I think at this point, it’s pretty well established that we, as a species, are just about done with having all of our car’s controls accessible via menus and icons on a touchscreen. Opening glove boxes? No one wants that on a touchscreen. Vent adjusting controls? Just keep them physical. I feel like automakers have tried this, pushed it pretty hard, and the public has spoken, saying knock it off, already. I suppose that’s why I find this touchscreen-based control on the recent Maserati GranCabrio to be so very confusing and disappointing, and so I’m going to kvetch about it to you, because that’ll solve everything.
The controls I’m talking about are the ones to open and close the convertible top, and not only did Maserati decide to put these controls on a touch screen, they also decided to use a type of gestural control that requires even more unnecessary focus and attention, and I think they’re even deluding themselves about how it all works.
Not having spent much time in Maseratis lately, I only just found out about these controls thanks to our pal Doug’s video, which I’ve cued up to the appropriate spot. You’re welcome:
See what’s going on there? Perhaps taking a cue from hookup apps, Maserati has decided that to open and close the convertible top on the GranCabrio you need to touch an icon on a bar at the side of the touchscreen window, which then brings up a profile view of the car you’re currently sitting in, and from there you swipe left or right to get the roof to go up or down.
Here’s another video of it in action:
I don’t understand why anyone thought this was an improvement over something like the usual rocker-type switch that most other modern convertibles use, like, say, this Jaguar F-Type:
This touchscreen-based finger-swipe method requires an extra step (clicking the cabrio button to bring up the image of the car), and requires a lot more visual focus and attention to use than just feeling around with your hand for a little rocker switch like that one above and pulling or pushing it. The Jaguar method there doesn’t take any visual attention, really and does the job just fine. So what’s the advantage of doing this all on a touchscreen?
Maserati seems a little delusional about this method, too. Look what they say in their press release about the car:
“No need to take your eyes off the road?” I’m calling bullwastes on that one. There’s no way you’re finding that on-screen button by feel because it literally has no feel, and once you get to the picture of the car, you’ll need to use your eyes to see where to swipe. And it takes 14 seconds? Remember, you have to be holding your finger on that screen the whole time, so maybe you’ll be able to not move your finger even a tiny bit at speeds of 30 mph while driving and somehow not looking at that screen, but I’m pretty skeptical.
I’m in good company, too, because Maserati’s own owner’s manual for the GranCabrio says don’t do this while driving, dummy:
The manual says to only do it when stationary, right there in big red letters. But you know how you probably could do this procedure pretty safely at 30 mph or so? If the control was a damn little switch you could just feel with your finger that didn’t rely you to look at anything at all while it’s in use.
So, what did Maserati accomplish with this control? Requiring you to focus your visual attention on a screen to swipe your finger across a picture of the car you’re driving just so it can feel like swiping on a hot person you want to bone, or something like that?
This is stupid. Maserati should feel a little stupid as a result, and consider changing this dumbassery to a nice little tactile switch that you don’t even need to look at.
Enough already with this crap.
Won’t matter once the top stops working anyway
They could replace this with a rocker switch and I still wouldn’t buy one of these.
Press-and-hold is evil, this is evil.
Maserati didn’t do this… Stelantis did it. Maserati ceased to exist the day those morons bought that company.
thanks to our pal Doug’s video, which I’ve cued up to the appropriate spot. You’re welcome:
But that’s the part of the video where he’s talking….
$200k+ and they can’t spend .50 on a switch? “Why won’t anyone buy our cars?” How can people this stupid be in charge of anything?
Jesus fucking Christ.
Not that I would ever buy this, but I think what irritates me most is that this is a money-saving tactic and how un-premium it is. If Ford wanted to do this on the Mustang, well, it would still be annoying, but at least that’s a car where profit margins are thinner. But this is a Maserati. You’re telling me you couldn’t find extra room in the budget for, of all things, a physical switch to control the top? Fuck outta heah with that!
amen
I can put the top down in my miata in approximately 2 seconds with 1 hand, by feel.
I can put mine back up in about 2 seconds too. I’d even venture to guess that we could brake from 50km/h to a stop, put the top down, and get back to 50km/h in the 14 seconds that it takes to get the Maserati top up or down.
Came here to say that same thing about my 03 Z4. Can’t beat the classics in the simplicity and manual everything. Lighter, less likely to fail and faster to use.
This could have just been a Mad Lib:
“Maserati ______ a _______ for ______ that no one asked for or even wants.”
Or, rather, a different Mad Lib:
“______ the Maserati ______ that no one asked for or even wants.”
Because, really, who is buying their cars? They had a lot of success when they were blowing out Ghiblis on cheap lease deals, and look how that turned out.
Maserati is *supposed* to be Stellantis’ premium-plus brand, positioned above Alfa Romeo and DS, and competing for prestige with Porsche and the Range Rover sub-brand.
Instead, it’s a joke that can’t even compete with Audi, BMW, or upstart Genesis, let alone Porsche.
Monumentally stupid. Even my lowly 1-series BMW only requires one touch of the easily located by feel buttons to open or close the top. I can only do it up to 20mph, but BMW says in the manual that it’s OK to do it on the move.
Making this a swipe instead of a button push = Tier 1 Stupidity
Forcing you to then HOLD that gesture for 14 seconds = Tier 2 Stupidity
Allowing the mechanism to operate at speed and then advising in the manual to never do this while moving = God-level Omega-Type Tier Stupidity
i will continue to fight for manual top supremacy- so manual that even when the top frame is folded into the storage compartment, the cloth top still needs tucking and shaping
Eh, I had a convertible with a motorized roof for 7 years. The motor is nice when you get caught with the top down in unexpected rain. Unless it is something Miata sized that you can reach back and flip-up the top from the driver’s seat (mine was a Mustang, so not possible) I’ll take motorized.
A manual top is fine on a little 2-seater like a Miata or Alfa Spider where you can flip it up and down while seated. Not-so-much on a 4-seater with a properly insulated top that is actually civilized on the highway with the top up. Those things are HEAVY. Seriously heavy in the case of my BMW and Saab convertibles. I had to do the Saab top manually once due to an electrical issue, and it SUCKED.
The top for my Spitfire is the worst of both worlds. It barely provides weather protection, and it’s aerobic exercise running around getting it in place breaking fingernails on the snaps. So I only put it up every five years or so. Though at least it’s not a kit of sticks and a bit of cloth like some other LBCs.
The Boxster RS must really appeal to you. Personally I like having a motor moving my top.
i have an e30 cabrio and e30 droptops have been my only experience with convertibles so im biased haha
Added member benefit! Time to renew!
“Autopian staff will watch and show you if there are any interesting bits in a DeMuro video”
I appreciate Doug as much as any too-online gearhead weirdo can, but forcing any person to fully watch his videos, all 25-30+ minutes of them, is practically torture. Even the strongest minds would be utterly broken by that experience.
It makes sense that the CIA’s torture manual includes a non-stop marathon of DeMuro videos, with the volume on full blast every time he says “Quirks and features” and “ALLLLLRIIIIIGHT”.
Watching a DeMuro production passes from torture to crime just past the thirty second mark.
All joking aside, I’ve been rewatching some of Doug’s older videos, like 6-8 years ago, and it’s amazing to see how different they are. Most of them are only 15-20 minutes, sometimes 25, but it feels so much faster. It’s so much tighter and flows so much better. He isn’t using 40 words when 10 will do, he isn’t constantly saying “Quirks and feataahhhs” and he isn’t talking about a specific part of the car, but then before moving on to the next part, immediately saying “And THAT is how that part of the car works.” He does that every single damn time he talks about an interior “quirk”.
I have no problem at all with longer YouTube videos…if they merit that length. But it just feels to me like either
A. He’s just stretching things out as long as possible to get more ad revenue, or
B. He saw people making online jokes about “Quirks and feataahhhs” and “CAAAAARS AND BIDDDDSS” and “THIIIS!” and “Allllriggght!”, and he loves the attention so much that he thinks he has to put those gags into his videos as often as possible.
It could be either, or a combination of both, and I genuinely have no idea which it is.
As a convertible owner – That would put me off buying the car.
It’s one thing to hold a switch when I’m buckling up and pulling out of my parking space.
It’s another thing entirely to hold my finger on a fucking screen while I’m doing all that.