Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Airbus fly-by-wire flight controls
Raised as a usability problem by 15 people on Hacker News over 14 years (2011–2024), in 11 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Opposing control inputs averaged silently; mismatch warning too low priorityUnreviewed
20112026- Pilots' opposing control inputs are averaged silently, and the mismatch warning is too low priority to show2024-11-06
- Pilots' conflicting stick inputs are silently averaged, so they can't tell why the plane isn't responding2022-12-24
- Pilots can't tell which control law applies, and the system gives misleading or no feedback about input conflicts2017-05-20
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 12 complaints
- Pilots' opposing control inputs are averaged silently, and the mismatch warning is too low priority to show2024-11-06
- Pilots' conflicting stick inputs are silently averaged, so they can't tell why the plane isn't responding2022-12-24
- Pilots can't tell which control law applies, and the system gives misleading or no feedback about input conflicts2017-05-20
- Stall recovery input is opposite in alternate law, so pulling the stick is wrong2016-12-19
- Stall alarm shuts off when stall becomes severe, misleading pilots into pulling up2016-12-19
- Conflicting pilot inputs are averaged, and the only signal is a warning light2016-08-11
- Sidesticks averaged the two pilots' inputs and stall warnings sounded when the aircraft could not stall, so pilots ignored them2014-11-30
- Pilots cannot feel or see the other pilot's sidestick inputs, so silent overrides go unnoticed2014-10-14
- Pilots can't tell who is flying or see the other pilot's inputs, causing control conflicts2014-10-14
- Pilots can't tell the plane reverted to another mode or see the other pilot's inputs2012-07-08
- Pilots cannot see the other stick's inputs and get no clear warning when control mode changes2011-12-08
- Pilot did not understand the aircraft's state, so the control logic confused him during the stall2011-12-08