The worst thing to happen to home automation was companies trying to lock customers into their ecosystem without greater interoperability.
It could be argued Mazda doesn't want to be on the hook for end-user customizations that may potentially jeopardize safety.
Now yes, if a driver modifies his car's code or the results of that code and causes an accident that's on him and not Mazda. But you and I and everyone here all know the media will jump at the chance to plaster sensational headlines for click monies.
Lately I've been fighting with things like iOS, Chromecast, "smart" lightbulbs, vacuum robots and smartwatches and all of these go out of their way to lock these down and force their shitty and buggy and probably illegal spyware on me.
I'm honestly asking why this is the default. What do the companies have to lose in people making their products suck less?
Looks like the pain was big enough.
It’s not just home automation, commercial automation is full of single source vendor ‘solutions’.
Building automation: Johnson Controls, Carrier, Siemens, Honeywell, Trane (and others) all provide proprietary controllers and software. There are some ‘open’ systems where multiple dealers sell a product line, Distech and Alerton are the big ones that I’ve seen.
Fire alarm: Johnson Controls (Simplex), Siemens, Honeywell, Bosch. Honeywell has their own internal product line that they sell, as well as two other lines that they have dealers sell (Notifier and Silent Knight).
Nurse call, duress, security, surveillance (and probably other low-voltage/control systems I’m not familiar with) have the same problems with proprietary systems.
It's understandable, but it fails to be an excuse for the behavior.
On purpose, or from incompetence.
This is about "engagement". There are a lot of oxygen wasters out there whose careers and paychecks depend on "engagement" metrics aka how much time has been collectively wasted wading through the cesspool that their software is. The annoyance and wasted time is the point, and an alternative client (or other way of automating it) goes against that.
People often talk about "bullshit jobs" around here, but what everyone overlooks (or refuses to acknowledge as it's uncomfortable) are all the bullshit jobs in the tech/software industry who derive their careers out of end-user annoyance and misery.
I would bet this is some overzealous safety executive somewhere.
That is, it's easier (and quicker and simpler) just to say no than do things case by case. It also mitigates any possible future fiction.
I'm not saying it's right. But knowing how these Big Incs operate it makes sense.
I think this is because Graeber had little familiarity with this industry so it doesn't appear in the source text.
As a result of the BS in TFA, I'd put Mazda in the same corner, except they were never a contender because they don't build cars that I might buy (well, okay, maybe a Miata).
In lieu of the touchscreen while cars wheels are rolling, Mazda expect you to use this odd rotary controller in the center console, on the assumption it will be safer.
It's not safer at all though - you have to turn the rotary controller and watch CarPlay or android auto do the equivalent of a tab key in the browser until it highlights the correct field, then press it in to select. It genuinely takes my eyes off the road longer than just stabbing a touch screen with my finger, as you have to make sure you have got the rotary controller to highlight the right button etc - you can overshoot just like tab in a browser.
What's even funnier to me is that Mazda have no qualms about putting a switch to disable stability and traction control instantly right next to the steering wheel on a light weight rear wheel drive sports car; burnouts and oversteer are apparently perfectly acceptable usecases for a Miata, but selecting a song from the touch screen while moving? No way guys...
Pretty much everything you need can be done with at most a few steps of the commander interface which are easy to learn.
It's a Miata. You should be listening to the sound the car makes. Car speakers sound like shit with the top down at highway speeds anyway.
The AC in my RX7 hasn't been charged in 20 years either and I live in the southeastern US. Driving these cars is a full experience...
If there's an active route, you rotate the dial twice quickly to select the search icon.
That's on Android Auto on my Mazda. It's very similar in the built-in nav system.
And in no case do you have to lean forward to peck for small touch boxes - the controls are naturally at your hand and each move has a tactile click.
Touchscreens are "souicide" as more and more distracted driving research shows.
I'd guess it's part just some knee-jerk business ideology and attempts at vendor lock-in and SaaS scams. Lock-in is clearly anticompetitive, and probably illegal, but law enforcement cares more about people smoking weed etc.
The upcoming EU data act seems to try to tackle some of these. But I have very little hope it will amount to much. EU doesn't regulate business, business regulates EU.
The headunit was trivially easy to hack iirc - was based on an old version of Android obviously without security fixes, think it was from a website called mazdahacks? From there I had full AA without restrictions.
No idea if the site is still around but...
I imagine they are testing this out as a higher end/cost feature that isn’t fully implemented, and based on sales/feedback, they’ll roll it out to other models in a couple of years.
Depending on my specific need, I may use the touchscreen or the wheel. My kids in the passenger seat strongly prefer the touchscreen.
The dial itself also sucks. It has both a rotary spinner that's too easy to turn and a 4-way joystick that's too easy to nudge. If you happen to drive across a tiny bump (especially with the stock shocks, which are really stiff), you can entirely lose your place and have to hunt for the highlighted control before you can resume. I have to lean forward because my eyesight isn't that great compared to before. It's not bad enough to stop driving, but not good enough to see Android Auto on that tiny screen, of which Maps is only like 2/3, and each button is tiny.
Touch screens don't really have that problem because there's not a control that has focus at any given time. You just poke whatever you want, regardless of current context.
Touch screens (like on Teslas) are worse than traditional buttons. But the Mazda spinner is even worse than touch screens. It is far far more distracting, IMO, and a life-threatening dealbreaker for me.
It's cool if you like them though... I just won't be buying a Mazda anymore, but that car (to my surprise) got pretty high reviews and nobody even mentioned the infotainment UX. Shrug. I'm just picky about these things.
Basically - customization and integration is a limiting factors and whats the point to have these limits when customization and integration is not your goal?
I daily miss items with the rotary controller in a way that I never do in any other car with a reasonably implemented touch screen for CarPlay/Android Auto (effectively almost every single new non-Mazda/Tesla vehicle on sale across the entire car industry). I know people who have refused to buy a Mazda that otherwise met their needs solely due to this issue - sectors like the CX-5/CX-9 etc compete in are staggeringly competitive nowadays and customers have a ton of options that all have working touch screens for carplay/android auto on the move.
The Miata, you just have to put up with it, given the cheap roadster market currently consists of the Miata and nothing else.
Also, the Fiata is based on the ND1 and so still has the smaller engine, but I'd totally get a Fiata over an ND1.
Mazda hacks is still around but looks like there's some more protection in it than there was a few years ago so it's harder to setup.