Minimalist
Manufacturers have slowly adopted the idea of removing as many interior buttons as possible. They think these buttons represent clutter and, as such, are trying to integrate all features and settings into the touchscreen or infotainment screen.
Such settings that have been removed are vital to driving and ergonomics. Push start buttons, airconditioning settings, and many more are now being buried into screens. While this does allow a cleaner-looking interior design, there are some instances where it puts the driver and passengers in danger. Case in point: a crash in China caused by the driver’s voice command.
Un-Common Misunderstanding
In a dashcam video posted on Weibo, a Chinese social media website, the owner of a Lynk & Co Z20 EV experienced firsthand that some new features still have a ways to go in terms of refinement. The video has gone viral, where the driver and owners of the said vehicle asked their voice command to turn off all cabin lights. The feature instead misinterpreted this request as a request to turn off all lights, prompting the system to switch off the car’s headlights while driving on a highway at night.
As you can surmise, that error caused the accident. Thankfully, nobody got hurt, but it could’ve easily been a different story. The problem was that the driver realized what had happened and tried again to use the same feature to turn the lights back on, but the car refused. This also ties into the fact that there is no physical button or stalk for the headlights, not give the driver enough time or even the option to manually turn them back on quickly before an accident can occur.
Following the incident, Lynk & Co, a brand under the Geely umbrella, immediately released a software update that will ensure this incident doesn’t repeat itself. In the updated software, the voice command feature will be unable to turn off the headlights while driving; the only way to do so is for the driver to manually turn them off by digging into the touchscreen and finding the setting.
Safety Over Form
Some owners who also have the same type of features in their cars have posted about their experiences with the tricky voice commands. Some have said that it’s easier for the system to understand the command to turn off all lights than to turn off all cabin lights.
While we can all appreciate automakers for trying to simplify interior designs and add more convenience features like voice commands, safety should never be put into question. As cars become increasingly complex, maybe some physical buttons should return to the cabin to prevent untoward accidents like this.
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