Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Rental cars
Raised as a usability problem by 25 people on Hacker News over 12 years (2015–2026), in 22 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
Hunting for controls in unfamiliar rental car interfacesUnreviewed
20152026- Each rental car's unfamiliar built-in UI takes ages to figure out2024-04-23
- Keeps hunting for controls in unfamiliar rental car interfaces2022-08-17
- Rental car controls are hard to figure out, especially at night2017-09-20
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 25 complaints
- Too many buttons make basic things like starting the car hard2026-09-24
- Constant false speeding warnings; had to find and disable it every journey2026-07-08
- Dashboard warnings constantly beep and conflict with maps and road signs2026-07-08
- Constant beeping for misread signs and normal defensive driving, causing distraction and nagging2026-07-07
- Locking doors auto-rolls windows up, and lights stay on after engine off, when the person wanted windows open2026-07-07
- Touchscreen climate controls buried in convoluted menus; speed alerts misread signs and falsely warned of speeding2025-08-06
- Spending a lot of trip time struggling to pair phones with rental car systems2025-06-17
- Each rental car's unfamiliar built-in UI takes ages to figure out2024-04-23
- Must repeat several steps each drive because the car forgets the setting2024-02-12
- Old phone pairings clutter rental car Bluetooth pairing history2022-12-02
- Must manually downshift early to get passing power from automatic transmission2022-08-25
- Keeps hunting for controls in unfamiliar rental car interfaces2022-08-17
- Jog-dial infotainment needs too much visual attention to operate while driving2022-08-16
- Wastes minutes learning each automaker's quirky controls before driving2022-02-02
- Wobbly gear knob is hard to operate, forcing drivers to look at the screen to see the gear2021-12-27
- Navigation system failed to understand multiple speakers' voice commands, forcing manual operation2021-02-07
- Different car models make every trip require figuring out seat, mirror and control setups2020-07-15
- Constant beeping with no obvious source; beeps at every mile over the limit2020-01-15
- Seat switches are not obvious and the controls for moving the seat down are hard to figure out2019-07-04
- Complex screen navigation makes commander nervous when trying to play music2019-06-17
- Rental car touchscreens barely function and lag badly2019-05-20
- Bluetooth is present but all options are grayed out, so it cannot be used2018-12-28
- Must repeat searches for each rental location and cannot search an area on a map2018-04-02
- Rental car controls are hard to figure out, especially at night2017-09-20
- Having to pull a physical key from pocket and turn it is inconvenient2015-03-18