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How wrong am I to think that car UX was a solved issue and this is just the proof. Trying to improve something "done" often leads to worse.

I recently used a kia Rio 2019 and everything is nicely placed, zero ambiguity and, except the touchscreen, everything cam be used with gloves


I'm feeling they're veering towards a "common ui" where every action is an icon like on a phone where every app is an icon.

Maybe someday they'll completely remove the text to just keep the icons like the Office ribbon did, and I'm still confused with it.


In the early 2000s I helped an engineering from transitioning from the CAD software CATIAv4 to v5.

While v4 was pretty much text based in early v5 every item and action had an icon, often only an icon. The manual read something like this:

"To do ⌘ you navigate from the ⌙ page to the ⌟, while holding the middle mouse button. The⌇will open and you will see the ⌆."

I think they did that with good intentions. CATIA being a French product sold all over Europe and beyond, localization must have been a significant line item. The result was a nightmare though and they to toned the reliance on symbols down in subsequent versions.


Imagine how usable computers will be once we remove every instance of text!

As a user of OLauncher on android, it's hard to imagine.

> with every extreme of inventiveness of visualization in its most exaggerated form, what did we have every fifteen seconds? An utter halt to the action, while words flashed on the screen.

"The Ancient and The Ultimate"

https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v044n01_...


On a side note, Québec city's parking app is called Copilote+

Could you display the rate in local currencies or at least show the actual currency in ISO ?

I'm guessing that the price in $ is USD but as we also have $ in Canada, it can be misleading, especially when 1USD~=1.35CAD


Of course, nice suggestion, on it <3

And done, you're quick !

mad hugs

In Canada, my provider charges 0.60cad/minute to Europe.

Voklit : 0.05$ / minute


What? VOIP.MS

Countries like Germany start at $ 0.0147 / min


voip.ms requires setting up SIP credentials and configuring a softphone (or their app). Great for technical users who want maximum control and lowest rates. Voklit is for people who wish to download an app / use the browser and start calling immediately without touching any settings.

You can do that with Google Voice for free and much lower rates. US/UK/Aus are 1 cent per minute versus 5 on your system, thats your competition.

Google voice isn't available in Canada.

Mytello is 0.05CAD / minute.


Google Voice is available everywhere with a little effort. I've used it outside of the US for over 10 years.

Even without GV there are other lower cost options. The actual (wholesale) cost of these services are around what GV charge or less, a 5+ times mark up is pretty rich.


"little effort" = friction.

Many SaaS offer are just removal of friction.


Something something... A lie repeated a thousand times...

Which is called Fish and Chips in Canada, even though it's served with fries.

In the UK a fish and chips shop is sometimes called a "chip shop". The New York Times helpfully translated this in a recent article:

> “I’ve seen lots of students my age struggling, trying to get work and even the basic necessities,” Agastya Dhar, 17, said. Mr. Dhar has a part-time job in a French fry restaurant, but said even getting that job was tough.

French fry restaurant is now my preferred term for the local chippy. For those outside the UK chip shops normally have no seating, or maybe a couple of uncomfortable, uninviting, flourescent lit plastic benches and tables, normally bolted down, maybe sprayed clean at the end of the night.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/world/europe/uk-budget-yo...


In the Netherlands we have two words for fries and you know if someone is from the north or the south based on their use: Patat, north en Friet, south, particularly in the South people are sensitive to using the wrong, northern word. (And chips are just crisps here.)

What? Every time I see kids on the train they’re talking about going to the appie to buy a redbull and “zakje chips”. I live in Eindhoven though so idk if that plays a roll.

"Zakje chips" is a small bag of crisps (like Lays)... If they go for fries they'd say they go for a "frietje". Eindhoven is distinctly in the South :)

That damn Red Bull though, somehow the kids love it, part of it is probably that their parents keep them away from it. Sugar and Caffeine. Diabetes and poor sleep, great stuff.


I heard some restaurant getting sued for selling "fish and chips" without fish, but I don't remember how it ended

Same in the US

Soylent?

Strangely based on the movie Soylent green


Isn't it similar to how many countries kept using Russian gaz after the invasion in Ukraine, they weren't ready to turn the switch off?

The US seems "winning" right now because its imposing measure that need time to be bypassed, but will be bypassed.


FATCA turned 15 years now, nobody bypassed it, although everyone whined a lot.

Yeah, for instance: even if Trump's bullying works for now, he made sure that most governments in Latin America, including right wing ones, will prioritize uncoupling the country from the US economy. Even if they won't say this quiet part out loud.

I'm still sour of how easily I was deceived while being so happy when envisioning a future that won't come.

First with autopilot, then with boring's tunnels, then a $39k cybertruck, then ...

What's that saying about "fool me so many times I can't keep count" ?

Whatever angry feeling we may have towards Elon Musk, he's not the richest man on earth for nothing.

Lesson learned, till next time !


>>he's not the richest man on earth for nothing.

He engineers perceptions, finance, and govt funds, not technology. Every report and available evidence shows he is barely technologically astute, nevermind genius; the accomplishments of his teams are despite him not because of him.

Which is why a better description would be: The Greediest Man On Earth.


> Every report and available evidence shows he is barely technologically astute, nevermind genius; the accomplishments of his teams are despite him not because of him.

In particular, nothing that comes out of his mouth regarding AI makes any sense.

And still, people listen to him as if he was an expert. Go figure.


Or even vehicle autonomy.

His latest bullshit was about Tesla cameras and fog/rain/snow - on an investor call, no less - "Oh, we do photon counting directly from the sensor, so it's a non-issue".

No. 1, Tesla cameras are not capable of that - you need a special sensor, that's not useful for any real visual representation. And 2, even if you did, photon counting requires a closed "box" so to speak - you can't count photons in "open air".

And no-one calls it out.


I just don’t get it? Do people hang off his every word just because he’s rich? What are they expecting for this worship… it’s not like he’s going to start throwing $100 bills to people because they agree with him on Twitter

Seen from the other side of the Atlantic, I've regularly felt that the US is rather prone to hero worship, see e.g. the passion dedicated to presidential candidates, former presidents, billionaires, but also how the main characters of pretty much all American biopics I recall can't ever be wrong.

If my observation is correct, I guess what we're witnessing with Musk could be a case of hero worship – and in any narrative in which Musk is a hero, he's of course right.


Just stating that he does seem to inspire and build teams/orgs that do great things.

Both SpaceX and Tesla are accomplishments if you consider where their competitors are.


> Both SpaceX and Tesla are accomplishments if you consider where their competitors are.

CATL, BYD, and other Chinese manufacturers are absolutely killing it at Tesla's expense, Because their markets have actual, sharp-elbowed competition requiring actual innovation.


It takes a lot more effort to be first. When they were making the roadster, who else was interesting in BEV?

For SpaceX, who is landing rockets for reuse?

With all due respect, China at this point does seem to only get in when the early adoption is done. Then they just throw state money at the problem to catch up. They might be innovating now but they left the hard work to someone else


> China at this point does seem to only get in when the early adoption is done.

China started strategic planning on renewable energy in 1992. You're sorely mistaken if you think China intends to merely "catch up" - they are gunning to be the leader, and have the fundamental research to back the aspirations.

> For SpaceX, who is landing rockets for reuse?

Just Blue Origin. Commercial space is new and inherently has little competition; SpaceX is rightfully a pioneer. Traditional government space programs in Europe, the US, Russia or China were never cost sensitive on national security payloads, or prestige manned missions - maybe a bit on the science missions. China - like the US and few other countries with the research, industrial and GDP foundations - can go from zero to one in any field it chooses to prioritize[1], and has done so on a manned space station - which may be the only one in orbit come 2030.

1. Underestimating an adversary is one way to get nasty surprises. The US is currently playing catch-up on hypersonic glide weaponry.


The Chinese cars makers are heavily government funded, with the goal of flooding markets.

It’s not hard to sell EVs when you’re losing money on each one.


Can you provide links showing how much any of the companies is getting from the government?

https://www.electrive.com/2025/08/22/china-discloses-subsidi...

$230B is the number thrown around, but those are the direct subsidies. When suppliers are subsidized it gets hard to account for all of it.


For Tesla maybe (if you ignore self driving as useless), but that doesn’t apply to spacex.

Just imagine how much more successful they'd be if Elon Musk wasn't meddling and leeching from them!

How many massive, bloated rockets that nobody really needs have the competitors been blowing up time after time after time?

When they do this on their own dime and get results years ahead of competitors, is that a bad thing?

If not for crew dragon, the US would be begging Russia for seats to the ISS still. Is that your preferred outcome?


I wasn't talking about "dragon", I was talking about "starship". So far they have all exploded with little to show for it.

You might have said the same of falcon 1.

You're also ignoring the timeline issue. You want to talk about SLS and it's timeline? Or new Glen?

They're spending their own money, who are you to tell them not to.

As to space debris raining down, yes that is a problem.


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