Comments on: Help! I can't program my car

More sophisticated electronics can mean more time-consuming--and tedious--setup. Is help on the way?
Images: Carnegie Mellon's car navigation system

[markdoiron]

Too Hard

It started when mfg's incorporated a clock that couldn't be set without reading the manual. How ludicrous is that?

And it's gotten ridiculous. I had to program a new key to work in my 07 Jeep JK and could not get it to work. Turns out that the 06 keys, which the locksmith provided, won't work. However, the manual also gave out incorrect instructions which complicated matters that much more. Having to swap keys, listen for certain blinking lights and hear certain beeps, all of which is incorrectly described in the manual, using a key that looks identical but is, in fact different (the 07 JK uses the 06 Commander key!), then to finally stand on my head for five seconds (okay, I made that part up), was ridiculous.

Right now, cars are where computers were at 25 years ago. Let's hope that they get better a lot faster because a crash with a computer is a lot less of a problem than one with a car!

--mark d.

[ferricoxide]

The Fun Part Will Be...

After you've spent 18 hours setting up your car and then you have some sort of "event" that causes all your custom setting to go *poof* and you have to spend another 18 hours getting your car all set back up again.

Just had something similar happen with my GPS: after a firmware/map upgrade, the touch screen decided the numbers and letters on the left side of the screen didn't need to be usable. Called tech support, they suggested a "reset" procedured that ended up wiping out a year's worth of collected addresses (and still didn't fix the problem).

Yeah... Technology's great, sometimes. :p

[umbrae]

UI is the key...

Since most engineers focus on the hard stuff, actually designing an interface to it looses attention. If its not easy to use, the feature is useless.

[disco-legend-zeke]

Disconnect battery to Reboot.

i had a highly customized Honda Civic with a security feature that allowed a thief to drive about a half mile before disabling the engine.

If it were accidentally started with a different key than unlocked the doors, it would fall into this mode.

The only cure was to reboot, accomplished by disconnecting the battery for a few seconds.

Just for the record, it was NOT necessary to "close all windows" first.

[JCarlson27]

Mr. Jobs......Oppertunity is knocking.

It's not that I love Apple it's just they seem to be the only Company that understands how to simplify the complex without sucking the functionality out the device.

[baike]

feature creep

This is just a symptom of feature bloat. I drive a Jetta and recently got a new one as a loaner while mine was undergoing maintenance. The new one turned me off of Jetta's. I couldn't turn on the radio without clicking OKAY on a touchscreen 3 times. I don't want to have to boot my car up or sign in or agree to an EULA everytime I need to drive to the store. I don't want these features. I don't want the hassle. I don't want the embedded expense. Even if you don't get the options, your purchase is subsidizing the availability of them. These car companies are trying to lure customers with shiny toys and siily features that have nothing to do with the true quality of the car. If they really want a firm share of the market, they should make cars of high quality at low cost and leave all this other crap to the aftermarket. In fact, if there was a car that was purpose built to readily accept aftermarket features (electronics), that would have an appeal to me.

[Travis Ernst]

Honda!

Honda is another one that is nuts. It will mishear you when you
give it a verbal command to adjust fan, or airconditioning, or
temp and all of a sudden the radio kicks on!!! So you almost
need a cheat card to have the commands in front of you. It is
worse than remembering all the AT commands for the modem in
the early days, not to mention the dip switch settings. It's the
same disaster.

I miss my 1972 with GLASS tube fuses (8 of them!) and an old
school AM radio. Hardly anything could go wrong that you
couldn't figure out with your eyes or a simple $10 meter if it was
a faulty wire, possibly the generator went bad (had that happen).

Now it's 6 computers in a car, DVD deck under the passanger
seat for the maps, GPS (guess what, that means YOU can be
tracked!) Too much electrical add-ons.

[bennettpb]

How many computers do I need to drive to work?
How many do I need to pay for?
When my car breaks, how do I describe the symptom?
Recently my MINI felt like it was running at half power.
I thought "limp home" or "safe mode".
On my second trip for repair the dealer gave me a loaner MINI with even more computers in it that I had to try to figure out just to use the radio and heater.
Now we need computerized seat, wheel, and mirror adjustment memory for six drivers.
Self adjusting headlight computers.
A computer that shuts off the dome light while I'm still in the car.
The best is a computer that tells the dealer that you have been racing and possibly voids your warranty
Thank you Nissan.