Harry's Garage - YouTube
Discussion
RSTurboPaul said:
I am as far from buying a new car as Boris is for paying for his own refurbishment works, so I really haven't kept up with what new stuff costs - but is that correct?
£45grand for what would 'traditionally' have been classed as a repmobile?
Someone paid £44.5k ish for my 17 plate ford galaxy some 3.5yrs and 45k miles ago!£45grand for what would 'traditionally' have been classed as a repmobile?
That's £1.55 per mile just in depreciation costs!
h0b0 said:
My hatred for voice commands stems from when I moved to the US in 2004. In those days you still had to call in to customer service and inevitably there would be the automated system. The only way I could get them to recognize me was by putting on a fake American accent. It is not as if I had a defined accent of my own at the time but the call system just could not understand me.
I find all voice commands infuriating for a multitude of reasons. The main one being that simple tasks may have complicated logic under them. For example, If I want to listen to music in my garden I can in a couple of taps on an App. I can then control it with my watch. If I wanted to do voice command it would go something like...
"Alexa, please (got to be polite) put 90's dance music on the patio"
Not bad, but that requires several components to work nicely together which has never once worked.
Frankly, I am not surprised by the £40K golf. I am more amazed by the £80K M3. It is a little more palatable in the US at $74k+tax.
My father, back in the early 80s switched all the business computers from IBM to Texas Instruments as they were the leaders in voice recognition. Like automated cars it was a load of cheap, dishonest snake oil sales and deluded IT chaps back then and it remains so today. People have spent their entire working and academic life trying to speech recognition to even get even remotely as competent as a a Victorian switch or dial, which in itself is just an update of the medieval switch and they have failed. I find all voice commands infuriating for a multitude of reasons. The main one being that simple tasks may have complicated logic under them. For example, If I want to listen to music in my garden I can in a couple of taps on an App. I can then control it with my watch. If I wanted to do voice command it would go something like...
"Alexa, please (got to be polite) put 90's dance music on the patio"
Not bad, but that requires several components to work nicely together which has never once worked.
Frankly, I am not surprised by the £40K golf. I am more amazed by the £80K M3. It is a little more palatable in the US at $74k+tax.
In car tech tends to be so clunky and backwards that it is nearly always bad tech that detracts from quality of life that I really don't know why the industry persists sometimes.
Bluetooth phone connection is another baffling one. It contains a lag that means you press play but nothing happens and because it's a touch screen you don't actually know if you did press play so you press it again but invariably just as it does start playing so you stop it instead. When the instructions were sent via a wire and carried by electrons it was instant, today the message has to be carried by a 1,000 year old Viking with dental issues and the dude is showing his age.
And I certainly don't get the passive aggressive nature of my BMW (which I actually chose based on it having the least amount of gimmick tech of any estate car that I could find. It even has a handbrake, it is that old fashioned!!). If I leave the media selection on 'phone' then every time I start the engine it will start playing the first song in the library. Range Rovers do this also. What kind of thick individual or team sits at these companies and specifically thinks that this is how humans play music? That every single time they go near a machine they all specifically want every bit of music in a library to start playing in alphabetical order? Someone has actually made the overt decision that this is the default, possibly only, setting and that this is normal.
Now, I like the Jam but 'A Bomb in Wardour Street' wasn't my favourite Jam track to start with and it certainly isn't now that it represents passive aggressive intrusion by broken minds.
Car tech that thinks it knows what you are about to do is as welcoming as the office fools who start answering your question before they are listened to what it is that you're asking because they are nowhere near as smart as they think they are.
Doofus said:
I have music on a usb in the car, plugged directpy into the stereo. You can't moan about modern tech in the car and, at the same time, want to stream music wirelessly from your phone.
I don't. It worked better with a wire and electrons. I love tech but when application of it is not what it could be. Very few people would want their music collection to start automatically and in alphabetical order yet someone has decided that is a logical default. [quote=.
Now, I like the Jam but 'A Bomb in Wardour Street' wasn't my favourite Jam track to start with and it certainly isn't now that it represents passive aggressive intrusion by broken minds.
Car tech that thinks it knows what you are about to do is as welcoming as the office fools who start answering your question before they are listened to what it is that you're asking because they are nowhere near as smart as they think they are.
[/quote]
Same car same song here!
I’d echo most of the stuff above. Whilst the lack of buttons looks nice, trying to use it whilst on the move is a challenge at best, especially in a car with RFTs. Plus in my experience it often doesn’t work or is too complicated to remember.
Now, I like the Jam but 'A Bomb in Wardour Street' wasn't my favourite Jam track to start with and it certainly isn't now that it represents passive aggressive intrusion by broken minds.
Car tech that thinks it knows what you are about to do is as welcoming as the office fools who start answering your question before they are listened to what it is that you're asking because they are nowhere near as smart as they think they are.
[/quote]
Same car same song here!
I’d echo most of the stuff above. Whilst the lack of buttons looks nice, trying to use it whilst on the move is a challenge at best, especially in a car with RFTs. Plus in my experience it often doesn’t work or is too complicated to remember.
DonkeyApple said:
If I leave the media selection on 'phone' then every time I start the engine it will start playing the first song in the library. Range Rovers do this also. What kind of thick individual or team sits at these companies and specifically thinks that this is how humans play music? That every single time they go near a machine they all specifically want every bit of music in a library to start playing in alphabetical order? Someone has actually made the overt decision that this is the default, possibly only, setting and that this is normal.
Now, I like the Jam but 'A Bomb in Wardour Street' wasn't my favourite Jam track to start with and it certainly isn't now that it represents passive aggressive intrusion by broken minds.
My ancient Honda accord (2004) didn't come with Bluetooth, so I purchased a £12 adaptor off of Ebay that plugs into the cigarette lighter and streams phone audio over Bluetooth to the car via a 'blank' radio frequency. Works really well, and when you turn the car off it automatically pauses the audio on the phone- and then when you switch the car on again it simply un-pauses the music and away you go!Now, I like the Jam but 'A Bomb in Wardour Street' wasn't my favourite Jam track to start with and it certainly isn't now that it represents passive aggressive intrusion by broken minds.
I can't recall the name of the East of Suez company who manufactured it, but perhaps they should get in touch with BMW and JLR about licensing their proprietary technology- it could make them a fortune!
12TS said:
Same car same song here!
I’d echo most of the stuff above. Whilst the lack of buttons looks nice, trying to use it whilst on the move is a challenge at best, especially in a car with RFTs. Plus in my experience it often doesn’t work or is too complicated to remember.
Mines a 2017. It's refreshingly dumb for a modern car. Straight 6, traditional handbrake, no touchscreen and I generally can get in the car and use it without ever having to program anything. I actually learned from Harry that with I drive you can write the post code on the top of the main dial which I've used a couple of times. The main thing about the car is that once I've set off I don't recall needing to do anything that isn't on a dial or switch and can be done with zero loss of concentration. I’d echo most of the stuff above. Whilst the lack of buttons looks nice, trying to use it whilst on the move is a challenge at best, especially in a car with RFTs. Plus in my experience it often doesn’t work or is too complicated to remember.
Apart from it insisting that I must want songs in alphabetical order the moment I get in the car the only other really annoying thing is the auto box as you approach a junction and it catagorically assumes that you will be coming to a halt when in London that is almost never the case and it leaves you hanging half out of the junction because it is completely confused by the fact that you haven't stopped.
All in though it's a cheap, comfortable, modern estate that remains nicely dumb next to its peers.
12TS said:
... Whilst the lack of buttons looks nice, trying to use it whilst on the move is a challenge at best, especially in a car with RFTs. Plus in my experience it often doesn’t work or is too complicated to remember.
AN issue is that most people are right handed which, in a RHD car, means stabbing at the screen with one's left hand. Obviously with the majority of countries driving LHD cars this means the screen is on the right.thegreenhell said:
It's mind-boggling that this tech is allowed in cars when any kind of phone use is illegal due to being dangerously distracting.
Absolutely this.Touchscreen mounted to a fixed mount - use it for google maps and it's a fine (plus points?).
Touchscreen mounted in dash - use it for Google maps, crack on...
soxboy said:
Back on topic of Harry’s videos, I’m enjoying the Dakar bikes he’s been taking out for a blast. A good amount of Harry’s knowledge about the various little details followed by him caning across his field at 100mph.
Conversely, I'm not really. I watched the first one and-a-bit, but haven't watched any more.But then, I'm not really in to off-road bikes.
Gassing Station | TV, Film, Video Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff