[NA] Over engineered "improvements"

[ArrowFlyer86]

<rant>

In San Francisco this week and enjoying all the technological marvels our wizards of industry have to offer.

Like my cutting edge hotel where to use the elevator I scan a key card or a phone, which usually works after 6 tries, and then key in the floor I want to go to on a touch screen, at which point it assigns me an elevator (elevator bank only has 4 I think). Did the elevator file a plan direct to my floor? Nope! Everyone else going that direction shows up on our elevator itinerary as well.

How is this superior to you know... An elevator? You going up or down bud?

Or the fancy, touchless water dispensing fountains outside my arrival gate that didn't work. They have 3 different temperatures on 3 separate automatic touch less faucets, and not one works. I tried all 3!

How is this superior to a reliable, non touch less drinking fountain? How do they install this crap at an airport and give it primo real estate before making sure it can do its one, complicated job, of DISPENSING WATER!

Or the ******** Tesla key card that doesn't work? Whatever happened to a KEY? A KEY OR A FOB!!! How is an easily demagnetized or de-working key superior to you know... A freaking tried and true key or key fob that works 100% of the time?

</rant>

What else have we over engineered and not improved in the slightest in the process? Aviation or not...

 

[Daleandee]

Seems you answered you own question ...

"In San Francisco this week"

(OK I know the stupidity is everywhere)

 

[woywoyboy]

<rant>

In San Francisco this week and enjoying all the technological marvels our wizards of industry have to offer.

Like my cutting edge hotel where to use the elevator I scan a key card or a phone, which usually works after 6 tries, and then key in the floor I want to go to on a touch screen, at which point it assigns me an elevator (elevator bank only has 4 I think). Did the elevator file a plan direct to my floor? Nope! Everyone else going that direction shows up on our elevator itinerary as well.

How is this superior to you know... An elevator? You going up or down bud?

Not to take on your whole rant, but that's the way the elevators were set up in the office I used to work at for several years in San Francisco until fairly recently (with a bank of six, IIRC). It generally worked smoothly and reliably — and, yes, it seemed fairly smart about allocating people to elevators based on destination floor distribution. And the card readers worked just fine. So maybe it's just the hotel's cheap implementation?

 

[ArrowFlyer86]

Not to take on your whole rant, but that's the way the elevators were set up in the office I used to work at for several years in San Francisco until fairly recently (with a bank of six, IIRC). It generally worked smoothly and reliably — and, yes, it seemed fairly smart about allocating people to elevators based on destination floor distribution. And the card readers worked just fine. So maybe it's just the hotel's cheap implementation?

Certainly could be. The display has a list of floor it serves and if a bunch of people come at once it just dispatched us all on 1 elevator. The only difference is that it takes time for everyone to scan their thing and key in the floor. I could see it working much better if it segmented by floor range. But right now it's effectively a glorified "OK, you're all going up... Hop aboard elevator B one at a time"

Edit: I should also point out the building isn't that tall. Not many floors. Not unusual for SF. So I'm not sure you get any real efficiencies. Maybe for a 50 floor office building you could.

 

[schmookeeg]

I first encountered the weird assignable elevator game in Philly. I sort of get it -- efficiency at a cost to passenger cognitive load. I'm just less and less willing to suffer the cog tax anymore for mundane activities.


My toy BMW i3 has an electric release for the charge flap cover. You push on the flap and a little motor releases the latch. It of course decided to stop releasing. $4400 worth of foolishness to fix -- covered by warranty. Weirdly my EQS has a manual EV flap cover. You'd think the Merc would be the one with the stupid electric flap.

How that is better than literally any other flap design, I have no idea.

 

[ArrowFlyer86]

I first encountered the weird assignable elevator game in Philly. I sort of get it -- efficiency at a cost to passenger cognitive load. I'm just less and less willing to suffer the cog tax anymore for mundane activities.


My toy BMW i3 has an electric release for the charge flap cover. You push on the flap and a little motor releases the latch. It of course decided to stop releasing. $4400 worth of foolishness to fix -- covered by warranty. Weirdly my EQS has a manual EV flap cover. You'd think the Merc would be the one with the stupid electric flap.

How that is better than literally any other flap design, I have no idea.

Wow wow wow... Just wait..
Is this a BMW with a required monthly subscription to keep your heated seats working? Cause I know that was a thing for a bit...

 

[Racerx]

Just got back from Daytona and the Hilton had some BS key cards too. I thought it was me not knowing how to wave or tap the card or whatever I was supposed to do. After a week I still couldn't figure out how to dance.

Always Sunny on our app-centric society

 

[ArrowFlyer86]

Just got back from Daytona and the Hilton had some BS key cards too. I thought it was me not knowing how to wave or tap the card or whatever I was supposed to do. After a week I still couldn't figure out how to dance.

Always Sunny on our app-centric society

I count myself as an always sunny fan, how have I never seen this clip?!

That's how I felt ordering at one my favorite breakfast places in Chicago. They hand me a check with a QR code. But I'd wanna pay cash or card. But they wouldn't come back to pick it up because if you pay via QR they wouldn't have to. So you'd have to sit around and wait.

And I remember thinking on many occasions: this cannot be how most people pay. I don't see people busting out their phones to fkn plug in their credit card info so they can pay you. Why don't you just accept that people are gonna pay by card? What's with this stupid QR code ********?

Like I understand innovation and streamlining things, but this is just the same thing in a different, less convenient format.

 

[JOhnH]

I complained about the Tesla key for days, until I turned in the rental car and they showed me how to use it.

 

[Jim_R]

That's how I felt ordering at one my favorite breakfast places in Chicago. They hand me a check with a QR code. But I'd wanna pay cash or card. But they wouldn't come back to pick it up because if you pay via QR they wouldn't have to. So you'd have to sit around and wait.

And I remember thinking on many occasions: this cannot be how most people pay. I don't see people busting out their phones to fkn plug in their credit card info so they can pay you. Why don't you just accept that people are gonna pay by card? What's with this stupid QR code ********?

Like I understand innovation and streamlining things, but this is just the same thing in a different, less convenient format.

Not sure if you experienced something different from me, but when I've paid by QR code it's been easy and painless. How is it less convenient for you?

My experiences have been similar to any other online purchase. You say, "this cannot be how most people pay", but everyone is familiar with online payments these days, and "most people" (at least in my circle) have methods on their phone that automate the process of filling in the credit card data so that it's extremely easy.

I generally welcome the opportunity to pay via QR code at a restaurant. It allows me to decide when I'm ready to pay, complete the transaction, and leave--on my own timing, not the server's. Additionally, if the server doesn't have to spend time fiddling with everybody's payments, that theoretically leaves them with more time to take orders, refill coffee, etc.

So I consider it a win-win situation--better food service, and no waiting when I'm ready to pay and leave.

The only way I can see it being a downside is if you are still living in 1997 and don't have a secure password manager or payment app on your phone that auto-fills your credit card data into online payment forms. But that is easily solved, unless you simply insist on living in 1997.

 

[Dana]

All of the websites that want you to install their phone app.

 

[dtuuri]

... "most people" (at least in my circle) have methods on their phone that automate the process of filling in the credit card data so that it's extremely easy.

The only way I can see it being a downside is if you are still living in 1997 and don't have a secure password manager or payment app on your phone that auto-fills your credit card data into online payment forms.

So, you won't be the least bit nervous if your pocket gets picked of your phone in Times Square on New Years Eve? I know my brother and his wife were. They both got picked.

 

[Bob Noel]

why all the tech garbage? marketing.

Remember way back when people were buying pet rocks? marketing

Remember people buying little heaters for the shaving cream cans? marketing

Walk to your car today and put your hand on the door release/handle and magically the car unlocks.... most of the time, usually. How freaking lazy are we that we can't reach into our pocket and hit the unlock button on the fob? Or, gasp!, actually take the key out and outlock the door.

 

[Jim K]

Or the ******** Tesla key card that doesn't work?

Yeah the card isn't great. My experience with the phone app was pretty good though. Just having my phone in my pocket, the car would unlock and start up without me touching anything. Also nice to be able to start the climate control remotely in 110*F heat.

All of the websites that want you to install their phone app.

This. I hate this so much. I already have an app on my phone that accesses everything I want from your stupid site. Reddit is the absolute worst about this, but every fast food and store of any size does it too. I have so much **** on my phone I can't find anything as it is; the last thing I want is more apps to flip through.

I'm aware those two mini rants contradict each other.


I also installed the Sonic app the other day because I was hungry and forgot my wallet. Turns out it's actually better than shouting my order over a crappy speaker and waiting five minutes at the window for them to make my food.

 

[bentmettle]

I also installed the Sonic app the other day because I was hungry and forgot my wallet. Turns out it's actually better than shouting my order over a crappy speaker and waiting five minutes at the window for them to make my food.

Sorry, I’m the person pulled over in the McDonald’s lot ordering with the app. They used to have some pricing enticements to use it, but must have hit some target adoption rates because the prices are back to normal.

The mechanized vs manual charge or filler door discussion is wild. We went back and forth on this. The manual door is more reliable if done correctly. The mechanized door signals high tech and may provide revenue via increased sales. Sometimes you have to buy stupid complicated crap because the larger market has moved the profits into that area. Bleh.

 

[Racerx]

I count myself as an always sunny fan, how have I never seen this clip?!

That's how I felt ordering at one my favorite breakfast places in Chicago. They hand me a check with a QR code. But I'd wanna pay cash or card. But they wouldn't come back to pick it up because if you pay via QR they wouldn't have to. So you'd have to sit around and wait.

And I remember thinking on many occasions: this cannot be how most people pay. I don't see people busting out their phones to fkn plug in their credit card info so they can pay you. Why don't you just accept that people are gonna pay by card? What's with this stupid QR code ********?

Like I understand innovation and streamlining things, but this is just the same thing in a different, less convenient format.

I think it's the most recent season. "Dennis takes a mental health day", good episode.

One of my biggest current gripes is qr code menus at restaurants. I'm here to order food and give you money. Why are you making me look at a poorly laid out menu the size of an index card and scrolling. Let me see all of what you have on normal size font. Last place I went to I asked if they had a physical menu. I could tell they got that question a lot. Most places that play the qr code game do have a physical menu. These people didn't. So I left. I'm done jumping through hoops.

Ever break or lose your phone and go to a phone store that has phones, but they need to order one?

 

[Bill]

I have a current generation Honda Goldwing, to add gas to the tank one:

1.) Has to have the key fob within range of the sensor on the bike
2.) Push a button on a side pocket on the fairing. This activates a solenoid that pops the pocket door open.
3.) Under this door, is another button to push, this one opens the fuel filler door not via another solenoid, but via an old school cable.
4.) So now with the fuel filler door open you can add gas? Nope, still have to unscrew the gas cap!

I think the Japanese hired the Germans to design this portion of the bike.

Just using a key to open the gas cap has worked for decades, but now it’s gotta be “high tech.”

 

[flyingron]

The problem is that the conventional elevator system where each elevator goes up and down stopping at any floors that have calls doesn't work above a certain number of floors. So there are a number of solutions:

1. More elevators, some of which express up to a higher floor before they start making stops.
2. The old WTC sky lobbies, where you first go to the floor 40 or 80 by express and then switch to a conventional elevator going to the intervening floors (essentially, they stack up the local evelators in the same horizontal space.
3. The ones you are experiencing where software determines the optimal routing for all the calls in progress. Sort of a hybrid of the #1 but not statically allocated as to which are express and which are local

 

[midwestpa24]

For many years I've visited the Marriot Downtown Kansas City, and they have such an elevator setup. It has a touch pad outside the elevators with the floor numbers, and once you select your floor it assigns you to the correct elevator, no buttons in the cab itself. Took a couple of times using it to get used to it, no biggie.

A growing trend I'm seeing in restaurants that I do not like, beyond the QR code menus, is the wait staff carrying handheld devices to take your credit card payment, but not offering an itemized receipt to review before paying. They just come up and show you your total on their iDevice and want you to insert your card. Too many times have I accidently been charged for something I didn't order, or received the wrong tables bill. I would like to make sure my bill is correct before whipping out the plastic payment device.

 

[Half Fast]

A growing trend I'm seeing in restaurants that I do not like, beyond the QR code menus, is the wait staff carrying handheld devices to take your credit card payment, but not offering an itemized receipt to review before paying. They just come up and show you your total on their iDevice and want you to insert your card. Too many times have I accidently been charged for something I didn't order, or received the wrong tables bill. I would like to make sure my bill is correct before whipping out the plastic payment device.

When they do that, try taking out a pencil and writing down the items on a napkin and adding it up by hand. You can also try muttering a little bit: "9 plus 4 is 13, carry the 1,..." Meanwhile, the server is stuck at your table waiting for you to finish the math problem. Once he starts becoming visibly annoyed, tell him, "Y'know, we could have avoided this if you'd just dropped off a printed tab."

 

[2-Bit Speed]

Ever break or lose your phone and go to a phone store that has phones, but they need to order one?

Nope. I buy my phones used and (at least) one generation old. You can get a flagship phone for more than half off that way. But I think my next phone is going to be flip phone.

 

[TCABM]

Like my cutting edge hotel where to use the elevator I scan a key card or a phone, which usually works after 6 tries, and then key in the floor...

What’s silly is the key card should know what floor you’re going to because it’s got the code to unlock the door.

The reader should be auto-selecting floor for you with an option to override for the bar/pool/whatever that’s.

 

[Salty]

I've got a good one for this. I decided to use Apple Pay to pay at a fast food window....

Dropped the phone between the car and the building
Was too close to the building to open my door
Car, which was using the phone as a key decided not to allow me to pull forward
Keypad over-ride for not having phone-key failed 3 times before it finally worked

Yay for tech making my life easier!

 

[Bill]

What’s silly is the key card should know what floor you’re going to because it’s got the code to unlock the door.

Maybe security. If I accidentally drop the key card, I’d rather not have my would be assailant/thief be sent to my floor.

 

[Sac Arrow]

I'm ambivalent on the use of apps to order fast food. My biggest issue is that I'm always changing something up, like holding the croutons or lettuce wrapping the burger, and some apps can't handle that, at least easily.

My favorite burger place (Habit Burger) has installed multiple order kiosks in most of its locations. I always smile when I walk past the people ordering at the kiosks, make my order and pay for it with the touch of a credit card at the register, and finish half of my drink while the same people are still placing their orders at the kiosks.

 

[Matthew]

Our local AMC theater has done away with the ticket windows. You either order online and get a QR code sent to your phone, for a “convenience” fee, or you use the kiosks that always seem out of order. I found a third way: walk inside to the customer service desk and deal with a human.

The first time we did that, the guy gave us the senior discount without being prompted. I asked him why he thought we were seniors (even though we meet their age limit)? He said, “Middle of the week, middle of the day, you didn’t order online, and you walked past the kiosks. That pretty much checked all the boxes.”

 

[flyingron]

The more modern room keys do have the room number. Some of the older ones just have a serialized sequence. The front desk knows what the lock sequence is. Putting in the next key in the sequence bumps the count invalidating the older card.

Some don't really have the room number but you could derive it from there. Back when we used to hack such things at conferences, I found the card for adjacent rooms had a number in them two off. Counting the number of guest rooms per floor and the floor we were on pretty much lent me to believe that the guest room locks were just encoded 1, 2, 3,... starting on the lowest guestroom floor and going down the hall and then up to the next floor, etc...

 

[Half Fast]

I've got a good one for this. I decided to use Apple Pay to pay at a fast food window....

Dropped the phone between the car and the building
Was too close to the building to open my door
Car, which was using the phone as a key decided not to allow me to pull forward
Keypad over-ride for not having phone-key failed 3 times before it finally worked

Yay for tech making my life easier!

I thought this story was going to end with you pulling forward and running over the phone....

 

[mandm]

I count myself as an always sunny fan, how have I never seen this clip?!

That's how I felt ordering at one my favorite breakfast places in Chicago. They hand me a check with a QR code. But I'd wanna pay cash or card. But they wouldn't come back to pick it up because if you pay via QR they wouldn't have to. So you'd have to sit around and wait.

And I remember thinking on many occasions: this cannot be how most people pay. I don't see people busting out their phones to fkn plug in their credit card info so they can pay you. Why don't you just accept that people are gonna pay by card? What's with this stupid QR code ********?

Like I understand innovation and streamlining things, but this is just the same thing in a different, less convenient format.

The time this happened to me, I went online to pay for it, but no receipt, I asked if it was paid, they said yes, but never saw the charge on my card. I’ll take it.

 

[mandm]

All of the websites that want you to install their phone app.

Thissssss
And the pop ups start
And the emails too

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Or the fancy, touchless water dispensing fountains outside my arrival gate that didn't work. They have 3 different temperatures on 3 separate automatic touch less faucets, and not one works. I tried all 3!

"Welp, I guess I can't get the free water, I'll have to go over here and buy an $18 coffee from the vendor that pays the airport for the privilege of selling it to me instead." Where's the motivation to fix it?

Or the ******** Tesla key card that doesn't work? Whatever happened to a KEY? A KEY OR A FOB!!! How is an easily demagnetized or de-working key superior to you know... A freaking tried and true key or key fob that works 100% of the time?

Odd. I've never heard of anyone having trouble with the key card, only with the phone app.

It's been a LONG time since the app didn't work for me. I still have the card in my wallet in case my phone battery dies or it gets stolen, and I've never had it fail.

One of my biggest current gripes is qr code menus at restaurants. I'm here to order food and give you money. Why are you making me look at a poorly laid out menu the size of an index card and scrolling. Let me see all of what you have on normal size font. Last place I went to I asked if they had a physical menu. I could tell they got that question a lot. Most places that play the qr code game do have a physical menu. These people didn't. So I left. I'm done jumping through hoops.

There's a clear difference that appears between companies that "get it" and companies that don't.

Jimmy John's is an example of a company that gets it. In addition to the regular online ordering you'd expect, they have a great group-ordering setup: One person sets up a group order, tells whether they're paying for it or if individuals are paying for their own, and lets you invite people to add their order via email. Then it tells you everyone's order status, tells you when it'll all be ready for pickup/delivery... It's really well done.

Jersey Mike's annoys me because theirs is highly location-based. I generally order the same sandwich, but depending on where I am and where I'm going I might use one of a handful of locations. It lets me one-touch my order, but only if I'm ordering from the same location I used the previous time, and no "buy this sandwich, but from this location" function - I have to start all over each time I switch locations.

But the one that really annoys me is BW3. They have an app that is decent and has some extra features like the trivia game they have on-site. But you can only use it to order for takeout. They use QR codes at the table, but they don't open the app at all, only a web site. You're a new person every time, you need to re-enter your payment info every time, there's no Apple Pay, it just seems like they did the bare minimum to make something work at all and then gave up. As a result, I don't eat there as much as I might otherwise.

I think all companies need to realize that in today's world, there is a certain expectation that you keep up with what the tech companies are doing, and use features like Apple Pay and Face ID and generally make your customers' lives as easy as possible. The best way to make money is to make it as easy as possible for your customers to give you their money!

 

[2-Bit Speed]

I think all companies need to realize that in today's world, there is a certain expectation that you keep up with what the tech companies are doing, and use features like Apple Pay and Face ID and generally make your customers' lives as easy as possible. The best way to make money is to make it as easy as possible for your customers to give you their money!

I cannot disagree with this strongly enough.

 

[ArrowFlyer86]

Yeah the card isn't great. My experience with the phone app was pretty good though. Just having my phone in my pocket, the car would unlock and start up without me touching anything. Also nice to be able to start the climate control remotely in 110*F heat.


This. I hate this so much. I already have an app on my phone that accesses everything I want from your stupid site. Reddit is the absolute worst about this, but every fast food and store of any size does it too. I have so much **** on my phone I can't find anything as it is; the last thing I want is more apps to flip through.

I'm aware those two mini rants contradict each other.
View attachment 138307

I also installed the Sonic app the other day because I was hungry and forgot my wallet. Turns out it's actually better than shouting my order over a crappy speaker and waiting five minutes at the window for them to make my food.

I got stranded in the parking lot with the tesla card. The keycard worked fine for getting there, and it worked fine to unlock the door, but when placed on the console to start... No. The owner had to permission me remotely and turn on the car from wherever he was. I was sitting there thinking: "man, if only we had a reliable solution for starting a car that's worked for like 80 years?"

And yeah, apps... Good god. Me and my brother get into arguments about this because he installs the app for everything. I'm like... I have a browser that was specifically designed to load up any webpage, and that webpage can have whatever content they want to push. How did we revert into installing fixed applications for each thing we use? And why the hell would I voluntarily install another app that's just bloatware on my phone, will almost invariably require me to create a pointless account, will have questionable privacy practices, and will send me meaningless marketing alerts just to get my attention. Do I really need McDonalds sending me an update telling me the McRib is back? Or do I need to know right now about some Netflix series that just dropped?

The pro-app crowd is like: "oh but after you install the app, create an account, and get bombarded with alerts -- you can just disable the alerts if you don't like them. It's totally customizable in this menu"

And I'm like... Or... crazy thought... I could just not install the app to begin with .

 

[ArrowFlyer86]

Not sure if you experienced something different from me, but when I've paid by QR code it's been easy and painless. How is it less convenient for you?

My experiences have been similar to any other online purchase. You say, "this cannot be how most people pay", but everyone is familiar with online payments these days, and "most people" (at least in my circle) have methods on their phone that automate the process of filling in the credit card data so that it's extremely easy.

I generally welcome the opportunity to pay via QR code at a restaurant. It allows me to decide when I'm ready to pay, complete the transaction, and leave--on my own timing, not the server's. Additionally, if the server doesn't have to spend time fiddling with everybody's payments, that theoretically leaves them with more time to take orders, refill coffee, etc.

So I consider it a win-win situation--better food service, and no waiting when I'm ready to pay and leave.

The only way I can see it being a downside is if you are still living in 1997 and don't have a secure password manager or payment app on your phone that auto-fills your credit card data into online payment forms. But that is easily solved, unless you simply insist on living in 1997.

We'll have to agree to disagree.
Personally I think paying by QR is nearly pointless optimization.

And while I'm a pretty tech savvy guy, I do not have my credit card data preloaded into my phone. It's already bad enough if I lose my phone and have to replace it. I don't want losing my phone to also mean whoever finds it can also gain access to all my payment methods and buy whatever they want by scanning a picture. There is some value in segmenting those things.

 

[Daleandee]

I was recently riding in a BMW and was shown how hand motions are used to turn up and down the radio volume, select the next song, start & stop the music, etc. The driver said it was an annoyance when they had a hand talker in the vehicle with them. I'm a bit old school in that I still like buttons and knobs. I will admit that Apple Car play can work well for hands free communications ...

 

[Racerx]

I got stranded in the parking lot with the tesla card. The keycard worked fine for getting there, and it worked fine to unlock the door, but when placed on the console to start... No. The owner had to permission me remotely and turn on the car from wherever he was. I was sitting there thinking: "man, if only we had a reliable solution for starting a car that's worked for like 80 years?"

And yeah, apps... Good god. Me and my brother get into arguments about this because he installs the app for everything. I'm like... I have a browser that was specifically designed to load up any webpage, and that webpage can have whatever content they want to push. How did we revert into installing fixed applications for each thing we use? And why the hell would I voluntarily install another app that's just bloatware on my phone, will almost invariably require me to create a pointless account, will have questionable privacy practices, and will send me meaningless marketing alerts just to get my attention. Do I really need McDonalds sending me an update telling me the McRib is back? Or do I need to know right now about some Netflix series that just dropped?

The pro-app crowd is like: "oh but after you install the app, create an account, and get bombarded with alerts -- you can just disable the alerts if you don't like them. It's totally customizable in this menu"

And I'm like... Or... crazy thought... I could just not install the app to begin with .

Glad I'm not the only millennial one step away from becoming the Unabomber

 

[ArrowFlyer86]

The problem is that the conventional elevator system where each elevator goes up and down stopping at any floors that have calls doesn't work above a certain number of floors. So there are a number of solutions:

1. More elevators, some of which express up to a higher floor before they start making stops.
2. The old WTC sky lobbies, where you first go to the floor 40 or 80 by express and then switch to a conventional elevator going to the intervening floors (essentially, they stack up the local evelators in the same horizontal space.
3. The ones you are experiencing where software determines the optimal routing for all the calls in progress. Sort of a hybrid of the #1 but not statically allocated as to which are express and which are local

It's just the electronic system is so cumbersome:
1) Go to general elevator bank, scan key card
2) Press floor you want to go to on touch screen
3) Get assigned an elevator
4) Wait in elevator as more people scan until whatever software tells it you have sufficient people to go (or have waited long enough)

To me this process seems optimized to be as inefficient as possible. Most sizeable office buildings I've been to just have elevator banks that serve different floors. That already chops down on the amount of wait time you're going to have in the elevator. I just don't see how every single person going through a workflow of scanning/selecting/being assigned an elevator saves any time at all.

 

[midwestpa24]

I was recently riding in a BMW and was shown how hand motions are used to turn up and down the radio volume, select the next song, start & stop the music, etc. The driver said it was an annoyance when they had a hand talker in the vehicle with them. I'm a bit old school in that I still like buttons and knobs. I will admit that Apple Car play can work well for hands free communications ...

I recently had a rental car that did not have a physical knob for the AC fan speed, it was embedded in the touch screen controls. So instead of being able to blindly reach down and adjust the A/C, I now have to take my eyes of the road to find the right square half inch of space on a 20 inch screen to push. Then hit a bump or run off the road, accidentally hit the wrong spot, changing the radio station and the screen to a map with no buttons, and having to find your way back to the home screen.

I had another rental that had the heated seat and steering wheel controls buried in a menu on the infotainment system, no physical buttons. You basically had to pull over and stop to scroll through the menus to find these functions.

And they think cell phones are the problem?

 

[ArrowFlyer86]

I recently had a rental car that did not have a physical knob for the AC fan speed, it was embedded in the touch screen controls. So instead of being able to blindly reach down and adjust the A/C, I now have to take my eyes of the road to find the right square half inch of space on a 20 inch screen to push. Then hit a bump or run off the road, accidentally hit the wrong spot, changing the radio station and the screen to a map with no buttons, and having to find your way back to the home screen.

I had another rental that had the heated seat and steering wheel controls buried in a menu on the infotainment system, no physical buttons. You basically had to pull over and stop to scroll through the menus to find these functions.

And they think cell phones are the problem?

But didn't you feel cutting edge knowing every command is just 2 menus, one of the 18 submenus, and 5 clicks away?

 

[Pinecone]

Certainly could be. The display has a list of floor it serves and if a bunch of people come at once it just dispatched us all on 1 elevator. The only difference is that it takes time for everyone to scan their thing and key in the floor. I could see it working much better if it segmented by floor range. But right now it's effectively a glorified "OK, you're all going up... Hop aboard elevator B one at a time"

Edit: I should also point out the building isn't that tall. Not many floors. Not unusual for SF. So I'm not sure you get any real efficiencies. Maybe for a 50 floor office building you could.

Poor implementation.

They put them in my building at work. It seems to allocate no more than 2 stops for any ride.

But it may be not enough elevators for the system to work well. My building has 6 elevators for 13 floors.