4449

Good lord, you and me both. Is it generational? It would take a ingle Google search to find the definitive answer, or maybe just grab the manual out of the glove box.

4450

Based on the number of times over the past few decades that a stranger has come up to me in a theater lobby, point to a Now Playing selection, and ask if that movie was any good, I’m gonna guess no.

4451

I wonder if Matty didn’t own a car or something? I know he’s a die hard DC resident, and die hard public transit advocate, so it’s possible he just didn’t own a car until now (or he’s seeing it on a rental or something).

The rental theory could also explain why he didn’t look it up – there’s usually no manual in the damn rentals.

4452

We recently (in July) bought our first new car in like two decades. Bought a 2022 CX-5 - traded in a 2002 Camry. I have had to do a whole lot of Googling to find out what assorted lights and indicators meant, because our 20 year old Camry didn’t really have many. I had no idea what the indicator in the linked post meant either until I read it in this thread. I don’t think it’s fair to consider someone “out of touch” because they’ve never seen a specific warning light.

That said, yeah, when I don’t know something, I Google it first.

4453

I think the point is that Yglesias is a person with minions, so he’ll use those minions to crowdsource his queries, without a second thought.

4454

I use google for everything, but when it comes to dashboard indicators, I’m generally gonna open up the owner’s manual in the glove box.

4455

What kind of car do you drive that has a clearly organized owners manual where good information is easily accessible? I tried this once for a dash indicator light like 15 years ago and all I got was (paraphrased) “something is wrong with the engine, take it to an authorized [brand-name-here] service center.”

Since then it’s been google and a cheap bluetooth adapter that lets my smartphone read engine fault codes.

4456

That’s what I did when I first saw that symbol (my previous cars didn’t have it, this 2010 model car I got in 2016 is the first one that has it). I figured it was tire pressure just because it only appeared for the first time on a cold morning. And after looking at the owner’s manual, I was right.

4457

A honda?
I think there’s a section on dashboard indicators.

4458

Unless you’re driving some third-world brand, every car manual is going to have a section about indicator lights.

4459

I think it should be possible to make a little icon of a deflated tire that isn’t as confusing as the one they came up with. I think it’s the top of the image that opens up like a U that causes the problem.

4460

I suggest a circle with treads and a frown in the middle.

4461

Right? You have to understand that it’s showing you a cross-section of the actual tire, which is something a lot of people never get the first time around. It’s a bad icon. Show an actual flat tire from the side like you’re looking at it and most drivers would understand.

4462

My friend poked fun at me for googling instead of looking in the manual, so we had a little contest (her suggestion, not mine). There was an indicator that neither I nor she knew what it was (I’d only had the car about a week at that point). She said she’d look in the manual while I looked it up online and we’d see who found it first. She pulled the two inch thick manual from the glovebox and had barely even found the section where the answer might have been, while I had found the answer online already.

I find for these types of simple questions adding the word “reddit” to the question finds the answer much faster, otherwise you’re likely to find content free AI generated webpages these days.

Oh, I didn’t get that takeaway. I thought people were complaining that he’s so wealthy he’s never had to drive himself around or something, and therefore did not recognize dash indicators.

4463

You’d think this would be an easy candidate for Google Lens, but it’s totally flummoxed by it. It seems to be confused by a) the blue background and b) the superficial similarity to a power icon.

4464

Sad but true for almost all my Google searches these days. It really has gone to shit.

4465

Holy shit. Today I learned…

4466

It’s fun contrasting Yglesias’ persona as a public intellectual, a man whose thoughts are read by presidents, with his Twitter posts that betray him having trouble with basic life stuff:

4467

Most of those tools were left by the prior tenant, weren’t they? I’m also pretty sure that drill goes in that case. The six screwdriver rack with the one multi-bit driver is a really nice touch. I think I have that exact screwdriver in IT room in the office.

Though I give the man credit. You have to start somewhere.

4468

Love one of the replies: