Any chance you were just in an RF hotspot? Where there’s so much EMI the comparatively weak NFC transmissions are drowned out?
Having parked next to airports a lot, I’ve seen that. Fob or Bluetooth or plain old 3G or 4G mobile back in the day isn’t happy in this part of the parking lot but is happy in that part.
My car has the ability to install a digital key in my phone, so the phone’s NFC transmitter can substitute for the key. The upside to that as a backup is my phone is probably a more powerful NFC transmitter than my fob(s). If your truck can do the same, that might be a further form of just-in-case insurance.
That could be part of the problem. I camped in an unfamiliar park outside of my normal stopping point (town) on this journey. I was having a lot of trouble getting Android Auto to stay connected and play my audiobook the last few miles. I wonder if there’s something in that spot. Heading back soon and I’ll watch for both the bluetooth interruptions and any weirdness with the fobs.
I think there are still a few high power point-to-point microwave links out there in the less populated parts of the world. Which dishes tend to be mounted on the highest accessible ridgelines around. But the beam may also skim the top of an intermediate ridgeline. So you can experience EMI even though there’s no tower to be seen nearby
Here in absolutely flat Miami we have one extra tall freeway overpass that passes over an existing 3 or 4 layer freeway interchange. You’re waaay up in the sky for about 1-1/2 miles total. And near the apex there’s a spot about 1/4 mile long where any mobile phone call drops and the Sirius XM satellite streaming falters. Every time.
My theory is we’re climbing up into the beam of some point-to-point radio link. Plenty of antenna towers in town that are as high or a higher than that overpass.
Normal phone displays typically only show the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), often even abstracted away even further as bars of signal, but it’s possible to get the phone to show you the raw data. On the iPhone, this is known as “Field Test Mode”, seems on Android this is not an OS level feature but there are free apps that can also display this?
Since the advent of information screens in cars, I have driven many different cars. Several that I’ve owned and a whole mess of rentals. The quality of the UI has varied across the brands and over time, but I can’t think of one that hasn’t been at least reasonably descriptive in what options are available and how to adjust them.
My wife’s new car was a little irritating as even though it’s the same brand as my car and her previous +1 vehicle, the grouping of the menus is a bit different. And not in a way that made me immediately think, “Ah yes, this is better.” Just different. But it was one and done to set things the way I wanted and I haven’t thought about it since.
Recently got a low tire pressure warning in my car. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to reveal the tire pressure window. There are 3 different displays - one to my right, on top of the dash in the center of the car, one below that - which I consider “the radio”, and another right in front of me seen through my steering wheel. The one in front of me usually shows my speed, the one to my right - remaining driving range (and cruise control/driver’s assist when engaged). There are 2 different “INFO” triggers on the steering wheel - one is a button on one of the steering wheel’s spokes, another a paddle under the spoke - surrounded by up and down arrows. The radio is operated by touch screen.
Suffice it to say it was neither intuitive nor easy to figure out which combination of steps revealed the air pressure. In fact, the first time I received the warning, I had to force myself to stop trying to figure it out, as it was causing a distraction while driving.
Now I regularly go to the air pressure window, to remind myself of where it is, to keep an eye on whether the tires are holding pressure, and to pat myself on the back for eventually figuring it out!
Hmm. On mine you push the physical “Home” button to bring up the main menu. Then it’s Car >> Vehicle Status >> Tire Pressure Monitor. Which items you can select with the cursor control or by tapping the screen with your finger.
That screen also automatically pops up when the car first notices a low tire.
Car makers have been in the software business long enough to have employed a few UI design specialists by now. I shake my head at some of the things I see in rental cars.
My Toyota Rav4 has no descriptive words at all, just the acronym. And it is hard to figure out even where to search since the buttons have unique symbols that lead to the acronyms that you can look up in the owner’s manual. Recently I was trying to remember what one button does so I pushed it a few times. Nothing happened that I could tell. The symbol is the nose of the car with ((( lines in front. Horn? Nope. Turns out to adjust the distance you are following a car in front and is listed in the manual as ACC, Adaptive Cruise Control.
I’ve owned one car with a sunroof, and six with moon roofs.
As others have said, a sunroof is opaque roof material (usually metal), and a moon roof is glass with an opaque slider shade underneath to block the sun. All of them have also fully opened.
I don’t actually open sunroofs or moonroofs all that often, but I really like moonroofs with the glass in which I can slide open the opaque shade and see sky. That’s because I feel claustrophobic otherwise.
(I sometimes wonder if it’s residual PTSD from being on a submarine years ago and not seeing the sky for months on end. I really like to be able to see the sky now.)
And with that said, I did have one moonroof leak when a drain reportedly clogged and cause some significant water damage to the vehicle. The floor carpet got soaked and it shorted out the sound system which was inexplicably on the floor under the front passenger seat. I actually ended up trading in the vehicle to the dealership over this. So I guess there is a pretty significant potential downside.
I never saw the attraction of being on a ship, let alone inside one of those cigar tubes for extended durations. Every sub sailor I ever knew was a bit goofy, and not in a good way.
Or a target market for those who can use the large cargo capacity gained by removing the third-row seat. I found that extra cargo capacity very useful on many occasions, and loved minivans so much that I had two in a row. Everything from a large-screen TV to literally all the materials for building a large deck were transported in the van (the latter I believe in several loads) plus a full winter’s supply of firewood. And despite all the space, I needed a rooftop carrier when going to a country cottage for a week, mainly because much of the space was taken up by a very large Bernese Mountain Dog.
Today I’m fine with an ordinary sedan because I’m just too damned old to be hauling around large heavy objects.
Same here, I love moon roofs, I wish more car models were available with the option. It evens out the light/dark contrast looking out the windshield when driving and feels in general less fatiguing on the eyes.