BMW 400GT

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Data
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Re: BMW 400GT

Post by Data »

XP500FUN wrote: Fri Nov 23, 2018 5:05 pm I always thought that adjustemnt of any of these type screens, bike, car, lorry or whatever, should be dissabled when the engine is running or at least on the move at all.

It seems worse to me than talking on a mobile phone and thats bad enough.

Best Mark.
Mark, you use the screen just like you would use any button on the dash. Only it's easier in my view. I've had these screens for the last 3 years on new cars and they work very well. My screen is mounted quite high up in the dash so is very easy to see on the move. To switch on climate control I just have to press one button on the screen, then adjust temperature if needed. That's just the same as it was in my previous cars that had buttons, no screen, BUT safer with the screen as it's mounted higher up in the dash, not down low like most climate control knobs are which require you to physically look at them to use them. It's just a matter of adapting, adjusting to a screen and once you have done that it's not just as easy but easier and safer. That's why they are introducing them on just about all cars now. My sister has just bought a brand new i10 Hyundai. It's brilliant and is fully networked with touchscreen etc. It has almost every conceivable extra and she has made the comment that the screen is so much easier to use than the confusing array of buttons in her last car. When the phone rings, she only has to say 'answer' and it does so right away. To phone anyone she just has to say phone my wonderful brother (that's me by the way :lol:) and it does. It works the same in my car too...so easy. Safety isn't really a concern, and you can 'go dark' with the screen if you prefer. I do quite often, it then won't display anything but does continue to work in the background and will alert you to any issue. Quite good!
Probably not ugly enough for the 'Ugly Bunch'! :lol:

Been riding for 54 years & owned too many bikes to list here...

MrGrumpy
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Re: BMW 400GT

Post by MrGrumpy »

I must admit that I haven't actually used one of the new cars with screens, but I'm wary! Buttons, stalks, switches etc can be confusing (and goodness knows how long I'm taking to fully work out all the ones on my Suzuki car!!), but they can be learnt. On the Tmax, if you have Yamaha heated grips, turning them on requires selecting the menu, scrolling down, selecting heated grips, scrolling through the heat settings, which IMHO is just sounds like a recipe for disaster if used on the move.

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roadster
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Re: BMW 400GT

Post by roadster »

I have to agree with comments about using over-complicated controls while on the move. With better ergonomic design most of the dangers could be eliminated. For example the sat nav map in my previous car could be zoomed in and out using a rotary knob which was large and easy to locate without looking down, my present car has a touch screen zoom which is very difficult to use because you have to hit exactly the correct part of the screen to enable then touch again in exactly the right point on a slider to change. That is ridiculously dangerous. The Kymco has multiple switches to change the dashboard display and the hazard warning lights operate from the starter button rocker switch and can easily be inadvertently turned on if wearing thick gloves. I could list many more examples and there is a massive discrepancy between the bling electronics advertised in brochures on modern vehicles and the practicalities when you come to own one.
I think the underlying issue may be that whereas the mechanical parts on a vehicle are design by experienced and qualified engineers as soon as functional design becomes a matter of programming microchips it is handed over to inexperienced ( probably youthful) egg heads with no grounding in practicality and no guidance from development engineers who lack computer skills.
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Bern
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Re: BMW 400GT

Post by Bern »

I like the Virago, it's got a mechanical speedo & 3 warning lights ................. even my single brain cell can work that out :D

MrGrumpy
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Re: BMW 400GT

Post by MrGrumpy »

roadster wrote: Sun Nov 25, 2018 3:58 am
I think the underlying issue may be that whereas the mechanical parts on a vehicle are design by experienced and qualified engineers as soon as functional design becomes a matter of programming microchips it is handed over to inexperienced ( probably youthful) egg heads with no grounding in practicality and no guidance from development engineers who lack computer skills.
To be fair, when equipment requiring switches was added to cars,the engineers just stuck switches on wherever convenient - just look at how 50s car dashboards were laid out. Then later on the stylists got involved and switches were put where they looked cool, whilst the trends on designing things to be ergonmically correct only arose after 30 years of people copying other firm's better practice. Which means that in terms of screens, whilst we now have things designed by programmers, in a decade or 2, designers will work out to how design these things properly, though I presume we'll be controlling cars by shouting at them or through some sort of neural link by then anyway!

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Re: BMW 400GT

Post by orange1290 »

Today's automotive engineers use sophisticated software to design their products, that includes the digital interfaces in cars and on motorcycles. To think that these engineers are still manually creating designs, parts etc using lathes and hand tools is so out of date and out of touch. Nearly everything is designed using industry specialised software environments and machines controlled by the same or related software environments make the actual parts. Even the machines to produce the parts are designed by using specialised software. That's reality and it's only the beginning with facilities such as 3D printing. Fantastic for the future as it guarantees quality AND consistency. Design and testing can largely be done now before a single part is manufactured making the development cycle much, much shorter benefitting all of us and the environment.
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Re: BMW 400GT

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Re: BMW 400GT

Post by Spoogle »

Just too small for my liking...

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