My car's A/C has an 'auto-fan' system where the car determines the fan speed. I hate it, which is completely irrelevant.
I don't think that's irrelevant at all. When things are automated, they should be automated so well that you don't notice. If you notice, and hate it, then the automation sucks, and they should have left you with a knob.
Whether you like or despise this 'auto-fan' system, adjusting the fan speed manually is quick, easy, and can be done entirely by feel.
But if you didn't need to do it, the knob would be extraneous.
Dismissing complaints regarding the hiding of previously easy manual controls behind menus on touch-screens by pointing to automation is, in my opinion, intellectually lazy and dishonest.
No it's not. I've heard that way back in the day cars had a control to manually adjust ignition timing. I don't see anyone clamoring for that - It's because when it was automated, it was done right. Same thing with chokes and a host of other things that haven't been on cars in decades.
In the past decade, I've had a pair of Fords, a Jeep, a pair of Chevys, a BMW, a Nissan, a Lexus, and the Tesla, so I've gotten to experience how all of them have done in the various things that are being automated now.
One key thing is that Tesla has had the best automation by far in almost all areas, the glaring exception being the windshield wipers which are a bit "eager" sometimes IMO.
Also, before the law passed that allowed them to enable the matrix headlights, I've gotta say that Chevy's auto high beams were excellent, and just slightly better than Tesla's. Now that the matrix headlights are enabled on my car, it's super cool - You can see a dark spot moving where there's an oncoming car, but it's essentially high beams all the time so that I can see all of the deer we have running out of the woods everywhere. And it definitely works, I think I've only been "brighted" once in the past year or so since they were enabled and I think that was a warning. It wasn't frequent before, but definitely more frequent.
Tesla has gotten a few things automated pretty much perfectly that everyone else is still trying to catch up with:
1) Climate control. I don't have to adjust this at all. It just works and I'm always comfortable. Both for cabin temp as well as the heated seats and steering wheel.
2) Voice control. I don't know how they did it when everyone else's voice control systems kinda suck, both automotive and otherwise, but it's fantastic.
3) General controls - There's no start/stop button. It'll auto-shift to park if you unbuckle your seat belt or take your butt off the seat while stopped or just stay still for a really long time. Audio always goes back to whatever you had it set on last (*glares at the Lexus*).
I'm not going to make this an exhaustive list because I don't want to think that hard this late, but as automated as the Tesla is, I don't find myself wishing for more control back like I do in the other cars. It's automated in a way that works exactly how you'd want it to, so you don't miss the control, and in fact when I drive other cars it drives me nuts that I have to do some of that stuff. It feels just as archaic as manual ignition timing and chokes would.
The touchscreen thing will be less of an issue once voice commands + AI become more reliable (which they are every day). It should be a no brainer to very soon say "Set Nav 1 to Linden VOR," or "walk me through my landing checklist" and only look at the screen briefly to confirm.
I really wish Garmin would do more with this. I've been able to give voice commands to my plane since 2017. The available command list has not gotten any bigger, it hasn't gotten any better at interpreting commands (even though it is pretty good, it's certainly not as good as the Tesla), and it's still restricted to controlling the audio panel and one GTN.
Ever since I started flying in a two-crew environment, I've thought that it would be really nice to have a "virtual FO" and I was pretty excited by Goose, but sadly that doesn't seem to be going anywhere either, and it doesn't work nearly as well as I want it to. I hope Garmin can step up here.
