I Can’t Believe My Car Radio Makes Me Press And Hold The Power Button While Driving

I’ve been meaning to blog this for months. Finally remembered.

My aftermarket car radio has a major, dangerous design flaw: the Power/Source button - yes, it functions as both an on/off and an input source switch - must be PRESSED and HELD for approximately THREE SECONDS in order to turn the unit on or off. (If you press without holding, it switches between radio, CD, and auxiliary input.)

Think about that for a second. A device that is DESIGNED to be used while the user is driving a vehicle requires a THREE SECOND PRESS AND HOLD. In other words, the designers thought that is was perfectly reasonable to have the driver remove their hand from the steering wheel for a three-count. And I should add that there’s no tactile feedback; you must observe the unit’s panel to ensure that the unit has powered on or off.

That is poor-bordering-on-negligent design. Scratch that. It *is* negligent design. Who thought that this was an OK design decision?

I’ll go out to the car over lunch and get the manufacturer and model number, so I can name names.

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 11:56 am and is filed under Hardware, Mobile, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 4 Comments

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    Excellent point -- you could have an entire category of products like these that give the feeling that they were designed by people who never have to use them.
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    In defense of this design:

    This button also powers off the radio. It's designed so you don't accidently power off the stereo if you hit the button.

    When do you power off your radio while driving? If you want to shut the thing up hit the mute button - it doesn't require holding down for 3 seconds. If you want to power off, pull over and take your time. While you're at it, you can use your cell phone.
    • ^
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    @koz, yeah, but...that's my whole point: why did the designers combine the power and mode button? It's not a good idea. If they had separated them, they wouldn't have had to make the power button a 3-second press and hold, and therefore wouldn't have caused a safety issue.

    As for the mute button...point taken. But it's not really findable by touch. So it's not salient.

    And I don't agree about pulling over to power off. I think that's an apologist position; a car radio should be designed to be powered off while driving. Make a phone call is a different matter. That should be done while stationary.
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    Paul,

    I've used a similar system which needed me to hold it down for 3 seconds. I think you've got a great point there, its not only inconvenient, but dangerous to an extent.

    As a user of such a radio, and being a usability enthusiast, I didnot actually go ahead and find the mute button. Why? because the same button that shuts it off, had the volume control for me to turn down to zero. My point being, users are not involved in figuring out their car radio, god knows they've got enough appliances to get 'used to'. Make it as simple as possible, while trying to balance out aesthetics.
 
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