What is wrong with automotive engineers?

[ClutchFork]

You would think it should be pretty simple to have power windows and wire them so you can run them up or down as you please without having the key in and turned to the on position? What gives? Is it the engineers are not very bright? Is it the auto companies are afraid they will be sued because kids will run them and guillotine them selves in it? Are they afraid some moroin will run the battery down by continually working the windows? Actually, power windows are a huge risk for a car-in-the lake scenario, so people have to carry hammers to smash the window out. Hand crank windows are way better. If anything there should be a hand crank on the power windows for emergency use, for someone who doesn't mind Amish windows, and for when the power switch or motor goes bad.

I could also rant on the HVAC controls being so complex you have to park the car to change the settings, the lights, wipers, etc. being different locations in different cars. Its enough to cause an accident because I need wipers when it starts raining at night but turn off the lights instead because my daily driver has the wipers where my wife's car has the lights.

I'll stick with the old cars, the new ones just keep getting worse and worse every year.

[IMBoring25]

I don't know if it's a regulatory requirement. What I am reasonably confident of despite being neither a double-E nor employed in the automotive industry is that it is good design practice to deenergize circuits that are deemed unnecessary for a given phase of operation or non-operation. With the possible exception of double- and triple-shifted cabs and police cars, most vehicles spend the vast majority of their operating lifetimes turned off and unoccupied. Every circuit you leave energized is another opportunity for a static draw or, in worst-case scenarios, a fire. My wife's Focus has a static draw (probably the radio) that runs the battery down to nothing in something between 1 and 2 weeks, and it's irritating.

I don't mind crank windows necessarily but they get irritating if you use security checkpoints, toll booths, paid parking garages, etc. on a regular basis. In the period between when we swapped the cab on my previous truck from a lower-trim donor to the time we swapped the door back it definitely added to the workload to be cranking the window, shifting, fishing for an ID, and steering all at the same time going up to security gates, I became VERY glad it was a temporary arrangement. Even worse if it's raining and you desperately want the window down the absolute minimum amount of time. I also see some benefit to central control of all the windows and locking functionality.

As for the other rant, there's always been variability in secondary controls, though there was frequently some consistency within an era and country of origin. Now they all seem to be standardizing on the absolute worst of all possible worlds with one touchscreen to rule them all. The notion of consolidating controls that you might reasonably want to operate with the vehicle in motion to a single bespoke interface (because the car mag snobs don't want to recognize shared components) that provides no tactile feedback is not only dangerous but horrible for maintainability, both to inexpensively replace specific failed components and for sending the car prematurely to the crusher when critical functionality no longer works and can no longer be fixed.

[ClutchFork]

Good point on avoiding energized circuits. At least on my 2008 Fusion the windows will roll up after the engine is shut off so long as a door has not been opened. But I wonder if it is possible to make it so that, when the key is off, hitting the switch sends a signal to energize the window circuit, then the window operates, and once the switch is released, the circuit is de-energized again, say after 5 to 10 seconds.

Static draw? Web search brings up parasitic draw. Either way, I have seen where a perfectly good battery will test only 12.3 volts and figured there were things always on, or maybe because of the interior lights staying on for a while after locking the doors.

I have not had a touchscreen in a car and am not sure how that works but seems like a driver distraction.

Oh, I forgot one of my biggest peeves is the cars where the back-up lights go on to unlock the doors. Very bad idea to send false signals like that. You are going through a parking lot at night and see back-up lights on so become wary lest someone backs into your car, only to find out there is nobody in the car. Kind of a perverted joke.

[Rope-Pusher]

Speaking of Back-Up Lights....look at the ones on this truck!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp1AtJ_apyc[/youtube]

[watkins]

Good point on avoiding energized circuits. At least on my 2008 Fusion the windows will roll up after the engine is shut off so long as a door has not been opened. But I wonder if it is possible to make it so that, when the key is off, hitting the switch sends a signal to energize the window circuit, then the window operates, and once the switch is released, the circuit is de-energized again, say after 5 to 10 seconds.

This would require a module to be awake to monitor the window circuit the entire time. That, of course, is a source of draw.

Then there's just the basic elimination of risks. One simple example: I leave my dogs in the car sometimes. One of them KNOWS how to open windows and the other is a chaos demon who occasionally hits the switches by accident. Car off, no chance of the windows going down and my dogs either escaping or causing bodily harm to idiot passersby who think that cute fluffy dog = friendly dog.

[ClutchFork]

I see what you mean on the circuitry. No easy way to make it happen. well, I like power windows for the passenger side, since I drive the Mustang with both windows down. But still would prefer a crank on the driver's door.

Then there's just the basic elimination of risks. One simple example: I leave my dogs in the car sometimes. One of them KNOWS how to open windows and the other is a chaos demon who occasionally hits the switches by accident. Car off, no chance of the windows going down and my dogs either escaping or causing bodily harm to idiot passersby who think that cute fluffy dog = friendly dog.

My son had a large dog in the Fusion, when he owned it. He had a leash that snaps into the seat belt female end. That was to keep the dog from coming into the front seat. But the dog would step on the seat belt release and be freed. One day sitting at a light the dog did that, then stepped on the window button and was headed out the window when my son turned and grabbed the leash. Unfortunately, in that instant the Fusion rolled into the bumper of the car in front of him. Of course all the damage was to the Fusion.