High Too Tech

Step two: Set the clock that held no resemblance to the actual time of day. I fiddled with it for a few minutes and gave up after finding myself seemingly 50 layers deep in menus. I assigned the task to my wife, also an engineer and a pilot. She even got out the manual-a separate one for the man-machine interface but after a frustratingly long time, she was also defeated.

Editorial Staff

Monday, June 17, 2019 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Garmin's G1000 NXi system offers wireless cockpit connectivity, enhanced situational awareness, visual approaches and map overlays on the horizontal situation indicator. Piper Aircraft

Key Takeaways:

The author, an engineer, recounts his struggle with the overly complex and unintuitive user interface of a modern rental car, unable to perform basic tasks like turning off the radio or setting the clock, even with help from other engineers.
He draws a parallel to advanced aircraft cockpits, questioning if increasingly complex and non-standardized avionics interfaces pose safety risks and demand excessive training due to their poor usability.
The article advocates for simpler, more intuitive, and standardized man-machine interfaces, especially for critical systems, though the author expresses pessimism about this trend reversing.

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Before flying professionally, I spent 30 years in the computer industry. I’m an engineer by training and by temperament and I love technology. With all that you’d think I could hop into a rental car and turn off the radio. Nope. I was reminded of my grandparents who had a VCR—remember those?—that always blinked 12:00. Was I becoming that guy?

On a recent trip, the rental car agency was apparently out of the cheapo model I’d reserved and upgraded me to a nice Audi Quattro that was all one fancy computer. Gone was the radio with obvious knobs and buttons. Gone were the standardized levers and knobs to control the climate.