Minor things that bother you

[kphoger]

And for this trip, I'll need to learn a little bit of Polish ...

I still remember walking from the train station to the concentration camp in Oświęcim (Auschwitz) with my parents back in the late 1990s.  A couple stopped their car next to us, rolled down the window, and started asking us questions in Polish.  Our friend and guide was a fast walker, so he was oblivious up in front of us a ways.  I responded to the driver, "Nie mówię po polsku."  They nodded, waved, rolled up the window, and drove on.  My mother's jaw hit the sidewalk, because apparently I knew Polish and she didn't realize.  "What did you tell them?" she asked me.  "I said I don't speak Polish."

That's one other handy phrase to learn in a foreign language:  I don't speak _____.

Also, Do you speak English?

[1995hoo]

I've found the question "where are the toilets?" to be a helpful one to learn in other languages. Much better than miming like you're taking a leak.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The toughest interaction I had in Japan was at the post office trying to procure postcards and stamps. I looked up how to ask for those things, but I wasn't prepared for the clerk to ask me "will that be domestic or international?" My internet was too poor to allow me to keep using Translate (since against advice I didn't get a pocket Wifi, so I had phone service but no data) and we just kind of struggled for a few minutes until she got an Ipad for her own translation. We got through it eventually.

[JayhawkCO]

Also, Do you speak English?

Alas, I am a Google Translate knower. Whenever I travel, I try to at least learn hello, thank you, good bye, and Do you speak English? But in the era of translation apps and eSims, that's all you really need to get around in countries without a lot of English proficiency. Kinda takes some of the fun out of it.

Yeah, "No _______" works well too. Nyet Ruski or whatever.

[kphoger]

On the e-mail signature cards we use at work, "P" stands for "Phone".

This means that some people's signature cards have something like this:

C: 316-123-4567  |  P. 316-987-6543

That bothers me, because a cell phone is a phone.

[Beltway]

On the e-mail signature cards we use at work, "P" stands for "Phone".
This means that some people's signature cards have something like this:
C: 316-123-4567  |  P. 316-987-6543
That bothers me, because a cell phone is a phone.

A work phone is a phone.

[PColumbus73]

Might be worth a topic on its own. But how automakers appear to be trying to reinvent driving with yoke steering wheels and integrating tech / electronics into every part of driving an automobile.

My car is a 2015 Avalon and I think the features hit the sweet spot in terms of driving experience and tech not constantly in your face.

[Max Rockatansky]

Might be worth a topic on its own. But how automakers appear to be trying to reinvent driving with yoke steering wheels and integrating tech / electronics into every part of driving an automobile.

My car is a 2015 Avalon and I think the features hit the sweet spot in terms of driving experience and tech not constantly in your face.

I don't unnecessary and unintuitive tech getting into even basic cars as a minor problem.  It is hard to even use basic radio controls (AKA infotainment cluster) without having to take your eyes off the road.

[JayhawkCO]

Might be worth a topic on its own. But how automakers appear to be trying to reinvent driving with yoke steering wheels and integrating tech / electronics into every part of driving an automobile.

My car is a 2015 Avalon and I think the features hit the sweet spot in terms of driving experience and tech not constantly in your face.

I don't unnecessary and unintuitive tech getting into even basic cars as a minor problem.  It is hard to even use basic radio controls (AKA infotainment cluster) without having to take your eyes off the road.

You can do a lot of it with voice commands though.

[formulanone]

On the e-mail signature cards we use at work, "P" stands for "Phone".
This means that some people's signature cards have something like this:
C: 316-123-4567  |  P. 316-987-6543
That bothers me, because a cell phone is a phone.

A work phone is a phone.

It's all ball bearings nowadays.

[Max Rockatansky]

Might be worth a topic on its own. But how automakers appear to be trying to reinvent driving with yoke steering wheels and integrating tech / electronics into every part of driving an automobile.

My car is a 2015 Avalon and I think the features hit the sweet spot in terms of driving experience and tech not constantly in your face.

I don't unnecessary and unintuitive tech getting into even basic cars as a minor problem.  It is hard to even use basic radio controls (AKA infotainment cluster) without having to take your eyes off the road.

You can do a lot of it with voice commands though.

If the car can even understand what I'm saying.  I've found that the accuracy rate for modern cars interpreting via voice recognition what I'm saying is about 80%. 

[1995hoo]

Might be worth a topic on its own. But how automakers appear to be trying to reinvent driving with yoke steering wheels and integrating tech / electronics into every part of driving an automobile.

My car is a 2015 Avalon and I think the features hit the sweet spot in terms of driving experience and tech not constantly in your face.

I don't unnecessary and unintuitive tech getting into even basic cars as a minor problem.  It is hard to even use basic radio controls (AKA infotainment cluster) without having to take your eyes off the road.

You can do a lot of it with voice commands though.

If the car can even understand what I'm saying.  I've found that the accuracy rate for modern cars interpreting via voice recognition what I'm saying is about 80%.

Something else I've noticed in that regard is that cars vary on how strict they are about wanting you to use their particular syntax for voice commands. It's somewhat annoying to have to educate your mind on how a particular automaker's programmers want you to refer to certain features (for example, my wife finds it annoying that in mine, if you want to switch from XM to FM but you don't want to tune to a specific station, you can't just hit the voice-command button and say "Tune to FM"—you have to say "Radio select FM-1," or "FM-2" for the second set of six presets).

Of course, if you know what station you want, you can just say, e.g., "Radio 103.5-FM," which is fine when you're in a place where you know the radio stations but is less useful when you're somewhere unfamiliar.

[JayhawkCO]

It's probably changed my habits in the car. I can't remember the last time I listened to the radio on purpose.

[kphoger]

I don't think I've ever been in a car with voice commands at all.

[vdeane]

Might be worth a topic on its own. But how automakers appear to be trying to reinvent driving with yoke steering wheels and integrating tech / electronics into every part of driving an automobile.

My car is a 2015 Avalon and I think the features hit the sweet spot in terms of driving experience and tech not constantly in your face.

I don't unnecessary and unintuitive tech getting into even basic cars as a minor problem.  It is hard to even use basic radio controls (AKA infotainment cluster) without having to take your eyes off the road.

You can do a lot of it with voice commands though.

Not everyone wants to have to use voice commands or even have them available.  I, for one, do not like having devices listening to every word I say so they can identify when I'm sending a voice command.  I disable that shit on my phone (which I keep in my purse and probably wouldn't get a clear listen if if it tries to disobey that setting) and don't have any "smart home" devices that do that (and my TV and car are thankfully both too old for that crap).  The surveillance and "phoning home" is a large part of why I don't like all this tech in cars to begin with.  My insurance isn't going to go up because I have to brake hard in response to traffic, if the government wants to track me, they're gonna have to piece together camera records instead of just asking the automaker or insurance (or ask the phone companies which towers were pinged, since I don't let phone apps have unrestricted GPS access either), and nobody can listen in on me talking to myself for advertising or other purposes.

[mgk920]

Well, seeing as to the level of public rejection of touchsreen controls in cars . . .

Mike

[1995hoo]

Not everyone wants to have to use voice commands or even have them available. [rant omitted]

I think you're making unwarranted assumptions about how it works. In every car in which I've ever experienced voice commands, it doesn't work like so-called "smart speakers" or Apple's "Hey, Siri" feature where it's listening for a wake word. Instead, you have to hit a button to activate the voice controls and to turn on the microphone (in my wife's Acura TLX, for some inexplicable reason you have to hit the button twice). In mine, the voice control for the Bluetooth phone is separate from the voice control for the HVAC, radio, and navigation system and I have to hit a different thumb switch on the steering wheel depending on which one I want; the reason for that setup is because the car was available in Navi and non-Navi models, but the Bluetooth phone connection was standard on both of them.

I recall the two Teslas I've rented in Florida required you to push in on one of the two scroll wheels in the steering wheel to activate the voice commands. (It is true that Teslas may implicate Big Brother concerns in various ways relating to the cameras and the Autopilot system, but the voice controls don't rely on a wake word. At least, they didn't, although I suppose they could always change that in newer versions.)

[Beltway]

I don't think I've ever been in a car with voice commands at all.

Mine does but I keep it muted, and watch the screen.

[catch22]

On my wife's Ford Escape, the blink rate of the dashboard turn-signal indicators doesn't match the actual blink rate of the signal lamps (the dashboard is about 10% faster).

[kphoger]

the blink rate of the dashboard turn-signal indicators doesn't match the actual blink rate of the signal lamps

Oh, that's positively diabolical!

[Rothman]

On my wife's Ford Escape, the blink rate of the dashboard turn-signal indicators doesn't match the actual blink rate of the signal lamps (the dashboard is about 10% faster).

I do not like this.  I do not like this one bit.

[kphoger]

It's enough to make you never use your signal after dark.

[Scott5114]

On the e-mail signature cards we use at work, "P" stands for "Phone".
This means that some people's signature cards have something like this:
C: 316-123-4567  |  P. 316-987-6543
That bothers me, because a cell phone is a phone.

A work phone is a phone.

No, I'm pretty sure a work phone is actually a type of carburetor.

[formulanone]

On the e-mail signature cards we use at work, "P" stands for "Phone".
This means that some people's signature cards have something like this:
C: 316-123-4567  |  P. 316-987-6543
That bothers me, because a cell phone is a phone.

A work phone is a phone.

No, I'm pretty sure a work phone is actually a type of carburetor.

That depends if you want to choke someone over a work decision.

[kphoger]

You know what?  If the police want me to walk on the sidewalk instead of the street, then they should start ticketing people who park their cars across the sidewalk.