EV Stupidity Checklist

电动汽车“愚蠢行为”检查清单

Automobiles have been around for well over a century. During that time, we’ve gotten pretty good at designing and building their basic components and controls: seats, doors, pedals, steering wheels, mirrors, etc. But when today’s automakers decide to make an electric vehicle (EV), they seemingly forget much of what they once knew, creating new versions of features that are objectively, obviously worse than the time-tested designs they replace.

汽车问世已经超过一个世纪了。在这段时间里，我们在设计和制造汽车的基本组件与控制装置方面已经相当成熟：座椅、车门、踏板、方向盘、后视镜等等。然而，当如今的汽车制造商决定制造电动汽车（EV）时，他们似乎忘记了曾经掌握的许多知识，转而创造出一些在客观上明显不如那些久经考验的传统设计的新功能。

When Tesla ushered in the modern EV era in the early 2000s, some of these changes made sense, at least from a marketing perspective. To convince a cautious public to consider an EV, the vehicles had to appear “futuristic.” Flush door handles that automatically extend when you approach the car are definitely cool and fancy! But electronic door mechanisms like these have also proven to be unreliable, and possibly dangerous.

当特斯拉在 21 世纪初开启现代电动汽车时代时，其中一些改变至少从营销角度来看是有道理的。为了说服谨慎的公众考虑购买电动汽车，车辆必须看起来“充满未来感”。当你靠近车辆时自动弹出的隐藏式门把手确实很酷、很时髦！但事实证明，这类电子门锁机构既不可靠，甚至可能存在危险。

On the interior, Tesla settled on a minimal design dominated by a large touch screen. Touch screens provide a lot of flexibility. This is why our phones no longer have physical keyboards on them. Touch screens are also, perhaps surprisingly, less expensive than the array of physical buttons and switches that they replace in car interiors. This savings is especially important on EVs, where the cost of the vehicle is dominated by the battery (yes, to an even larger degree than an internal-combustion car’s cost is dominated by its engine).

在内饰方面，特斯拉选择了以大尺寸触摸屏为主的极简设计。触摸屏提供了极大的灵活性，这就是为什么我们的手机不再配备物理键盘的原因。或许令人惊讶的是，触摸屏的成本也比它所取代的汽车内饰中那一排排物理按钮和开关要低。这种成本节约对于电动汽车尤为重要，因为电动汽车的成本主要由电池决定（是的，其程度甚至超过了内燃机汽车的成本主要由发动机决定这一比例）。

But despite their cost savings, the over-use of touch screens in cars has proven unpopular. They’re also not great for safety. In 2026, we’re well past the time when EVs need to compromise safety and functionality in order to appear futuristic. As for the cost savings, well, that’ll be harder to shake. Once automakers got a taste for cheap touchscreens, they spread to all cars, not just EVs.

然而，尽管节省了成本，但在汽车中过度使用触摸屏已被证明并不受欢迎。它们对安全性也不太友好。到了 2026 年，电动汽车早已无需为了追求“未来感”而牺牲安全性和功能性。至于成本节约，这恐怕更难改变。一旦汽车制造商尝到了廉价触摸屏的甜头，它们就会蔓延到所有车型，而不仅仅是电动汽车。

To help the industry get back on the right track, I’ve created a checklist for car designers. Make sure your new car—EV or otherwise—checks all these boxes to avoid making the same stupid mistakes that have plagued modern cars for years.

为了帮助行业回归正轨，我为汽车设计师制定了一份检查清单。请确保你的新车——无论是电动汽车还是其他车型——都能满足这些要求，以避免重蹈那些困扰现代汽车多年的愚蠢错误。

Accessible exterior door handles.

易于使用的外门把手。

When approaching a car, the door-opening mechanism should be obvious and immediately usable. You should not have to wait for a sensor to detect your presence and then activate some mechanism before the door is able to be opened.

当你靠近汽车时，开门机构应该是显而易见且能立即使用的。你不应该在门能打开之前，还要等待传感器检测到你的存在并激活某种机构。

Physical door opening mechanisms.

物理开门机构。

The thing you pull to open the door should be physically connected to the door-opening mechanism. It’s fine to have the door handle activate an electronic door opener, but pulling that same handle farther and harder should activate the physical mechanism. This applies to both… Interior Exterior.

你用来开门的拉手应该与开门机构有物理连接。让门把手激活电子开门装置是可以的，但如果进一步用力拉动同一个把手，就应该能触发物理开门机构。这同时适用于……车内和车外。

Door handle affordances.

门把手的“可供性”（Affordance）。

In design, “affordance” refers to the possible actions that can be readily perceived. When approaching a door, it should be readily apparent what you must do to open it. You should be able to see the door-opening mechanism, and it should be obvious how to use it. So many modern cars—and especially EVs—fail this test! There’s even a Saturday Night Live sketch about it. And, again, this applies to both… Interior Exterior.

在设计中，“可供性”指的是那些可以被直观感知到的操作方式。当你靠近一扇门时，你应该一眼就能看出如何打开它。你应该能看到开门机构，并且知道如何使用它。太多的现代汽车——尤其是电动汽车——没能通过这项测试！甚至连《周六夜现场》都有关于这个问题的短剧。同样，这适用于……车内和车外。

Physical charge-port door mechanism.

物理充电口盖机构。

For decades, cars have had small doors covering the place where fuel is added. We’ve gotten pretty good at making cheap, reliable fuel-filler doors. When carmakers design EVs, they all-too-frequently decide that the door that covers the charge port should be entirely electronic, opening and closing under its own power in response to a touch-screen input or a finger-swipe somewhere on the exterior of the car. We are currently not very good at making these electronic charge-port doors work reliably. They add nothing to the car beyond extra cost and “pizzazz.” This is a poor trade-off for even the tiniest decrease in reliability of such an important function.

几十年来，汽车上一直有覆盖加油口的小盖子。我们在制造廉价、可靠的加油口盖方面已经非常成熟。然而，当汽车制造商设计电动汽车时，他们太频繁地决定将充电口盖设计成全电子化的，通过触摸屏输入或在车身外部某处滑动手指来自动开关。目前，我们还无法很好地保证这些电子充电口盖的可靠性。除了增加成本和所谓的“噱头”外，它们对汽车没有任何实质贡献。为了这种功能而牺牲哪怕一点点可靠性，都是一种糟糕的权衡。

Turn signal stalk.

转向灯拨杆。

While there are arguments to be made for including various controls on the steering wheel itself, especially in sporty or race-inspired cars where removing your hands from the steering wheel for even a moment might be unwise, a stalk on the steering column is still the best overall choice for activating (and de-activating) turn signals. No experienced driver during normal driving has ever had to spend even a moment searching for the turn signal stalk to activate it, but this happens all too often when using turn-signal buttons on a steering wheel, especially when the wheel is rotated some arbitrary amount at the time the turn signal is needed. Stalks are great. Use them.

虽然有人主张将各种控制装置集成在方向盘上（特别是在运动型或赛车风格的汽车中，因为哪怕片刻离开方向盘都可能不明智），但转向柱上的拨杆仍然是激活（和关闭）转向灯的最佳选择。在正常驾驶过程中，没有经验丰富的驾驶员需要花时间去寻找转向灯拨杆，但当使用方向盘上的转向灯按钮时，这种情况却经常发生，尤其是在需要打转向灯时方向盘处于转动状态下。拨杆非常好，请使用它们。

Physical buttons on the steering wheel.

方向盘上的物理按钮。

Speaking of controls on the steering wheel, when adding these, use physical buttons, not touch-sensitive controls. The driver’s hands are all over the steering wheel during normal use. There should be no possibility that merely brushing against a part of the wheel will inadvertently activate some feature of the car. Furthermore, the driver should be able to feel for controls on the steering wheel without looking at them. Use real, physical buttons and switches on the steering wheel.

说到方向盘上的控制装置，在添加这些功能时，请使用物理按钮，而不是触摸感应控制。在正常驾驶时，驾驶员的手会频繁接触方向盘的各个部位。绝不能出现仅仅因为触碰到方向盘的某个部分就意外激活汽车某项功能的情况。此外，驾驶员应该能够在不看的情况下通过触感找到方向盘上的控制装置。请在方向盘上使用真实的物理按钮和开关。

Physical controls for temperature and fan speed.

温度和风速的物理控制装置。

Climate controls are frequently used. These controls should be physical so their location never changes and so they can be used without looking at them. No, making the climate controls “fixed and always visible” on the touch screen is not the same thing.

空调控制装置使用频率很高。这些控制装置应该是物理的，这样它们的位置就不会改变，并且可以在不看的情况下进行操作。不，将空调控制装置设置为触摸屏上“固定且始终可见”并不是一回事。

Physical controls for air flow and direction.

空气流量和方向的物理控制装置。

Grabbing a vent control and pointing it in the desired direction is much more obvious and efficient than navigating a touch-screen menu and then dragging your finger on a visualization of the car interior to try to direct the air flow. By all means, have electronically actuated vent controls to change the air flow for vents that are unreachable from the driver’s seat, but all vents should be physically controllable by the people who can reach them.

抓起出风口调节器并将其指向所需方向，比在触摸屏菜单中导航，然后用手指在车内可视化界面上拖动以尝试引导气流要直观且高效得多。当然，对于驾驶员座位无法触及的出风口，可以使用电子驱动的调节装置来改变气流，但所有驾驶员能触及的出风口都应该能够进行物理调节。

Physical glove box opening mechanism.

物理手套箱开启机构。

One of the more astoundingly… 其中一个更令人震惊的……