I was out of town for a few days and needed to rent a vehicle. I got a Ford Escape. Decent vehicle - no complaints. But one thing I noticed when familiarizing myself with the center console was - as an option it had the Owner’s manual which I could display on the large screen. Neat concept.
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I also think that is a nice feature but I can hear the Luddites assembling’s out in the hallway.
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The PDF manual is SOP for Tesla. Almost everything is controlled through the big center screen. There are a couple of wheels on the steering wheel but nothing is labeled. When I need to know something I rarely do, like using the car wash mode, I use the search function to find out what to do. It’s a lot faster than using a paper manual.
This is what their Luddite ancestors thought about the advent of electrical lines being run to their homes.
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IIRC Luddites were against technology but not because it was strange and new. They were rebelling against machines replacing human labor.
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I imagine there were people complaining about “labor saving devices” when the slaves put tree trunks under stone blocks to roll them around, building the pyramids.
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You may well be correct, JT. What terminology should we use to describe people who seem to oppose all new types of technology?
People opposed to new stuff ? How about ( The George SJ members ) ?
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Well that explains why I don’t see Teslas at the car wash, though many Teslas in the neighborhood.
My car just requires shifting to neutral when the car wash attendant indicates.
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I am currently reading an old book (1980s vintage) of collected essays by Andy Rooney. Some of you may recall him as the resident curmudgeon on the 60 Minutes TV program. Both on TV and in his essays, Rooney complained about things that annoyed him, and–in almost every case–his complaint was about something new, to which he had to adapt.
Anyway, in one essay, he complains that road maps “aren’t what they used to be”, and he expresses his desire for an in-car device to replace road maps! In essence, he described a modern SatNav/GPS system, although he envisioned its screen being located on the sunvisor. He even stated that, along with proper directions, it could display the location of nearby gas stations, rest stops, and restaurants.
So, he was amazingly prescient. However, I’m pretty sure that, if these systems had been available in his lifetime, he actually would have wound-up condemning them as being inferior to maps. 
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I can do that too, but car wash mode does a few other things that are useful in addition to putting it in neutral:
“When taking Model 3 to a car wash, Car Wash Mode closes all windows, locks the charge port, and disables windshield wipers, Sentry Mode, walk-away door locking, and parking sensor chimes.”
Since a lot of things are automated on the car, having one setting to accomplish the necessary tasks is great. For instance, the charge port opens when it is bumped unless disabled. A car wash with brushes might tear off the charge door if it opens during the wash. Same for the wipers. Some people might leave the automatic wipers on and it helps them. My default is wipers off then turn on automatic wipers when it rains. There are four additional wiper speed settings, but I prefer letting the car determine when to clear the windshield. It works reasonably well. I will say that I miss the continuously variable rheostat for the wipers in my 2017 Accord.
That is a good feature. When I go to the car wash, I deactivate the front & rear cross traffic alerts and the automatic braking. Some people in the online Lexus owner’s group state that this isn’t necessary, but… rather safe than sorry.
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Indeed, @jtsanders is correct. Early 1800s - born of the Industrial Revolution stuff.
Luddite still works, as it seems the usage has generalized it. But you could also go with “Neo-Luddite” or just “technophobe.” Neo-Luddism is often a more general philosophical thing.
There is some sanity to it, depending on how you want to live. Groups like the Amish and Mennonites, of course, reject a large portion of technological change. But it’s not because they’re opposed to it, in principle. Generally speaking, the idea is to first understand what it would mean for their way of life. If it’s helpful and preserves it, then no biggie. But if it would contribute to disrupting it, then not so good. (Of course, that’s probably an idealized portrayal).
I’d love to be able to pull the owner’s manual up on screen … along with all of the diagnostic info and PIDs and such. But they won’t do the latter.
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Yes, but they also tend to practice “situational ethics”. There are some Amish who will use electrical devices and landline phones in their barns and other farm buildings–but not in their homes.
And, just to make sure that we keep this on a strictly automotive theme, there are also the “Black Bumper” Amish. They drive cars–as long as the car is painted black. Back in the days of chrome bumpers, they would paint-over the chrome on their bumpers, but nowadays a black car almost always has a black bumper, and that makes the car okay for them.
The Amish market near me is staffed by Amish men and women, who arrive in their all-black cars. And, they don’t object to the electrical lights and refrigerators in their market.
Anyway, I think that I might use “technophobe” from now on, instead of “Luddite”.
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I don’t really have a problem with people using the term in a different way than originally meant. I just thought I’d point out the original meaning. I think we are getting ready for another round of Luddites with the original meaning. Automation has eliminated a lot of jobs already and it seems to me that artificial intelligence will accelerate the loss of jobs. There are already a lot of former factory workers that haven’t been re-employed. IMO that will get much worse and include tech workers like engineers that haven’t been significantly affected yet. It’s not a robots take over the world moment, but we will need to figure out how to handle wholesale unemployment. When I say “we” I don’t mean most of us, but the Gen X, Y, and Z’ers that will live long enough to be significantly affected by it.
I’ll keep it auto related and say that automotive design for manufacturing, materials selection, and electronics design, to name a few, will be handled by AI. Kinda like junior engineers helping human product design leads do their job.
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I wouldn’t pin that on any particular culture. People will vary, but I think situational ethics is a normal part of being human.
And regardless of the variations among people, generally speaking, the basic orientation to techno change does vary a great deal between cultures. The “Western” way has been something of the technological sublime along with a good deal of technological somnambulism. “Bigger (even that means smaller in size) / faster / more / “easier-task”” is equated with “progress.” It’s almost a religion. In many cultures a lot more thought goes into it.
But so too with some Neo-Luddites in the West. I have some sympathy for Wendell Berry’s way of thinking: Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer (This comes complete with rebuttals). And I’m obviously not a pure Neo-Luddite as I am on a computer which does not live up to his standards. But I do think about it… Most people don’t.
BLING! BLING! BLING! is all that many people think about (and I’m not pointing any fingers at anyone here). And while a lot of it is useful and good, a lot of it is also just marketing.
Sometimes it will do to make a distinction between a technophobe and a Neo-Luddite. The latter tends to be very thoughtful. The former, maybe, but less-so.
Oh contrar. My rivieras had a crt screen as early as 1986 and you could go into diagnostics while driving to see what the sensors were seeing and any error codes. You needed to know what buttons to push though which was only in the factory service manual. I suspect many cars have the same feature if you know how to access it. Not of general interest to most though.
Unlabelled controls on the steering wheel??
How would one ever learn which did what?
Sounds like an invitation to distracted driving to me!
PDF manuals in the vehicle are fine, as long as I can also download same onto my desktop computer for study, research, and support calls, rather than sit out in the cold flicking thru menus…
Personally I hate all touch screens; phones, tablets, screens. I have fat fingers. Keyboard, mouse work great.
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Pdf owners manuals are on the mfr website for anyone’s use. I’ve looked at manuals for cars i was looking at.
Our Acura came with a manual and a cd. Minimal information in the manual of several hundred page. More detail on the cd, except that means you have have a player along too if you want to look something up away from home. I guess I wouldn’t mind having it all available inside the car. Doesn’t mean you have read it driving at 70 mph.