Recently, I was in the front seat of a 2024 luxury sedan and of course, it was breathtaking. It was a perfect ride and the comfort was on another level. I will stop there because I am going to start sounding like an old man yelling at a cloud and when I am done, I think most of y’all will be Team Big Joe.
I wanted to turn the heat off so I looked down at the controls and looking back at me was a trigonometry problem. Yes, complicated to nth degree. I literally had no idea what I was looking at or for at this point. I just wanted to turn it off. That was it. My friend even said, “Man, I have no idea either and you have to take your eyes off the road to figure it out, so I don’t.”
Have to take your eyes off the road to figure it out? Pass. Yes, I know we should learn everything before we drive but sometimes there are things we forget and this falls right into that. I get technology is used to make things easier for us but I am not buying into this one when there is a simple solution.
Knobs. Bring back knobs and maybe a button or two. My first car was a Datsun 310 GX and if you wanted the heat on, you turned a knob and pushed a button. Easy! Or if you wanted the air on, my car did not have air, but if it did, hey, there is a knob, let’s turn it and press the button. Boom.
Now it is all so complicated and I bet that 75% of what they install we don’t even need. Again, I love that technology tries to make our life easier but sometimes, simple is the best. It worked flawlessly back in the day and will always be there to work for us.
I had another friend who used an app to unlock his car, which is fine, except for one problem. We left a football game and he was on his phone so much that it died. He had no key to his car, it was all on his phone. We stayed there until he found a charger to borrow and the phone charged up enough to unlock it. Nearly an hour.
I will stick with my key or FOB, depending on the car. Knobs and buttons and buttons and knobs. Simple. These cars now are so complicated that you feel if you hit the wrong button you will send a missile up. I just want the air or the heat on and a few other things, that is it. We all survived riding or driving our grandparents land yachts that had, yes, knobs and buttons.
I just want to send it to a certain place in the car. That is pretty much all I need. That is pretty much all we need. Knobs and buttons. Let’s make things simple again.