News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The end of the manual transmission is near? by KennyBlanken on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @09:37PM (#32588309)
Mechanical controls are safety-related - it's harder and more expensive to engineer a crash-safe interior with knobs and such. That's why with modern crash testing you saw a very rapid depreciation of pull-out knobs and the like. It's also harder to manufacture and repair. Electronic controls? You run power and a data bus to the unit, and you're done.

I don't think people understand how much engineering goes into a dash/interior in a passenger car, at least from a company that prioritizes crash safety. Everything is designed to give just the right amount when hit by a body flying around in crash. Even the lower part of the dash is designed to crush just the right amount if you "submarine" in a head-on crash - enough to stop you, but not enough to shatter your knees.

Re:The end of the manual transmission is near? by bityard on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @10:06PM (#32588541)
On the other hand, there will be fewer crashes due to the driver having to take his/her eyes of the road in order to squint at which identical button out of 25 turns the blower down one notch.
Re:The end of the manual transmission is near? by XorNot on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @11:17PM (#32589043)
Were there fewer crashes when these cars were the norm? No. [1,2,3,4]

The number of crashes per year has remained remarkably stable year over year, despite the number of driven miles and number of cars rising enormously. Conversely the number of fatalities due to crashes has dropped considerably.

So despite driving many, many more miles then they did previously, people aren't dying in crashes at a greater rate (total crashes is harder to track due to intermittent and inconsistent reporting data).

[1] https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/yearl... [2] https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/historical-fatalit... [3] https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in...

Re:The end of the manual transmission is near? by afiori on Thursday August 25, 2022 @01:55AM (#32590055)
One of the contributor to low fatalities-per-mile was congestion, my guess is that while miles driven per year increased every year average/median driving speed decreased due to traffic up to 2020 when congestion decreased for the first time.

https://podcast.strongtowns.org/e/driving-went-down-fataliti...

Re:The end of the manual transmission is near? by notriddle on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @09:53PM (#32588450)
Real electronic buttons are a decent second choice. Just don't put HVAC on a touchscreen.