You may recall last month when I railed, loudly and with a healthy spray of rage-saliva, about the horror that was the Cadillac Lyriq’s choice to have the glovebox open via a button on the touchscreen, buried within a menu. This is, of course, an absolutely abominable practice, one that’s also employed by Tesla and a few others. Nobody really wants this —at least no rational person with any ability to, you know, think — and yet it exists, and not only does it exist, it appears to exist on the otherwise lovely new Volvo EX90 that we wrote about yesterday. When I was in the car and noticed that the only ways to open the glove box were via an insipid icon on a touchscreen or, barring that, a crowbar, I realized I had to do something. So, I hunted down Volvo’s Global Head of design and demanded answers.
That Global Head of Design and User Experience is Robin Page, and he’s an extremely good sport to indulge me in this, and I should mention that yesterday I spoke with him about the EX90’s amazing headlamp design, so I didn’t just berate the poor man. I mean, I sort of did here, so you can watch:
Hm. Okay, it’s good that the icon is always there (even if that icon looks like a file folder or something) and I suppose there are a lot of customers who have deluded themselves into thinking that they want every point of interaction to be via an icon on a touchscreen, even something as basic as opening a glove box door, which has worked fine for decades with a simple latch that doesn’t require any power and isn’t dependent on software and can be used at any point with the car on or off and has never caused trouble for anyone, ever.
But now, in some focus groups, some people seem to have suggested that they’d like to open the fucking glove box via a screen. You know, like an idiot would. It’s not Robin’s fault, I suppose. It’s entirely possible people were dazzled by the magic of something on-screen having a direct effect in the physical world, like how my expression changes when someone texts me about what a jackass I am.
As my fellow Autopian David Tracy reminded me, people don’t always make good decisions, or even rational ones, and deep down, I know this, especially when it comes to cars. Cars are not rational, and they never have been, and that’s what makes them wonderful. But usually that irrationality comes out as wanting something with far more power than you can ever use, or picking a car because it seems to have a friendly face, or getting something that could tow the Lincoln Memorial, even if you’ll never do that.
But irrational choices made that actively make owning a car worse? Like being only able to access the important stuff in your glove box via one of the most complex components of your car? I can’t, I just can’t.
[Editor’s Note: I once wrote an entire article about how the Rivian R1T wooed me with its pointless electronic features. A center console with an electric switch? Totally silly, but somehow it gave the truck a futuristic, tech-y vibe. I tried resisting the lure of this clearly-backwards-step in center console functionality, but the tech geek in me was too weak. So yes, this stuff isn’t rational. -DT]
Again, the EX90 has so many impressive traits and I think Robin Page did an excellent job, overall. But the touchscreen glovebox release is a scourge, and must be called out, anywhere it rears its stupid little head.
Please, carmakers. Don’t do this.
I love his face throughout the video. It’s the face of someone who knows they’re defending the indefensible. This gimmick would be bad enough even with a physical emergency release; not including a manual latch isn’t very different from engraving an all caps FUCK YOU across the glovebox. No, scratch that, engraving a FUCK YOU would at least be funny.
But hey, kudos to Volvo for not burying the button in a menu, I guess.
Jeez Donna, you can’t even get some stolen picture of an attractive woman as your avatar? You trolls aren’t even trying anymore.
Well that was authentic frontier gibberish if I ever heard it.
This just in, the kinds of people that wouldn’t feel that being part of a focus group is a waste of time tend to be the mouth breathing type
Back when I bought a 1999 GMC Sonoma I noticed how big the various dash knobs and buttons were. They were made that way, I was told, so that brawny working guys could easily use them with their brawny working guy fingers — even when wrapped in gloves — and that they could do it without needing to look. Oh, how far we’ve wandered from functionality since then.
The GM Real People ads are how we have ended up here. Man Bun Guy probably thought it was a good idea.
this is exactly why Toyota has large knobs and buttons in the 4runner and Tundra.
Well, what if the customers in the focus groups had identified a desire for an in-dash espresso machine with milk steamer that could be used while driving? Part of the role of a professional, with far more experience and training in the area than the average person, is to identify which ideas are so stupid as to not be worthy of consideration and put his foot down. Contrary to popular belief, the customer isn’t actually always right, sometimes he’s completely moronic
The problem with that is that potential customers would see your “rational design” as “low tech gorilla thinking, I want shiny” and not buy the car. Then complain when the tech doesn’t work.
I’m just saying, this is how we get shit like $700 Internet-connected juice dispensers and POS non-serviceable refrigerators with LCD panels on the front that break in less than 2 years.
It isn’t that nobody is asking for this crap, some people are asking for it, but those people are all morons who can and should be safely ignored
Sometimes moronic?????
(Now I want an espresso…an in-dash espresso…)
My response to literally anyone supporting this idea:
https://www.speechirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/img-38.jpg
Me: sorry officer, I can’t get to my registration and proof of insurance, as you told me to turn off my car
Officer: What are you talking about?
Me: my glove box has a touch screen lock, so to open it, my car needs to be on
Officer: you’re fucking with me arent. You want to go to jail or something?
Me: look at my glove box officer, please!
Officer: Who the fuck thought this was a great idea
It’s like they are traumatized by the phone number pad control panel in the previous generation Volvo’s and are wayyyyy over compensating.
NOBODY WANTS THIS BS for all the excellent reasons in this comment section.
I work in user experience, and I know exactly how this clusterfuck happened.
Someone who doesn’t understand user research showed the idea to people in a focus group, they said, “yeah, that’s cool,” and they actually took that stupid comment to mean “ignore everything you know about good design and go with Cletus J. Dumbleshit’s opinion, because he likes his smartphone.”
“Global Head of Design and User Experience” means that Robin Page doesn’t get near actual design or user experience in his day job. That’s an executive role — by the time you reach that point in your career it’s been years, if not decades, since you’ve actually worked hands-on, and you’ve built up your corporate management muscles, not your design muscles.
The sickest part of Robin Page’s comments was his tacit admission that the hellscape of touch screens in modern Volvos has nothing to do with creating the best driving experience, and everything to do with “we hear smartphones are what Kids These Days like.”
Thanks for holding his feet to the fire with real-world examples as to why this is incredibly stupid. Would it be so hard to have it be manual as well? I have door locks in the house like that, why can’t the latch have a physical button to unlatch that can be opened electronically? And here I thought Volvo was supposed to be about safety.
“As my fellow Autopian David Tracy reminded me, people don’t always make good decisions, or even rational ones”
That could be taken two different ways. I suspect you mean both of them.
Here in Appalachia we often keep very import things, like loaded handguns, in the glovebox. I always want to be able to get to it quickly if necessary (and the way society is headed, its more and more likely to be necessary with every passing day). An electronic glovebox release would be a deal breaker for me.
You anticipate it being necessary… to shoot people… from your car… in Appalachia?
What on earth are you afraid of? Did you log in from Fallout 76 or something?
The Venn diagram of people in Appalachia with loaded handguns in their cars buying an electric Volvo is two circles 5,000 miles apart from each other.
You’d be surprised how many folks carry guns around here. It is a constitutional-carry state. It’s best to work on the assumption that everyone has a loaded gun on them at all times.
That sounds stressful.
Hmm. Hadn’t thought of glovebox as gun safe, but Volvo seems to be?
The culture is becoming a little too enriched around here. and when seconds count, the police are always minutes away (not that I would trust a cop any further than I could throw them).
It almost sounds like you’re saying that crime in Appalachia was low when the culture wasn’t so “rich.”
That’s funny.
7,964 murders in 2019: arrested for murder: 51.2% Black; 19.1% Hispanic; white 26.7%; Asian, etc. 3%. America is 60% “white alone” plus Hispanics at 18.9% but half identify as and are white, white population is ~68%. Murder is a minority problem. Blacks are 13.6% of the population. (US Census 2021)
73.3% of murders are committed by non-whites.
Robbery 59,305 incidents: Black 52.7%, Hispanic 27.9%; white 16.8; others 2.6%. 83.2% of robberies are committed by non-whites.
Aggravated assault 274,376 incidents: 33.2% Black; 25.7% Hispanic; 36.1% white; 5% other.
Illegal weapons possession 108,847 incidents; 41.8% Black; Hispanic 28.3; white 27.3
Rape 16,599 incidents; Black 26.7% ; Hispanic 27.9%; white 45.2%; others 3.6%.
Ref. FBI Crime in 2019.
I like how in another post, you state
I like how in another post, you state, “not that I would trust a cop any further than I could throw them.”
But then you use arrest statistics to “prove” that certain races are not dangerous than others. Also, where are the Appalachian specific statistics?
You’re not wrong that the crime violent crime rate has increased in Appalachia, and continues to be higher than much of the US, but it has a much “poorer” culture than most of the US. So maybe don’t try to blame cultural enrichment for things you can’t understand.
You’re a racist piece of shit. Go back to the Daily Stormer or whatever sewer of filth you oozed from.
Racist funny, not haha funny but what are we gonna do? Might as well just laugh.
Well, a bit of haha funny because while they used “enriched” as a pejorative for diverse, they’re inadvertently absolutely, 100% correct in that diversity makes communities richer.
I also love how triggered they got as soon as they were called out. Immediately breaking out detailed crime stats like that’s not just another proof that poverty disproportionately affects non whites in the USA. Literally treating the consequences of deeply-rooted racism as an excuse to be racist. No context or reference, just numbers and race. Are those nationwide figures? statewide? Just for the Appalachia region? Doesn’t matter, we’re not supposed to read much into it, because only the most superficial, decontextualised analysis of these figures allows for this racist line of thought.
Keep fighting the good fight Torch! We’re all counting on you!
Classic Swing cartoon that pretty much covers it.
https://www.zentao.pm/blog/tree-swing-project-management-tire-analogy-426.html
Knowing how focus groups can work, I have a couple thoughts… 1) The study itself set out to prove the button in the screen was ok instead of finding the best way to open the glove box. 2) They screened out participants that used a glove box all the time. 3) The participants in the focus group were presented with too many distractions to fully realize the gravity of saying a button in the center screen was ok to open the glovebox.
I don’t see much overlap in the Venn diagram of people who can waste a day talking about touchscreen icons and people who can afford to buy Volvo’s new premium electric SUV.
4) the study considered entirely of the people who had nothing better to do with their afternoon than sit around discussing glove compartments in a conference room at the end of the hallway, past the family restroom with changing table, around the corner from the JC Penney.
I’ve been in a few focus groups, and most were in fairly nice locations. Not in the city where I live, of course, because suburbanites are afraid they’ll be murdered, raped, and robbed (probably in that order) there. But only focus groups that paid. So, a bunch of people who’ve got a few hours free in the evening, in exchange for 50 bucks.
This is some insipid bullshit, and I am quite pleased that you called him out on it directly, and gave him concrete examples of why it’s a bad idea. You could see his gears grinding trying to come up with a good explanation.
“Our new generation of buyers.”
Dude makes Volvos. Their new generation of buyers is in their 50s, but their focus group is probably 20-somethings. The remote latch won’t even work by the time the 20 year olds are getting this to schlep kids around as the third owner.
Great, you earn less than half of an average prostitute in Switzerland.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nSQs0Gr9FA
So what happens when the car goes into the lake and the electronics short out and the glass-breaking hammer is in the glove compartment?
Whats it doing in the glove box? Thats not going to be much use in there.
My variant on this: “Oh, man. My van battery is dead because my kids left the back reading lights on. Again. Good thing I have the lithium-ion jumper pack in my glove compartment! …. dang.”
Not hypothetical, been there done that, how I learned not to keep mine in my only-opens-via-a-button trunk, with the rear seat backs that fold down -wait for it- only via the release …from inside the trunk. ????
Seems a good question, but it’s likely moot: Most of the “escape tools” I’ve seen are so wimpy as to be worthless.
I keep a fairly hefty folding knife with a sharp point on the opposite end of the handle as the knife blade that claims to be useful for breaking windows. I don’t know how well it does the breaking windows part, but it also has an enclosed “letter opener” style blade that I’m 100% sure would work on the seat belts. I do use the regular knife function fairly often as well. It would be nice to be able to access it in an emergency.
I keep…. manual windows.
Take that lake!
I commented last time Jason wrote about this insane and inane idea. Hours after reading the article, I was driving home into the setting sun and instinctively reached up for the sun visor. It’s a pretty basic mechanical device on cars for the last 100 years or so. Immediately, a deep dark thought arose in my mind. What if carmakers made these visors move automatically (i.e., auto headlights, rain sensing windshield wipers, auto-dimming rearview mirrors, etc.) or worse only adjustable with a touchscreen on center console?
I’m 6’4″ and it would never be able to shade my correct sight line and I would crash…badly.
What a nightmare!
The windshield should sync up with a pair of sunglasses ($1000/pr, proprietary, optional) to darken in a spot on the sunglasses lenses that lines up between where the windshield thinks the sun is and where the glasses think the sun is. Patent Pending.
Brilliant. Ever since I was a little kid I have pondered how to make a localized-dimming windscreen work. I never thought to include the upcharge sunglasses (one pair per car occupant!) as part of the logic!
But clearly it needs a tie-in to the GPS system and a 5G network to correctly localize you and calculate the sun’s present position relative to you AS WELL AS the local weather so that it can really get that dark dot in the right place!
As long as they are at it they could make prescription windshields. They could really mark those up.
Man, I need to buy Safelite stock. Every few years you call them up and replace your windshield when your prescription changes.
I keep a tire pressure gauge in my glove box. I open the passenger door and pull it out to check and inflate my tires in the garage. How terrible it would be to need to power on the car to open the glove box to air my tires up. BMW will do this and require a subscription to use the button…
Yes! Photochromic prescription windshields.
I’ve always thought prescription windshields would be funny, it would make drivers heads look bigger like they are in “DK mode”.
Ah, but what if all this was locked behind a subscription?
What kills me is that you could do all of this touch screen nonsense AND include a battery hot button for the glovebox where the latch would be so you could open it anytime you want without the key. From what I can see from the press photos there isn’t one of these. Could be wrong though. Honestly the reason he wanted to give you is: Its an EV and people want Gee-wiz features…even if they are stupid.
As a side note, there ARE some benefits to an electronic latch, but they hardly seem worth the effort. Such as making the reach over to open it far easier. Helpful if you are solo and have to get those aforementioned legal docs. Or being able to lock it electronically so can only unlock it with a code which should generally be more secure than a lock core. Im not sure if Volvo includes such a feature, but it would be nice to know you could stash your phone and wallet in there if you went out on a bike ride or something. Yes you can lock most gloves boxes already, but again, if you can’t get access to the core, it COULD be more secure. It could be way less secure too.
No glovebox ever made can win a fight against the common flatbar.
Once you open it from the screen wouldn’t you still need to reach over to get things out of the glove box?
Wouldn’t you have to lean over to get stuff out of it anyway?
Not if the only times you open the glove box are 1) when you’re in the passenger seat, or 2) when you’re stopped and the engine is off. But maybe with an EV, “engine off” isn’t an issue.
One feature where an electronic driven device could be really helpful is a system that could present just your paper documents through a slit so that when the office asks for your license & registration you are not fumbling in a large glovebox (or even your sunvisor) that could have a weapon in it – which tends to make an already tense interaction more tense. This would be in addition to the usual glovebox.
My BMW convertible locks the glovebox & the gas door when you lock the car. None of those (nor the trunk) have a lock cylinder to use a physical key. They are unlocked and have a physical latch to operate them when the car is not locked.
They just need to include it in the voice control options.
“HAL? Open the glove compartment door.”
“I’m sorry, Dave. I can’t do that.”
Hey Volvo….HEY VOLVO. HEY VO [what can I help you with today?] LVO! [I’m sorry I couldn’t understand that, can you repeat that ?] Open glove box. [Switching audio to Aux]. No I said open glove box. GUH! HEY VOLVO!! [what can I help you with today?] OPEN GLOVE BOX!! [Okay, I’ll open the glove box]. ~Noise of jammed solenoid~
” . . . You wish to purchase gloves? Here are a few I found on Amazon . . . “
You know that’s coming next. Ads on these touchscreens trying to get you to buy stuff you don’t need…
“Good morning, Mr. Smith, I see your TPMS is indicating low pressure in one of your tires, have you considered a new set of Goodyears on sale now at Walmart?”
It’s coming
Way to go Torch! Carry the, uh torch! Speak truth to power! NOBODY wants this crap. And besides that, you did a great job of highlighting the problems that it could cause, which are not just esoteric nits to be picked, but actual, credible and real possibilities that someone is going to unfortunately encounter. Hopefully this propensity to put things like this onto touchscreens will eventually go in the dustbin of automotive history like so many other bad ideas that designers thought were good at one time, like biodegradable wiring harnesses or fake air scoops.
Its a feature people think sounds cool and that they’d want until they have to live with it in practice.
It will be gone and back to an old school latch in 10 years, and never spoken of again.
Half that. Once this feature trickles down to the cars that the Karen’s of the world (Ford/Steallantis/GM) buy, and their terrible wrath unleashed, it will be banished forever.
Good Lord. This is why I prefer old cars. Also, why do I keep getting logged out?
Someone hit the log out button on the touch screen.
… while trying to open the glovebox.