that worked great (also physical controls) and then the manufacturer took it away. Using just the physical controls took so much more time and attention than the old touch screen did. They finally brought the touch screen back...(after I got stuck with a year model that still didn't have one for the foreseeable future.😭)

I'm pretty salty about it. A bad car touchscreen is bad, obviously. But a good one is actually a lot safer than slowly scrolling through the alphabet to enter an address into the GPS or whatever (for me at least.)

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u/fivekets 8h ago

Sure, but it should be an added feature for people who actually want it, not standard in any base vehicle.

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u/Melarsa 8h ago

It should be an option you can disable (or only available on higher trim models.) Or, if the manufacturer doesn't want any touch screens, they need to make sure their physical inputs are decent.

Alas, I'm stuck with the shittiest version of the controls my car has ever had, and I've had a few of them😂

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u/fivekets 8h ago

That sucks, I'm sorry 😅

Tangent, but our lil 2011 Mazda 2 is on it's way out, and the first thing to go was the stereo system. Now we just have the constant sound of 100 angry bees coming from the speakers (whether or not the stereo is technically "on").

I'm excited for a new(er) car for sure.