An occasional series about driving with distractions and how to minimise them
One of the other things I am a little bit obsessed with is synthesisers. (Note proper British spelling, no ‘Z’ here thank you very much.)
Now I know this is an even more niche subject, but I have a point to make and I think that this is a good way to do it. There is a point to this.
Probably.
Synthesisers are electronic musical instruments that were invented in the 1960s. Up until the early 80s all synths (pretty much) were analogue, (Again, the proper British spelling.) this meant that the sound was made by electric being pushed about, squished and filtered all in the none digital domain.
This meant that almost every feature of the instrument had to have a control. Some of you might now have realised where this is going, don’t say too much you don’t want to spoil it for the other readers do you? Let them catch up.
These controls were usually a knob or a slider. Then in 1983 the Yamaha DX7 was born, it was the first relatively cheap digital synth, and it was much much more complicated to use and program (Sadly, this is the correct British spelling in this context.) than the older and simpler analogue synths. This meant that it was impossible to make it cheap enough to actually sell and still have a control for each function. So menus were born.
The sounds that digital synths could make were a revelation and analogue was dead in the water. More and more complicated and powerful digital synths came along and each one had better sound and ever more cryptic user interfaces.
It became like trying to do a Sudoko with your eyes closed and your fingers tied together. Not easy or pleasant.
Then something started to happen in the late 80s into the early 90s. People got tired of trying to make music with these devices and people wanted their old analogue synths back. Modern synthesisers now try to have a balance of the two, and for more complicated stuff there will often be an option to plug it into a computer.
What are you wittering about Trev? Is there any danger of you getting to a point?
I’m nearly there baby. (I’m making the face and everything.)
Todays cars are far more complicated than their older, more analogue, counterparts. This means more and more controls are needed. To save money, and to make their cars look swish into the bargain touchscreens in cars were born. This was the future!
It sort of is.
But… And this is a but bigger than your Mum’s.
When you had to edit a synthesiser via menu diving on a small screen it was irritating, it maybe even killed your creative flow.
It never actually killed you though.
No one being confused by a system exclusive error was doing that while travelling at speed were they?
Todays vehicles have screens that tell you all sorts of information, some of it important but a lot of it really isn’t. You don’t need to know the weather in The Kyle of Lochalsh unless you are either there or driving there. You also do not need to know the lyrics to that new song that you like right now do you? That can be done in safety and at your leisure at home while some guff is on TV that you are not really watching like the rest of us.
Now a lot of “Tech” people are convinced that screens and fewer controls are the best thing to happen to cars. This is at least partly as it reduces cost and complexity. To these people I say one thing:
Gloves.
Cars are not just used in clement weather in the sunny bits of America. They are used in Alaska, Siberia and Doncaster. Sometimes in those places it is cold and when you get in your car and you will be wearing gloves when you start the car. *
There are things that are absolutely fine being controlled only by the screen, the audio and sat nav for example.
You need buttons and controls for heating / AC, changing the volume of the stereo, hazard warning lights, windscreen demisters and so on.The things that you might need in a hurry and that are potentially safety related.
When I am suddenly unable to see due to it going dark in a storm, I do not want to have to dive through thirteens screens, select each image of a traffic light and then recite the user agreement in full before I can allocate the system resources to put the bloody lights on.
The less things that you can be distracted by when you are driving is a good thing. Minimise the distraction and minimise the danger.
I would add that there are many other reasons to have controls other than the touchscreen, not least for when it stops working you would not be able to use most of the functions in your car.
* BUT TREV! U R SO RONG! TESLAS CAN HEAT UP B4 U GET IN THEM!!!!!!!
Yes, but they cannot take off your gloves for you after you have dug the car out and wiped the snow off the roof and bonnet can they?
You should always clear it before you move so it does not fall off when you are moving and hurt someone. You selfish prick. So, to do that I would imagine you would have gloves on.
Check, and indeed game and match mate.
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