Legal e-bikes (ie. pedal assistance, not Deliveroo twist the grip and belt down the pavement at 30mph Ali Express specials) are a great form of exercise though. They aren't stopping people riding non assisted bikes, they are encouraging more people to be active for longer.For people that need them, nothing. I guess people wonder why obesity is going up and up, when we add another motor to another form of transport.
I realise I have quite strong opinions on E-bikes, but that's just me. I cry inside every time I go in a bike shop and you have to search for the 'normal' bikes, as everything on display is an e-bike
EV general discussion
- Thread starter Ricochet J
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Soldato
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umm all the time. I have all of the 8 custom buttons configured to something, such as 'Navigate home', 'call X', 'show me this'.
I've never touched the screen in the car ever, I don't need to. And voice control is crap.
Soldato
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But you'd be more active for the time you'd be out with a normal bike? And if you want to ride for longer.....get fitter? (and heathier?)
Why do you need to navigate home while driving? Surely you’d set navigation before you set off like a responsible driver.
The voice control may be poor in your car but it isn’t in mine. ‘Navigate home’ being one of my most used voice commands.
In any case not all touch screens are the same. A poorly laid out touchscreen with seemingly infinite menu trees are bad.
A well laid out touchscreen screen which is intuitive to use is fine. It’s far easier inputting information like an address on a touch screen than it is using an iDrive scroll wheel, no thanks.
Likewise, well implemented voice controls can be excellent.
It’s like your writing off the possibility other manufacturers have managed to implemented their infotainment well because your BMWs touch screen is bad.
Soldato
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I am a responsible driver. I get in the car, I press number 3 and the satnav sets the destination to home. Simple. Not sure how that implied otherwise.
I dont just drive my car. Our company car is a new Skoda. Limited buttons, most things controlled in the screen. It's horrible. I have to take my eye off the road for much longer to press the button, and that assumes I've actually pressed in the right place. Having to hover your hand in mid air means you normally miss the button. Hence my hatred for touchscreens in cars.
They are done to save cost, not improve people driving experience.
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lol and here's me wishing I had a touch screen because using Apple CarPlay on a non-touch screen with a rotary dial is painful to say the least
But again, your criticism is that it’s horrible to use when driving but at the same time you say you are responsible driver who doesn’t fiddle with things when driving.
So what’s horrible about the VW touch screen that you need to use when driving when all the driving controls have physical buttons?
I must admit that I quite like a mix of buttons and touch screen but I'm an irresponsible driver who sometimes changes things on the fly 
I'm not sure if it is the car or my new company issue iPhone but Siri is giving me the cold shoulder on voice commands at the moment so that doesn't really help with having to deploy a digit to interact with the nav at times.
I'm not sure if it is the car or my new company issue iPhone but Siri is giving me the cold shoulder on voice commands at the moment so that doesn't really help with having to deploy a digit to interact with the nav at times.
Work Yammer was busy today as we probably have hundreds of cars on Zenith and loads got the same email. I just got a the V5 number to 'order a new tow bar plate' and have taxed it online today. so the problem will go away.
No, not saying the technology won't or shouldn't get better. As we improve sensor suites and more cars start to use sensors other than just cameras we should see the effectiveness of the tech improve.
But the idea that this safety tech is going away because we don't like it or want it is a falsehood. Seatbelts, airbags, side airbags, seatbelt pre tensioners, side impact protection, increased thickness of the b pillar etc.. have all been complaind about. This forum is full of complaints as to how all the modern safety regs are making modern cars so big and heavy and difficult to see out of, along with annoying as all the new speed warning , lane departure assist stuff gets added.
Just pointing out this tech isn't going to get taken away because driving enthusiasts complain about it. The "i'm not buying a new car with this stuff" attitude is just going to relegate you to driving older (increasing classic as time goes on) cars - as you can't avoid this tech in new cars. Those hoping that people will complain about it and the EU back tracks on it, ain't gonna happen. It's not going anywhere.
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Associate
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13C this morning, the first 5.2 miles per kw of the year in my Kona. The sweet spot is when the heater isn't used much and no need for air con.
I don't think this is my end game EV - it just needs faster charging. My top 3 future EVs would be second hand Ioniq 5, Audi Q6 or Porsche with air suspension, but that's crazy talk. Those charge to 10-80% in 20 mins.
BYD have apparently got 1000kw charging tech coming soon. That would be 4 times faster than 20 mins.. so 5 mins
imo you only need 10 mins / 500kw, the time it takes to walk to a services loo and buy a drink.
I don't think this is my end game EV - it just needs faster charging. My top 3 future EVs would be second hand Ioniq 5, Audi Q6 or Porsche with air suspension, but that's crazy talk. Those charge to 10-80% in 20 mins.
BYD have apparently got 1000kw charging tech coming soon. That would be 4 times faster than 20 mins.. so 5 mins
imo you only need 10 mins / 500kw, the time it takes to walk to a services loo and buy a drink.There's nothing irresponsible about adjusting the heating, or the volume of the radio, or the heated steering wheel/seats whilst driving. In fact, things like switching on/off recirculation are necessary to maintain a healthy driving environment. But VW doesn't even have physical buttons for all driving controls, the cruise control is adjusted from the steering wheel, yes, but it has stupid fiddly capacitive buttons rather than proper physical ones.
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I have a pedantic urge to point out that the EU is a signatory to a 1998 international agreement on vehicle construction. As is the UK.
Many of the regulations of which some are complaining are not EU regulations. They are UN regulations, developed through a working party of the UNECE and apply to vehicles in countries around the world, not just those in the EU or even in Europe.
The UK is just as much responsible for these things as the EU is.
Associate
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Fair point.
I knew range would increase in this warmer weather but I was not expecting to come back to a car with a higher battery percentage than when I parked up an hour earlier 
I had charged to 100% last night (it's a lease so I don't really care), done a 10(ish) mile round journey and parked with 97% battery remaining. Come back to the car an hour later and it's now 99%. I did read on another forum how one ID7 owners battery percentage would drop 5% the moment he plugged it into charge and maybe something similar will happen to me but it does make you question the accuracy of the state of charge and range.
I had charged to 100% last night (it's a lease so I don't really care), done a 10(ish) mile round journey and parked with 97% battery remaining. Come back to the car an hour later and it's now 99%. I did read on another forum how one ID7 owners battery percentage would drop 5% the moment he plugged it into charge and maybe something similar will happen to me but it does make you question the accuracy of the state of charge and range.
Things happen, diversion due to unexpected roadworks or an incident, etc. or sometimes you need to adjust controls due to condensation or recirculation, etc. etc. like the people who increasingly seem to be designing these systems you seem poorly able to see outside of your own circumstances or contingencies and as alluded to above if you are in and out of different vehicles a bit physical buttons for certain functions make a lot more sense.
The trend lately for styling the hazard lights button in with the rest of the dash and/or positioning it in odd places it doing my head in - how anyone can't see the problem with that and it is getting into production is mind boggling.
The most recent changes however is Regulation (EU) 2019/2144 or "New Vehicle General Safety Regulation" which mandates Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA), Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), Driver Drowsiness and Attention Warning (DDAW), and Emergency Lane Keeping Systems (ELKS).
These are European regulations, not not part of ECE/TRANS/132. But because lots of European car markers sell their cars globally, lots of them are just shipping every car all over the world in EU spec as they don't deem it worthwhile to make non EU Spec cars different to avoid complexity in the production line. I don't mind these personally, my current car 2023 car has most of the above, just not the intelligent speed assist. But I know some people get very irate about lane departure warning etc..
Caporegime
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Depends on the manufacturer, you can map it out on Audi EVs - both the lane assist and emergency braking have tried to kill me.