EV Stupidity Checklist

Animats

China has already mandated an end to retractable outside door handles and electrical inside door handles. That takes effect January 1, 2027. There were two major incidents where people could not get out and could not be rescued. The powered charger port door would make sense if there were robot chargers that used it. Tesla demoed that, but people disliked the snake robot approach. Technically, a snake robot is ideal for that, but too many people fear snakes and tentacles. Rear view cameras are better than rear view mirrors. The field of view is better.

robmccoll

My Nissan Ariya checks nearly every box. The controls for the AC have dedicated buttons, but they are capacitive, not tactile. Anyway, love the car. It's a real shame that they aren't selling them in the US anymore.

throwaway4PP

I love the note regarding the rearview mirror being an actual, you know, mirror. A friend was teasing me the other day for using my mirrors while I backed up, ignoring the various screens and camera feeds dotting the dash. I reminded him that photons impinging my eyes reflected off the material world at the diffraction limit of the visible spectrum remain much higher fidelity than some shitty parts-bin screens. Plus those rearview screens are always horribly bright. You know what has infinite levels of dynamic brightness? Light bouncing off a planar reflector. So much of modern cars is cost savings and poor design decisions dressed up in the name of modern - but ultimately resulting in UX worse than an early 2000s Honda.

m463

I like retractable door handles. But I think a cutout underneath (maybe spring loaded) might be a good compromise. also, I WANT A PRNDL (drive select stalk). Even though they overloaded it with autopilot, I think the older model 3/y version was great. Removing it was dumb. An super-easy-to-locate hazard light button (required by law) would be nice. Not out-of-the-way. Why can't they just ask the us faa or us military - they have a century of experience with critical control design and placement that don't kill people.

simonw

This made me realize it's been 12 years since the last John Siracusa review of an OS X release on Ars Technica. I miss those so much! Here's John talking about ending them in 2015 https://hypercritical.co/2015/04/15/os-x-reviewed where he said "Someone else can pick up the baton for the next 15 years" - but sadly nobody even came close.

ortusdux

One of my favorite car reviewers is Doug Demuro. His videos on youtube mostly focus on the 'quirks and features' of the car, AKA all the minutiae you notice a few months into ownership.

panxyh

Nothing to discuss here, the article is spot on. I doubt though that those top of the class manufacturers are this stupid. They are rather playing the stupidity of the common consumer.

slg

Almost none of this is specific to EVs, manufacturers just see EV consumers as technology forward (which seems to largely stem from Tesla's design approach) so they have been more aggressive with technology than with their traditional ICE models.

martythemaniak

Ok, I'll take the bait. I have a thermostat at home, I set a temperature, it keeps my house at that temperature. I have a thermostat in my car, I set the temperature, it keeps the temperature. Fiddling with with climate controls and vents is not something I've done for 8 years now. Why is everybody always touching these things?

afh1

Such items need to be standardized, and cars driving on public roads must conform to a standard. It's that simple, but legislative bodies seem to have lost the ability to regulate basic items such as rear-view mirrors and non-blinding headlights.

einpoklum

Are these problems specific to Tesla, or are most Chinese EV manufacturers also caught up in the "make it so futuristic it's annoying and dangerous" attitude?

thebruce87m

> Physical charge-port door mechanism. So is the only one in the list that is actually EV specific? It also has a direct counterpart on an ICE vehicle so even it doesn’t count.

lavela

> Turn signal stalk While we're at it one thing to add: Keep your turn signal at an on-off pattern. I don't wan't to have to parse your cute turn signal animation. It's a warning light and should be somewhat irritating/eye-catching.

jbm

Please eliminate the glass roof. Why do EV companies keep making this customer hostile decision? On my 2019 Model 3, a stress fracture showed up overnight and everytime I look up I see a 3000$ fix for a car that is worth 10k max. I have no idea who wants it. It is hot in the summer, cold in the winter and you can have a sudden bill related to a rock on the street. Somehow everyone, from Tesla to Ferrari has this insane design decision and for something that only makes sense in a very small part of the world. Please stop.

doublepg23

I have a ‘25 Subaru Solterra (rebadged Toyota bZ4X) and it checks all these boxes (except it lacks a glovebox, though I believe this is remedied in the ‘26). It’s a good car in the sense it’s good at car things, even some EV things - but dear Lord is Toyota bad at making software. The software is consistently unreliable, unstable, and feature incomplete- which they still have the gall to charge for.

johnea

Interesting, and I agree with every one of those checklist items, but none of those things have anything to do with the car being electrically powered.

fastball

I think this desire is reasonable, but also completely misses two of the main reasons Tesla did their "everything mediated thru the touch screen" in the first place (besides cost, which TFA mentions). 1. It allows for having "presets" for everything configurable in the car. If you've ever shared a Tesla, you understand this: the driver's seat adjusts itself to the right position, as does the HVAC, etc. Everything being digitally mediated means I can loan my car to someone and when I get it back, all of my settings will be exactly as I left them. 2. It paves the way for "robotaxi". You don't need physical buttons geared towards maximum ergonomics of the driver if there is no driver . Obviously Tesla hasn't quite achieved that goal yet, but that is what they are aiming for so it makes sense they wouldn't invest much at all in driver ergonomics. Similarly, the doorhandles being flush is not entirely about "looking futuristic", but is instead another way to squeeze every last drop of aerodynamics out of the vehicle, which is incredibly important for EVs.

neilalexander

I would add that there is no particularly good reason for an EV to have a push-to-start button. With Volvo, Polestar etc, you get in and shift straight into Drive or Reverse, and when you’re done, you put it into Park and climb out again. This is how it should be.

uberstuber

My 2023 Chevy Bolt has all of these, shockingly great car. Had to do a bit of digging to disable the OnStar tracking though.

BeetleB

I've been meaning to write a post entitled: Things you could do with cars that you can no longer do. The top of the list is "Maintain a constant (vent) fan speed". With all the EVs I've tested, if I want to get warm air on my face at a consistent speed ... it's just not possible. "Auto" is disabled, I've set the fan at a certain speed, and set it to blow only in the top vents. Dial up the temperature, and the fan speed can drop markedly. Such a simple thing that's worked for decades. And they've made my driving very uncomfortable. I've had an EV for only a few months, and I keep thinking of trading it in for an older Honda. I've installed a USB fan, but ... why? Why am I paying so much more to get an experience I hate?