When will cars send a text message or voice mail to the phones of the adults in the car - or at least display dashboard warnings in explanatory large text on the car’s display screen?
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Two reasons; text must be translated for each and every language in the target markets. This means a different dash filter for every one of those markets. That increases manufacturing costs significantly. Text translations do not always work so well. There may be no good way to express something in every language and that leads to misinterpretations or not fitting into the assigned space. Both can be solved by using pictures instead of words…
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Warning! Get the oil changed NOW or that cute little puppy gets it!
CSA
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I('m Googling Millenials-just keep forgetting who they are. OK 21-37 year olds. Thankfully we have another generation coming up behind them to help right things. I heard last night somewhere that the generation following are much more like our parents who went through the depression because they saw the problems of the “Great Recession” when they were youngsters. So they save for the future, get degrees in useful subjects not like Art History, learn life skills like maybe even welding, and seem to think families are important. If we can just keep the millenials under control for a few years until the next folks take over, we’ll be OK.
I don’t have time to read all this now so I’ll come back later with further comments, but in defense of these poor darlings, I do think it was a mistake to go with all these international symbols instead of writing the problem out in 5 languages. Like who knows what the heck an oil can looks like anymore? Who oils anything? These symbols are terrible. Even my old Riviera had the ability to toggle between English, French, German, Spanish, etc. for the dash information. With the computers now, they could have all 200 languages loaded in with an app to translate road signs.
Talk about Clearwater crazies 
, depending on when one uses (I-275) the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (connecting Bradenton where we live, to St. Petersburg, just south of Clearwater on the Pinellas pennisula) or the Howard Frankland bridge (connecting St. Petersburg to Tampa), it can be very scary because of crazy drivers who apparently put little value on their lives or the lives of others. 
CSA
I’m not surprised and it doesn’t bother me. When I first saw that symbol appear on my 05 4runner I had no idea what it was. But it told me something was wrong, so I pulled over and pulled out my owners manual which told me it meant one of my tires are low. I then proceeded to check the tires and found 1 tire was about 8lbs lower then the others. Found gas station and filled it up.
There are a couple dozen of those symbols on dashes these days. What I told my kids was to take action IF there’s some light glowing that shouldn’t be glowing. My wife’s 07 Lexus is more sophisticated. It’ll display a Low Tire on the display screen.
Smart! How hard can that be, carmakers?
What makes you think things will be any different? Besides, they’ll all be riding in autonomous vehicles, summoned only when needed. They won’t need to know what the pictographs mean.
Hey! My children are Millennials. Maybe they don’t know what the symbols mean! Oh, wait, my daughter was over a couple of weeks ago and asked me to put air in her tires because the TPMS system told her she needed it. The other two know about that stuff, too. Maybe Millenials aren’t going to destroy the world after all. And I bet there are a lot of people our golden age that don’t know what the dashboard warnings mean, either.
Remember when your parents said the same things about you?
Heh heh heh. Some years ago and I don’t remember anymore the reason that teachers were out but a few parents complained that it was the school’s job to take care of their kids, not the parents. Of course the teachers had a different opinion. Being in the system though for over 30 years my wife would talk about discussing home situations with a few students bounced from one relative to another because their parent, uncle, etc. was in jail. It really is heart breaking to see these kids raised that way and some actually going to school while homeless. After suffering this type of childhood, I think these kids will be less likely to be in jail but more likely to make every effort to succeed where their parents failed them.
I remember a waitress we had one Sunday and my wife said to leave her a generous tip. Later she said that the girl had essentially been homeless during high school and had stayed with various friends. She was in her second year of college now, paying her own way and supporting herself with nothing but hard work and determination.
Now back to cars. The good news is that for even the privileged millennials, over half did know what the symbols meant. Again for those that don’t own cars, cars provide mobility more than any other means of transport. Mobility means you are free to go where you want when you want and to work where you want, regardless of where the government and social planners think you should live or work. It’s interesting that one of the places that fixes cars to give to people that need them, talk about the need for a car to provide opportunities for work. Not having a car whether through choice or hardship is very limiting. Friends will not always be around to provide a ride.
I sent this post to my daughter, who is definitely a millennial at 34. She doesn’t have a car, and only has occasion to drive one 3-4 times a year. She had no idea what the symbol was. I personally think it’s not a very effective pict-o-gram.
Who thought a symbol showing the cross section of a tire would be meaningful? Really, how many people on earth have ever seen a cross section of a tire, or ever even thought about it? You want to show me a problem tire, try a round thing like a doughnut with a flat spot at the bottom.
If you really pay attention you can see that technology is taking us past literacy. You don’t have to know how to write to create a text or email on your phone, just speak it and voice recognition will translate it into words. Your phone can also read your mail to you, and it can translate what you say into most any spoken language, out loud or in writing. You and I might think it’s stupid, but there’s nothing stopping manufacturers from having your car say “Check your tire pressure” every 10 minutes. In pretty much any language.
How about “Your turn signal is on” after a few minutes. Or “You need to add oil now.”
Where I think the use of symbols instead of words is strange is in the library of the university where I taught for 44 years. There are symbols for the restrooms–a woman in a skirt for the women’s room and a man in pants for the men’s room. Now I suppose a woman wearing slacks should use the men’s room. For the food court, there is a symbol with a plate and I knife and fork. I guess patrons who use the library aren’t expected to be able to read.
Over my 44 years as a faculty member, I have had a number of students who worked and paid their own way through college. They lived in low rent dumps off campus. Yet, I never heard any of these students complain that my assignments were too demanding or my tests too difficult. These students learned something important: The best investment a person can make is in himself or herself. I’ve heard from some of these students after they graduated. They aren’t begging employers for a job. Employers are after these students to work for them.
My cars actually ding after the turn signal has been on for a while. There is one slow curve where you are almost guaranteed to forget the turn signal is on if you miss the warning sign.
I’m thinking of that kids board game that had a picture of a tire blow out on one of the cards with the French word for blowout. I don’t remember the word but it was pretty effective when you saw the card and knew you were in trouble. Kerfluey or something like that.
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Message displays have been around for years, just not common on cheap vehicles.
Your Town & Country was available with a message center that will display tire pressures and tire warning messages. I believe 2001 was the first year the EVIC displayed tire pressure information on Chrysler mini vans.
My 2007 T&C is pretty basic: SWB and no ABS, for example. The its techiest thing is that it displays outdoor temperatures.
I get an “ice possible” warning on my Pontiac anytime it gets down to 32. Like who didn’t figure that out? My old Riviera had a chime and warning on the CRT screen when I was driving too fast. Of course I could just reset the thing to 80 so it would stop warning me. Watching the rerun of “Miracle on the Hudson”, I kind of like the verbal “pull up, pull up” warning and the shaking stick/steering wheel. Shake the steering wheel when the light comes on. That’ll get 'em to at least take it to a shop.
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All of my vehicles that had the ’ Ice ’ warning came on about 37 degrees . That is where ice begins to form on bridges and overpasses .
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My ol Buick will let you scroll through engine oil psi, coolant temp, charging system voltage, and a few other nifty things - along with the normal fuel mileage information. The “gauge info” that lets you look at the instant oil pressure, etc, is a feature I really like. I don’t use it a ton, but it comes in handy from time to time. And as a car nerd, I just like it. Do any of the newer cars still have this? Or is it all about a cute touch screen that tells you artist’s names and playlists? Not that those are bad things, as I’m a music nerd too. But having both engine technical data (which no one probably cares about anymore) and music trivia fodder would be nice.
Oh, I fully understand the explanation of text vs. pictures, but I don’t have to agree with it. I still think words would be more effective. I can’t think of many things on a car that can’t be understood by anyone with a rudimentary understanding of the English language. “Low tire” doesn’t leave much room for interpretation, the picture above does.
English is the language of the developed world. I would prefer to see it used over pictograms that are often unclear.
OK, I’ll bite. How is that possible? I never ever missed a day of class. True bridge decks freeze before the road surface because of the ground temp and bridge decks will cool to ambient temp faster, but how does anything freeze at 37?
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