Buttons and Switches

Creep-up.

Somebody thought it was a good idea to replace the buttons and switches in cars with a screen with icons for every function.

In my old Ford truck, one sliding bar controlled a/c or heater and defroster. Another slider controlled the temperature. The headlight dimmer switch is on the floor, windshield wipers had a rotating switch and another for speed.

Now cars come with that screen, just one screen, and you control nearly everything by touching an icon on that screen if you can find it while driving down the highway.

Meanwhile other drivers are calling State Troopers about the driver wobbling around the road.

You have to be a quick reader to find the icon you need to change from AM to FM radio.

A recent article in Popular Mechanics magazine hints that the era of the screen and the little icons is fading: Buttons and switches may be returning to the car near you.

In aviation, a pilot’s first responsibility is to “fly the airplane.”

Aircraft designers make it easy to choose the right thing without having to look for it.

It isn’t necessary to look for the throttle, fuel mixture, propeller controls because they have different shapes and feels. It also helps that they are different colors.

The landing gear control is in the shape of a wheel and it is located nowhere near the other controls to avoid a conflict. In flying airplanes and driving cars, it is desirable to know what you are reaching for.

My patience with touch screens and icons came to a halt last week when I reserved a small rental car for less than thirty dollars a day. The agency was fresh out of small economical cars and substituted a Volvo at the same price.

The Volvo is one of the safest cars made, but there was no intention to have an accident, plus higher priced premium fuel is required by the manufacturer.

I had driven over a hundred miles before I figured out how to dim the headlights.

A guy I met had depressing news. In his car there is a large knob in the middle of things. When you are listening to the radio, the knob changes volume. While adjusting the air conditioning, it controls the fan. (Same knob.) When adjusting interior lights, the same knob controls the dim/bright feature.

It is easy to make the case of reducing weight in an airplane by using a screen, but cars are already on the ground.

It would be cool if the turn signal’s purpose in life was to make the flashers blink and nothing more. Today the turn signal stick includes controls for something else, maybe a couple of them.

I’d also like for cars to use a key instead of a fob.

In the same Volvo, I had the fob but the button to start the car wasn’t a button at all, and pushing on it didn’t start the car or blow the horn.

I don’t know what I did to start the car. One of the buttons I pushed apparently did it.

joenphillips@yahoo.com