The chimes at midnight, they're blurred in the wine

[venta]

Today, I took my car to the garage for a service. The nice people let me have a shiny Corsa to drive around while Blue Johnson was looked at and seen to. A brand spanking new one, with only 1800 miles on the clock.

It had that scary new-car feel, where everything seems very stiff and uncomfortable. It hadn't been worn in yet, and you could feel the corners on the gearbox. The brakes were very sharp and the clicks on the twisty heat control very loud. I also discovered - once on the road - that it had the scary new kind of indicators they put in Vauxhalls these days.

Ordinary indicators have three positions: off, on-right and on-left. Scary Vauxhall Indicators (SVI) think this is way too simple. They go for a two-stage process - push the indicator stalk gently and the stalk returns immediately to centre, flicking your indicator for a few seconds. Great for changing lanes, or pulling round a parked car. Push the indicator stalk harder, and you get proper indication, which cancels itself after you go round a corner. But - and here's the snag - even in the second case the stalk returns immediately to centre. Your stalk is in what I'd regard as the 'off' position while you're indicating.

Which means that when you want to stop indicating (because, I dunno, you've decided not to turn left after all, or because the unfamiliarity of the two-stage thingy meant you'd switched them on when you didn't mean to) you can't return the stalk to center. It's already there. But out of force habit you try anyway, meaning you start indicating the other way instead.

Now, any sensible person could probably figure out the solution in a few seconds' prodding, but the nature of the beast is that you discover this problem while (to quote a random example) on a major gyratory on the A4. Attempting to drive and stop indicating like a crazy person is less easy. Fortunately, I remembered a conversation with my parents two years ago when they got their new car and discovered SVI. To stop indicating left, you indicate left again. Simple.

I don't think this is a bad interface, it's just a bit counterintuitive at first.

Other than that, the little gold Corsa and I made our way to work quite happily. Except for the bonging. I was muddling along reasonably well when I pulled up at a roundabout to wait my turn. Just as I stopped, the car emitted a lound "bong!" of the sort emitted by ach's car at every eventuality. Ach's car is usually beeping about its low petrol, low oil, requirement for a service, need of screenwash top-up, fear that you haven't got your seat belt on, general insecurity, etc. The Corsa didn't seem to have any dashboard display to indicate the reason for the beep, so I ignored it.

By the time I'd got to work, it'd bonged a few more times; a warning chime as I stopped. I briefly considered that it might have a parking sensor so tried pulling up very close to the car in front - nothing. In fact, the only times it didn't bong on stopping were when I was trying to make it.

On the way back to the garage tonight I experimented further - and evenutally managed to produce a fearsome torrent of bonging by pulling on the handbrake before the car was completely stationary. Now, I'm the sort of boring by-the-book driver who puts on the handbrake while stopped at lights, roundabouts etc. And for some reason, the car thought I was putting it on too early. Later, I did establish that on two occasions I put the brake on after the car had defintely, completely, come to a full stop and got bonged at.

However, it did definitely seem to be the handbrake that triggered the bong. Has anyone encountered any similar warning mechanism ?

Comments

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

I think it's a bad interface. It has modes. Modes = bad interface.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't think it really does have modes as such. No more than, say, a bath tap does... you push it a bit, you get a little bit of indication. You push it a lot, you get a lot of indication. Very like a bath tap, in fact, only with flashy orange lights and clicking instead of hot water.

[pope-ant.livejournal.com]

I take Jack's point on this.
A tap's mode is dictated by the position of the tap - for any position there is only one 'mode' - so you could describe it as modeless.
However, the indicator always returns to the same position, but responds to input differently depending on which 'mode' it is in.

I agree that this interface is not ideal and it would annoy me.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I take your point about the tap :)

However this bit...

However, the indicator always returns to the same position, but responds to input differently depending on which 'mode' it is in.

I don't think is true. It doesn't have modes in that sense - at any time the same input will produce the same result.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I see what you mean - "indicating" right can either result in you starting to or stopping indicating depending on whether you are already or not. I'm not sure that's really modey, though, it's no worse than a soft-switch anywhere else.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's any more modey than the other form of indicator. If you push it down when it's middle, it indicates. If you push it down when it's up, it stops indicating. It's just differently modey.

[pope-ant.livejournal.com]

The other point is that normal indicators offer much better tactile feedback.
In my car, from the centre position the indicator moves smoothly in either direction until you meet a little resistance, but from either extremity (up or down) it has immediate resistance which you must overcome to return it to the centre. This means that you can tell what position it was in just by moving it (presuming you have loud music on and are not looking at the dash this can be helpful).

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

But in the centre position, what it does when you press up varies according to what you've done previously. My car has a nudge for a quick indicate, push for a indicate-and-stay-on feature but it stays in the left or right position if you use -and-stay-on