I’m curious about the improvement you’re seeing. Are you thinking of SUV tailgates which are powered and open in a convenient way for folks with their hands full of items? (Like waving a foot underneath, etc.) I can see how this would be a big improvement for users.
In the case of my truck, it’s the same action as before (pull handle and tailgate drops). The only improvement I can see is that it’s slightly less effort to release. My former truck had the manual release but still could be locked with the key fob. If touching the handle caused an automatic opening (and lowering) of the tailgate I would agree with you.
As long as we’re bitching about design, another issue presented itself to me. I’d like to know what changes are made when the dealer updates the “software” on my truck. I recently took the truck for a recall software update (supposedly a critical patch – something to do with traction control inadvertently turning off). After getting the update, I thought my air conditioner was failing on the way home. But apparently there’s another (unlisted) spiffy feature to shut off the cabin fan whenever the system is “talking” or “listening” to the driver via voice control. Using the phone, asking for sound system changes, or any other voice interaction results in the A/C fan stopping entirely. This includes the 30 second wait for a response if it asks the driver something. Took several miles for me to connect the two events. It worked fine before, so I’m puzzled why this was deemed necessary.
I discovered another emergent problem while pulling our camper through the mountains last month. Apparently when I’m in “tow/haul” mode and select a lower gear to descend steep passes, the system applies the trailer brakes in some cases (and there was no indication they were engaged). I normally select a gear that slows me most of the time, with an occasional touch on the brake pedal on steeper sections. With my fancy-pants new truck, it reacts to even slight braking by dropping into the next lower gear – causing a much larger deceleration. I suspect this is also triggering the accelerometer in the brake controller, and it is actuating the trailer brakes. This unintended sudden deceleration continues until the driver applies the throttle (or maybe until it stops, I never waited that long). I got to the bottom of Monarch Pass with overheated and completely faded trailer brakes. I seldom pushed the brake pedal during the whole descent.
Note: it’s an integrated trailer brake controller from the factory. Not something added later.
I suspect the manufacturer needs more system-level testing.
The multi-function pickup truck tailgates I’m familiar with have multiple segments so in effect you have a built-in stgep-ladder to get up into the bed.
First the main tailgate folds down flat just like a 1950s Ford Apache, then a mini-tailgate folds out from inside that tailgate, forming a step.
I own multiple headphones that all have the same annoying feature: when power is low, a message like “low power” or “please charge” repeats, and on most such devices it’s always at the same (high) volume regardless of the volume setting on the device.
Oh and there is no way to turn off this feature.
The result is, I can’t use these headphones to relax and possibly sleep to an audio book or soft music, because the bossy lady might jolt me back to alpha brainwave state.
I bought a large box of mozzarella sticks at Costco. There are two plastic bags inside and they have a zip lock resealer on them, a third of the way down the front of the bag. When I took eight sticks out of the first one, as many as will fit in my air fryer, the level of frozen sticks in the bag was higher than the zip lock port making it very difficult to pinch the sealer closed. With a second batch of eight the level was still above the port, but I could lay the bag on the counter and shuffle enough above the port that I could press the seal shut against the counter.
The second bag I’m going to merely slice the top open then fold it over and apply a clip to hold it.
Many years ago, I had a job that required me to go out of the office and inspect business buildings for property tax purposes. There was a bit of a training course. One of the things they drilled into us was, “If you see an ‘EXIT’ sign, you can push the door that it is on top of.” And given some of the buildings I inspected back then, I was glad of that training. Those buildings were not always safe.
Never forgot that lesson, and to this day, in office buildings and hotels and other places, I always note the EXIT signs. Follow them, push every time, and you’ll get out in case of an emergency.
Even coal mines have Exit signs. They are reflective and green on one side and red on the other. If you’re following the green you’re on your way out. Red takes you deeper into the mine. Learned this from a visit to a coal mine in Southern Illinois years ago.
With all due respect, I’ve got to say that I’m rather surprised by this comment. I’ve done a lot of egress (exit) planning over the years, placing EXIT signs, verifying direction of travel and travel distance, identifying dead-end corridors, designing egress lighting, specifying exit hardware, etc. A lot of this work just assumes that people understand what an exit is.
Are there people who don’t know what an EXIT sign indicates?
BTW, there are strict requirements that doors which may APPEAR to provide egress from a building, but don’t, have to be provided with signs of a certain type and size that say “NOT AN EXIT.”
In the last large high rise apartment building I lived in we had a large multi-level parking garage too. I was rather surprised to find many exit signs in the garage in front of locked doors. Doors to which no resident would have a key. Generally they led into the stairwells that would have given an intruder the run of the residential floors above.
And it is not a requirement that all exit doors swing in the direction of egress. Only exit doors serving an area with a rated occupancy of more than 50 people have to swing outwards. (There are some exceptions to this.)
For example, a conference room that is 600 square feet in size may have an exit door with an exit sign and the door may swing into the room. This is actually pretty common, as conference rooms may have doors to closets, equipment rooms, connected offices, etc., where the actual exit door should be clearly marked.
Yep - there’s an exit door next to my desk at work that leads from our office suite to the hallway. To get out I have to turn the handle and pull. But it’s a small office with maybe a dozen people max working here at any one time. So it’s not likely I wouldn’t be able to get the door open in a stampede.
(Warning! More than most people care to know.) Outswinging doors can cause an encroachment if they open into corridors. If doors HAVE to outswing from a room, we have to carefully measure that encroachment to make sure it doesn’t make the egress path (corridor) too narrow. The solution, which is usually recessing the door, is often undesirable.
For this reason, we often make every effort to keep the room size below 750 square feet (occupant load of 50 persons). For example, if we have planned a training room that will be 800 square feet, we may run a set of storage closets along the end of the room to take off a bit more than 50 square feet. If we get it down to, say, 740 square feet, we can use inswinging doors set flush to the corridor wall.
Plus, doors opening into corridors are an invitation to nose boo-boos.
Knowing what an EXIT sign means isn’t the same as actively noting and being prepared to access a labeled exit in an endless parade of unfamiliar buildings where you are inspecting non-public areas.
People also get complacent, and in an emergency your first thought may not be finding the nearest EXIT sign, it may be to go back the way you came in. That’s the natural thing to do, and is the thing to be avoided.
But the point I’m trying to make is that an “EXIT” sign by itself is not an indication that an exit door pushes open. Door swing and the type of hardware required on a door are completely separate issues from whether it has an “EXIT” sign. And there’s no reason a building owner can’t place an “EXIT” sign on every door in a means of egress (an exit pathway) in the building, regardless of the direction they swing.
TL;DR: Exit sign =/= push door to open
And I apologize to the OP for this detour. I work in the security and life safety industry and I have very strong feelings about the safety of everyone occupying or visiting a building.
Good note. I do reside in Canada, and an EXIT door always pushes outwards here. That was part of my training for that job.
Municipal regulations? Provincial regulations? I don’t know. But all I knew was, to get out of a building, follow the EXIT signs, and push every time.
Interestingly, a local friend was trying to turn a storefront into an 80-seat theatre. The city would not grant a permit. Why? Because the so-called EXITs were not “push to escape.” They (the exits) required turning a handle, like a doorknob, before you could get out. On at least one so-called EXIT, the so-called exit had to be pulled in, and the city informed Local Friend that he had to modify the door so as to push out. He wasn’t willing to make such modifications, so his permit to change the building was denied.
You see an EXIT sign, you push to escape. You should not need to turn a handle. That’s the way it is here in Canada. If it is different elsewhere, then it is different elsewhere. Good luck getting out of a burning building if EXIT sign =/= push door to open. At least, in my country.