I'd love this. I really don't want my car to be an iPhone with "apps" and random background software on it. The car touchscreen was perhaps the worst design choice in the history of the automobile, and is likely the cause of countless crashes. It's insane when I see car UIs that have the 'cancel / go back' button located in DIFFERENT areas depending on the screen context.

One example: https://www.caricecars.com (via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45823186)

As much as I and (probably) most other consumers agree with you, I don't think the car insurance industry does. Very similarly to how governments being buyers of data from adtech companies makes it an impossibility for governments to enact good privacy laws, there are massive perverse incentives here that place too much money on the table for good things to ever happen; car manufacturers want to gatekeep the sale of our data to insurance companies and governments, insurance companies want to lobby for laws that mandate data collection so that more claims can be denied and profit can rise, and governments are happy to enforce data collection because it strengthens their surveilance mechanisms.

it seems like Slate might be trying that but there's no real cars from them yet so they're just renders at this point. but yes, same concept but printers is my wish.

There is a golden era of cars, say 5 to 10 years ago that have things like heated seats but no tracking.

Personally I have a 2019 Mazda 3 which has camera vision all around, radar cruise control and heated seats but no lane assist bumping you around or a cellular connection relaying any information.

The only anti feature it has is that stupid idle stop, but that’s easy to permanently disable. It also has car play but doesn’t have a touch screen.

Anyway I’m not saying you should get this car specially but there are cars out there that are like what you want.

Same. We are even seeing electronics come to bicycles now too, with electronic shifting (with questionable security, at that). I still ride a bike with mechanical shifting and external cable routing for a reason. It's dead simple, and I can do my own wrenching at home, and most repairs & adjustments are a matter of minutes instead of hours.

I don't want a laptop & to do a brake bleed for every minor tweak or fix, nor do I want to have to charge my bike.

This is also why I still drive a much older car and will hang on to it as long as I possibly can.

I think repairability/right to repair sometimes misses the simplicity aspect. Being able to repair something is great, however its less great if its extraordinarily complicated or you need to hire outside expertise. Keeping the machine as simple as possible so repairs can be done at home, with standard tools, is the real win. Its the difference between replacing a phone battery by sliding off a removable back cover, or needing a special toolkit and a heat gun to remove the screen and melt the adhesive first.

FWIW: Hyundai EVs have physical buttons for everything important. It has a screen for CarPlay but it’s small compared to competitors. (I got the Kona for these reasons)

https://www.telotrucks.com/ is pretty much that

Cheap, fast enough, practical, goofey looking.

People who says this never even consider Nissan Leaf. "Because the charging..." or whatever.

So consumers DO want all-touchscreen disposable cars like Tesla - it's similar to how disposable phones had replaced phones with removable batteries(even among IP rated phones). Wallets vote strongly against consumers.

Modern cars evolved in terms of safety, this includes active safety too. All the safety features require OEM hardware/software that locks you in, for example replacing windshield in many models requires dealership calibration.

And with all the distracted drivers looking into their phones while driving, I want more and more cars to get at least emergency breaking systems.

The problem is that the difference between a low tech and a high tech diesel tractor is mostly emissions and some loss of efficiency. The difference between a low tech and a high tech electric car is a 25 mile range and a 250 mile range, a top speed of 35 mph and 100 mph, carrying capacity and so on.

I recently did a lawn tractor conversion from gas to electric and what I got was in my opinion significantly better and more reliable than a commercial option at 20% of the price but it is limited to 4mph. Scaling it to 5 would require a lot of custom fabrication and a much more expensive drive motor. Once this tech is significantly better and cheaper to the point of being a commodity it will be a different story. For now it just isn’t.

context: previously worked for an automobile oem

the current trend in the industry (before ai everything) has been software defined vehicle [1].

while the ux has been horible, the things hidden away from us are also becoming very bloated, and beyond the microcontroller-level complexity.

as a side-effect, even if you build a modern, mass-market car without screens, the ones in the future would still need to be connected to the manufacturer for ota updates for core functionality. expect supply-chain issues like people faced with axios, etc.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_Defined_Vehicle

Strongly recommend a ~2018 ICE Toyota (chosen for the goal of long-term ownership and maintenance, which includes widespread part availability and my own ability to make reasonable repairs to it at some point).

I own a base model 2020 Suzuki Swift GL, which I specifically bought because it has no touchscreen. It has a radio with Bluetooth and dials - that is it.

No issues so far.

I've been dreaming of doing an EV conversion on my 2008 Honda Civic that I barely even drive. No cellular radio, no OTA updates, no touchscreen. I lack the mechanical skills and time though, and I'm not aware of people in my area that do conversions as a service for anything but like high end classic cars(which a Honda sedan is not).

Check out Slate auto

So a Dacia?

I wonder if we'll see a repeat of what happened in the 60's and 70's: American car companies didn't want to make small and cheap fuel efficient cars, so an upstart (Japanese automakers) came in with exactly that and stole their lunch money.

These days, the big foreign manufacturers are all in the same game as the domestic ones - software nonsense. Tariffs are keeping other foreign competition out at the moment, so it'd have to be a new domestic manufacturer, or an existing one who deviates from the standard auto playbook.

It can be built but it wouldn't be legal to sell commercially. Closest thing would be a kit car (which I've always felt haven't scaled as much as they theoretically could)

Sounds like you just want a car from the year 2000.

So slate.auto?

That's the pitch behind the Slate truck right? Just the basics to make it a functional vehicle and then you add only what you want.

> Or an internal combustion engine car that is just simple and efficient

This is basically a contradiction. The last 15 years of efficiency improvements were achieved by adding complexity: turbochargers, automatic start/stop, direct injection, ECU controlled fuel ratios, etc.

Most 10+ years old cars don't have tracking, and many of those engines just keep working fine with basic maintenance. Our BMW F11 from 2014 is one of such cars, no interference or connections, 250 HP is enough for family car, big trunk, 4WD.

Extremely comfortable and especially on long hauls, extremely nice experience to drive (people like to bash bmw owners but its really a premium experience to drive and not just look at, at least this one and previous E46 one certainly are). Of course heated seated, power windows and best implementation of laser hud projection on windshield I ever saw.

Most modern basic/middle class cars feel like half-assed shit compared to it. Cost peanuts these times too.

Honestly, all the modern tech, except the tracking and touchscreens, is pretty freakin' awesome.

a 2010-16 corolla is basically this

I honestly don't care about power windows (or seats), do you really? I guess one advantage is being able to easily open windows other than your own.

Heated seats and stearing wheel, yes please.

But yep what I want is a Saab 900 "cockpit" car -- everything can be focused on and manipulated (physically!) without my eyes leaving the road or my hand having to explore too much.

But, yeah, electric.