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by seanp2k2 4187 days ago
There's also nothing wrong with cars which don't pop the lock back open if the car is off and the key is in the ignition, except that when such a technology exists, is pretty cheap / easy to implement, and can save users potentially a lot of trouble, why would you not implement it?

I would argue that there is something wrong with amps / pre-amps which pop when turned on: it's sloppy design which doesn't even save much cost, and the risk is huge for end-users. Humans make mistakes. I don't think anyone would propose that a checklist be used every time you want to turn on your hi-fi because some EE (or very likely some Chinese ODM) wanted to save a few wires and a few cents.
2 comments
Curmudgel 4187 days ago
> There's also nothing wrong with cars which don't pop the lock back open if the car is off and the key is in the ignition, except that when such a technology exists, is pretty cheap / easy to implement, and can save users potentially a lot of trouble, why would you not implement it?

If you drive an armored car, then you wouldn't want the doors to automatically unlock whenever you put it in park. An ICE agent was killed three years ago in Mexico because of this feature.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/armored-suv...

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cthalupa 4187 days ago
I should be more clear: I am a fan of relays. I think everything should have them for convenience and peace of mind.

But at the same time, I'm not willing to dismiss a product just because it lacks an optional feature that would have made it more convenient for me. I'm not going to say something is poorly designed and not worth the cost if every other thing it is meant to do, it does well. I'm more concerned with the core features of the product than added niceties.

My only issues were the idea that this was something that wasn't standard fare (since it is, though the publicity related to this incident has caused quite a few manufacturers to switch to including relays on everything - which I'm perfectly okay with!) and that it is somehow damning to the product design on the whole.

If I buy a Lotus Elise, there's a lot of nice functionality that probably wouldn't cost much to implement that I could find on cheaper cars that I'll be missing out on - but those weren't things I was looking for when I purchased the Elise.

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