I know this is OT, but IMO a remote control for a car radio (as seen in many recent ads) seems to be the most ridiculous device mankind has come up with so far in this century. If you are the driver or front seat passenger, the radio is right there, within inches of your hands. If your back seat passengers want to control the radio themselves, then you have opened yourself up to another "who has the remote" war.- yet one more distraction for the driver. Wasn't the use of cellphones (by drivers) enough of a distraction?
That sets a dangerous precedent. The radio is normally installed well within reach of the driver, and whether the controls are on the steering wheel or at the radio itself - the driver must STILL takes his eyes off the road because a radio has a multitude of controls (volume, tone, tuner, etc.). Further, the buttons on the remote control are very close to each other, just like they are on a cellphone dial pad, making it almost mandatory for the driver to look at the remote rather than the road. It is not just a simple "push-one-button" procedure.
That's good in theory. But in actual practice the ones I've seen won't mount in any position that makes it easy to access their buttons, are unlighted, etc., all of which make them pretty much useless. On my last three aftermarker stereos, I just throw them in the glovebox and never use them.
There are more things to be concerned with, but most of the added gadgets aren't needed. I'm more worried about seeing a driver going down the road while:
talking on a cell phone, eating a Big Mac, drinking coffee, and reading the news paper! "ALL at the SAME TIME"!
i've only ever had 1 stereo with a remote control. it mounted on the rear of the steering wheel, so you could easily get to it, and only had 4 buttons. skip forwards and backwards and volume up and down.
Most of the time I've seen these actually used, there was no one in the car. That is, the hatch and doors were open, people were hanging around the vehicle, and the remote was being used by one of the people outside the car listening to the system.
In general I agree...aftermarket remotes are not very driver oriented. However the basic controls like volume, seek, etc. do make sense on the steering wheel. Once you "know" your car you can do it by feel w/o looking.
that's where I saw the usefulness of them. I have a Eurovan MV and I velcroed the remote above the table in the rear cabin. Yes you have to get up to change CDs, etc. but for the basics like skipping tracks, volume, etc. it's great because you don't have to scoot up front each time you want to to anything to the stereo. Makes sense when camping, etc.
But for the most part unless it attaches to the steering wheel for eyes-on-the-road thumb-operation, I think remotes for car stereos in most cars are more of a silly "impress your friends" gadget than anything else when installed in a typical passenger car. Most aftermarket car stereos, IMHO, are too gadget laden with silly displays, etc. and lame functionality that you don't need like scrolling messages, etc. And all of this results in some pretty un-user-friendly design. My Blaupunkt in my Eurovan is so complicated I can never remember easily how to change the bass, treble, etc. and they spent so much time on making the lightshow display that the buttons and controls are horrendously small. I'd rather have something that just plays the discs I want (CDs and MP3s) and has a relatively simple display and controls and that's all I need.
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