Bad Usability in Volkswagen
I’m working my way home through rush hour traffic when I’m suddenly jolted by a piercing BEEEEEP and an alarming, flashing message on my dash. I nearly wrecked in astonishment. Here was my car communicating with me, because it knows better than I do, and it was commanding an immediate action from me without further discussion: STOP!
Ah, those clever German engineers have whipped up a grand user experience. There’s no better way to keep me safe than inducing panic as I hurtle across asphalt in a metal object surrounded by other metal objects.
They could have just informed me, and let me make the decision on how to handle it. How about telling me, “Antilock brake fault, using manual brakes.” Then I might think, “I better get the ABS fixed, but until then, I’ll give myself some more stopping distance.”
So I pull my car into a local shop, and they hook it up to a fancy computer that just got several hundred dollars of new software installed. But the car won’t talk. It will only talk to an authorized VW technician. I have to schedule an appointment. So I have a car with bad brakes telling me to stop and it will only tell a dealer what is wrong. I need an open source car.