What's the deal with people having difficulty getting into their new Audis?

Post by **mrbrian200** » 19 May 2018, 10:35

Seems to be a recurring theme...

3-4 times in a few months or so I've noticed people at the grocery having severe difficulty getting into their new (0-3 year old) Audis... It's obviously some sort of electronic lock. They grab the door handle, the car beeps repeatedly but doesn't let them in after multiple attempts.

Guy today at the store was 'not getting into' his Audi next to where I was parked. I approached my own car as usual, touched the unlock button on the fob in my pocket and hopped in as usual without any fuss whatsoever. Guy fiddling with his Audi door locks looked like he was about to blow a gasket.

Post by **mrbrian200** » 23 May 2018, 01:02

Followup: what's the deal with new BMWs crushing/amputating people's hands and fingers? Least they could do is place a microphone that responds to a screeching human voice and automatically reverses the door closing action.

It's just a matter of time until we hear about someone who while cleaning the car 'with a smile' inadvertently gets some naughty bit in the way.

93Regina · Post by **93Regina** » 23 May 2018, 10:54

mrbrian200 wrote: ↑23 May 2018, 01:02Followup: what's the deal with ...

Brakes don't work in reverse, how does this happen?

Years ago, there were complaints via Audis drivers....end of story from my experiences, "...you are using both the gas and the brake pedal at the same time to maneuver your vehicle," but gas pedal is being depressed mostly, so a driver crashes into something while in reverse..

Pedal spacing was too narrow...I've done this several times on 93-245, with gas pedal getting depressed. So, then OEMs installed that Park lockout so that brake must be depressed before gear lever is moved.

There were lawsuits, but I point to pedal spacing being the issue mostly...OEMs created this problem.

Post by **mrbrian200** » 23 May 2018, 12:33

With regard to the BMWs at least, one would think an automated door closing mechanism would be designed (for safety reasons) around a motorized latch mechanism and a some sort of pinch sensor that by design can switch to 'reverse' and open back up at any point in the cycle. Which I suspect may be the issue: the mechanism may not be designed around the ability to stop/reverse once it's past a certain point. Sort of like the truck suck down mechanism in some of the late '80's - early '90s Cadillacs. Aside from not having any sort of pinch sensor (like auto-up windows utilize), the trunk sucker mechanism, which was motorized, didn't have the ability to reverse DC to the motor/reopen the trunk once the pull down cycle was triggered. Cadillac stopped using that design... quite likely over safety concerns.

With regard to the microphone/vocal 'screech sensor' idea, I'm pretty sure between various implementations of vocal listening AI (Siri/Axexa/I've fallen and I can't get up devices) the AI technology already exists to listen for and identify various sounds a human in distress is likely to make in addition to responding to basic emergency commands like "stop" or "open" or "Oh Sh-t!"

Post by **abscate** » 30 Jul 2019, 01:46

The voice recognition system failed in beta because the cars kept opening their doors each month when BMW renters got their rent bill. It’s much more accurate to call it a rent than a lease

93Regina · Post by **93Regina** » 31 Jul 2019, 11:31

How to fix/Diagnose BMW power door lock issues. Including repair broken central locking

Most Common Reasons for Door Lock Failure
https://sbautowerks.com/why-door-lock-f ... -in-a-bmw/

Post by **mrbrian200** » 01 Aug 2019, 07:30

I've decided the people having trouble opening their doors on these newer vehicles are the same types who can't figure out how to start a clothes washer/dryer in my friends condo building. When you slide the account 'debit card' into the slot on a machine and press a cycle button to start it, the display says "HOLD". To those of us smarties it's obvious: press and hold the cycle/start button for a couple seconds to start the machine. Momentary button presses do nothing. It's mind boggling how many people simply can't add 2+2, are not observant, or seem to figure it out then promptly forget...next time you see them in there they're fussing and frustrated with it all over again.
Instead of a series of beeps which (most?) people who never even glance at the owners manual have no idea what the 2 beeps means as opposed to 1 or 3, these vehicles might need an external speaker with voice prompts that guide people through it when the system detects a failed unlock attempt either because they aren't doing it right or forgot/left their key laying somewhere.

Post by **abscate** » 05 Aug 2019, 04:19

It’s on engineers to design interfaces that are intuitive for all people to use. If you want My CPU cycles to figure out how to use your product, I’ll buy someone else’s.