Comment by vvoyer
14 hours ago
Cars are becoming shittier in Europe, dumb regulations and people building cars are clearly NOT driving them.
My wife got a new Volvo recently:
1. You can only open it with your phone (find it in purse, unlock it, find the app, wait, click) or a card that can only open on the driver side (can’t open the trunk). What was fucking wrong with keys?
2. No behind the steering wheel screen, only a large tablet center of the car. No way to know your speed without looking to the side.
3. No physical buttons aside from the ones on the steering wheel.
4. And the infamous speed limit beep sound. You can turn it off with a shortcut button on the steering wheel. Which is so dumb if you think Europeans spent millions creating and implementing this rule. A friend of mine has no shortcut (kia) so he just starts driving then look away from the road to the screen to tap a few times. I’ve seen this many times now.
Overall cars are more dangerous to drive because of all this shit. Europe is spending millions creating laws to protect us on the road and making driving shitty. While Youtube, social networks and movies keep promoting cigarettes and alcohol.
It is fascinating that you look at design choices that Chinese Volvo copied from American Tesla (except for the speed limit) and declare that European cars are the problem.
Because Europe is basically what drives laws here in France for driving, I would expect them to do what's best for the drivers and clearly they are not.
They should not allow car Manufacturers to sell cars when: - There's no physical knob to open it - The only place to read critical information like speed is a tablet on the side - The speed limit is a constant beep unless you disable it AT EVERY START by touching a screen on the side (their law basically)
I love phone as a key. It's an optional thing on my car, you can still carry around a physical key fob if that's your jam. But outside of a long road trip I don't normally care to keep a key fob with me. It's just another piece of junk to have to have on me when I'm out and about. It's really nice having one fewer things in my pocket while I'm out and about.
The experience isn't as you list here though. It behaves pretty much exactly the same as a key fob. I just walk up to the car and it's unlocked, I don't need to take my phone out of my pocket or open any apps specifically or press any buttons on the phone.