The Evolution of Buttons

 

But not the sort that keep your cardigan together.

I had a mild panic attack today when a big orange square appeared on my dashboard as I was driving home from work:

It turns out Radio 2 have changed their logo-image thingy on DAB Radio.

I usually listen to Johnny Vaughan on Radio X or Simon Mayo on Greatest Hits when I'm driving home.  But I switch between them when adverts come on and today they had adverts on at the same time so I happened to switch to Radio 2 and up came that big orange square.

Now for some reason, that got me thinking about warning lights and dashboards.

My first car had the Triumph "All Systems Go" warning light cluster - I loved it.

Never managed to light up all 8 segments at the same time though.

The original dashboards had nothing on them - they were the boards at the front of carts that were pulled by horses - they were meant to protect the driver from mud and other unpleasantries thrown up by the horses hooves when travelling off-road.

The name stuck when the first motor cars appeared - logical given that most looked like "horseless carriages."

Eventually, as cars became cars, the dashboards were used to house instruments and controls for new fangled additions such as windscreen wipers - and, as anyone who subscribes to idriveaclassic on YouTube will know, pull switches were very popular for many years right up to the 1960s:

...and beyond for things like the hazard warning lights on my Triumph.

These were eventually replaced by toggle switches:

Then it was the turn of my favourite - the rocker switch!

These prevailed in the 1970s when I was becoming fascinated by cars.  You could could buy them in Halfords and Motorworld to add accessories (usually fog lamps) to your Vauxhall Victor or Ford Escort.

By the '90s - buttons had taken over:

In quite a big way in some cars - My Jaguar X-Type had buttons to operate a phone I didn't have.

I like buttons - not as much as I like rocker switches - but they are tactile and necessary when you need to control lots of things like heated seats and electric windows and climate control.

But, as even more complicated things (like Apps!) are becoming part of motoring, touchscreens are taking over from buttons.  VW famously took them too far and had to reinstate some - it was getting dangerous having to look away from the road to do basic things like put the air on re-circ.

I sometime use the voice commands on my car but I have found myself arguing with it a few times too and voice control is also no use to people with Scottish accents.

My car has a mixture of real buttons and touchscreen which is about as far from the horse and cart dashboard as you can get.

Imagine having to put up with a boring dashboard.

Brexit Bonus - Not!

It's been a while since I've had a rant about Brexit.  Steph was keeping schtum on her views which tend to veer to the right of centre so are more likely to be pro-Brexit.

But, as ever, a very interesting video from one of my favourite YouTubers:

What we have here is a Morris 1100 estate that was bought for £2200 from Sweden and that eventually cost more than twice that due to a combination of transport costs (unavoidable) and British and Swedish bureaucracy and taxes which wouldn't have existed before Brexit.

A couple of the comments seem to agree with me.  One twerp though claimed that one of the reasons he voted for Brexit was because EU laws were making it more difficult to keep classic cars.  I'd like to ask him to name one law that the EU actually forced on us but it looks like he deleted it when he found out that nobody was agreeing with him.

Ed, the purchaser of said vehicle, is an experienced mechanic working in a classic car restoration shop so will have little worries about getting the car fit to use as his daily driver.  He also has the confidence to convert it to right-hand-drive.

Which brings me to my most favourite comment, from @GrandadTinkerer, which has nothing to do with Brexit,

"Many years ago, my friend was asked to convert a mini from right-hand drive, to left-hand drive, as it was going to be used in France.  Pretty easy job he thought. No changes to the dash, just new pedal box and 'flip' the steering to the other side.  Conversion completed, he set off down the road and was immediately terrified as the car turned left, when he steered right!

He had failed to realise that by 'flipping' the steering rack, the pinion was now on the bottom, and effectively reversed the steering action!"

Mark Harping on.

According to this Auto Express story, A new law is set to bring self-driving cars to UK roads in two years and puts responsibility in the hands of manufacturers if there is an accident.

No it won't.

The article goes on to clarify...

The vehicles must “achieve a level of safety at least as high as careful and competent human drivers”.

That's not going to happen in two years.

Plus "the government says the legal culpability will be placed firmly on the manufacturer, as well as the insurance company that covers the car, with the driver not deemed a driver per se, but a user-in-charge"

So even if they could find a manufacturer happy to risk some prosecutions for causing death by dangerous driving - the insurance companies will refuse to insure such usage.  Which is a shame because this law would be the get-out clause allowing me to drive to a party or pub, get somewhat inebriated, and be driven home by my own car.

The landlords of country pubs will like this law.

Mark Harper, who is our current Transport Secretary apparently, jumped on the bandwagon stating, "Britain stands at the threshold of an automotive revolution, and this new law is a milestone moment for our self-driving industry which has the potential to change the way we travel forever.”

No it doesn't.

He also turned up polluting one of my favourite Youtube channels the other being "interviewed" by Steph from idriveaclassic  - I don't know if she is a bit Tory but she gave him an easy time and let him make snide comments about Labour and the London ULEZ zone without pointing out that it was Boris Johnson who introduced it and it is the government that is forcing the metropolitan councils to hit stricter air pollution target levels - not that that is a bad thing.

I was quite amused though that he and several of the anti-electric brigade commenting on the video seemed completely oblivious that he was stood next to a Rolls-Royce Phantom II that had been converted over to run on...

...ELECTRICITY!

Here's some info on it.

Anyway, back to his comment about Britain being at the threshold of an automotive revolution.

It isn't.

We now have to compete with Europe as well as Korea and Japan and the like but the Chinese are miles ahead - especially when it comes to electric vehicles.  They are even after a share of our London buses.  Autocar have finally decided that I don't have an ad-blocker after all so I can share this story now.

If Autocar thinks that you have an ad-blocker you won't be able to read this so I'll give you the gist.

This is the BYD BD11...

The Chinese hope that this EV will be the replacement for the hybrid Wrightbus New Routemaster - which I was surprised to learn was only built from 2011 to 2017.  A thousand were built - in the UK - before the company went into administration.

Charging is possible at up to 500kW via a pantograph connection which sounds fun, trolleybus anyone? - but you can plug it into the mains too.  A usable range of more than 400 miles is being suggested.

BYD UK's commercial vehicle managing director Frank Thorpe said he "hopes" it can replace Wrightbus's New Routemaster as the default London bus.

Seems legit.