TATA Zest and its Promo ?

The TATA Zest has been running its promos for a while now.
Zest is the first model on Indian roads that came with a Multi-Drive system.

Well ! the Mercedes 3 litre one had a sports mode. But that one just had longer gear throws in the automatic... to allow more revving. Multi-Drive has now become a common feature among newer models. Multiple Engine Maps sit on the ECU (on-board computer). An external toggle switch invokes the sofware mode to activate one or the other engine map, to alter the torque delivery. More about this later.

So the Zest came with the SPORTS MODE and the ECO MODE. The TV promos reached a crescendo around the time we had the IPL this year. It showed us an office going bloke using the SPORTS mode to reach office, on time... Rush hour traffic... Sports mode ?
What do you do with the sports mode in bumper to bumper traffic? Although, to their credit they did show empty Driveways and Promenades !!!!

In this same Ad, this same guy drives around in what looks like a ghat section or an out of town empty road on a weekend... and guess what?.... he uses the ECO mode.... for a sedate drive and save fuel.

That begs the question... why have a sports mode?.. and people who designed this Ad'... do they really drive a car?... I did communicate this to the company.

Now we have a fresh ad... post IPL. It shows Virat Kohli, Chris gayle, De-Viliers, and Shane Whatson... some of the most exciting cricketers now... people who would decemate any attack in this world... people who epitomize power and excitement in the sports arena.... Well ! the ad shows them eyeing the Zest from a distance in an empty sports field. Obviously they can't contain their excitement...they make a dash for it.. Virat takes the wheel...
and
and e n g a g e s the ECO mode and drives around sedately... saving fuel obviously..
stupid !

Why have the SPORTS mode ? and call it ZEST too !!!
Did TATA get the packaging totally wrong ?... in a market that has made some space for cross-overs ... S-cross, Aventura, I-20 also has a version and a few more...
And what about the Ad agency.... shouldn't they be immediately sacked !

Link to the ad below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbJzs__KJz4

The Volkswagon Ameo launch and a few things !

A few things about cars.. of features and promos around here in India.
First.. Volkswagon launched Ameo, the sedan... Following is the first two lines of promo on the inernet:



'The result of German engineering with an Indian heart is here! Say Namaste to the Volkswagen Ameo. With automatic rain sensing wipers. So that unpredictable showers never catch you by surprise'.

Catching you by surprise? Really ! If a rain catches you by surprise.. you are in no condition to drive mate ! That reminds me, Donald Norman (from the 'Design of Everyday Things' fame) somewhere said, Rain Sensing Wipers are one of the stupidest things ever invented by mankind. (not his words exactly... but something to that effect).

Gets you thinking... automatic wipers, voice command switches, steering mounted this and that... all things that make human body more and more immobile. Anybody who does long distance (or long duration) driving should know, that is a recipe for discomfort, fatigue and disaster. Seats too.. Bucket seats !, side support.. am sure side head support to keep your head straight soon.... and ample LEG Room... just see what THAT has done to seat depths. Look at the 'Brezza' back seat. it's just a small bench.. and other models too.

Do designers still remember what is Comfort and Fatigue. We essentially sit on two point loads. See seat pressure maps... see the human skeletal structure.. look up Ischial Tuberosities. We would shift our bums every now and then, if we had to sit for more than 30 mins in one posture. And driver seat consoles are becoming a place for static loading increasingly.... Comfort OR Safety.. or is it comfort really ?

Windows 10 - and Built in Antivirus ?

We upgraded to  Windows 10. Well! we had to... first XP support stopped, then it crashed. Apparently we can't rebuild an XP machine. The system won't pull the updates and support files.. or rather the system won't provide it.
Few Windows 7 we had got automatically upgraded to 10. All our XP Licences became junk. They won't provide upgrades. We HAD to buy new license for Windows 10.

The Pros first:
Windows 10 is faster to start and shut. Generally the machine runs faster.. and lotsa bells and whistles. Apparently a Smart phone like interface and Apps and App store.

Cons ?.. yes we got conned:
A few days and we had the Windows menu disappear. The App store did not work. We had to install an after market menu that is windows compatible. But it looked like Win 98. The calculator stopped working. The Sound disappears from time to time. Networking is sporadic and mostly does not work with XP machines. Most remedies available online do not work. Well ! one can uninstall the sound driver and also 'MUST' check in the 'Delete' driver check box. Then restart windows, the driver self installs and sound may come back. But may disappear again. The Photo Viewer does not work. Microsoft Edge does not work. Some applications may have the Top menu become invisible (white text on white background). All in all an unstable platform. Seems its some way off from being market ready.

Also had some very interesting conversation with Microsoft officials. Of the solutions offered were ' DOWNGRADE TO WINDOWS 7'! and 'DON'T USE THE PRODUCT THEN.. IF YOU ARE SO UNHAPPY'!

But the Mother of all features...
And am really surprised that it has not been flagged by users or competitors so far. 'IT HAS GOT BUILT IN ANTIVIRUS' ...Windows 10 has built in antivirus !  part of the online chat session with support staff (caus we have a group license) was how our Antivirus .. oh! sorry, 'third party' Antivirus may not be compatible.
Wish to draw attention to people or generations that are not tuned in to the Browser controversy with Netscape and the whole 'JAVA' saga... when IE was shipped along with Windows for FREE.. that killed the Platform Free movement.
Is it now the turn of Antivirus. Antivirus shipped with Windows... free free free... Oh! and you may have some compatibility issues with other antivirus and am thinkin... just thinkin... compatibility issues with other applications too ? ... ' its the anti virus sir' Adobe, Corel, Google, Autodesk, Solidworks, PTC, etc etc.. and the ones yet to come up ... will it really be easier to run only Microsoft applications ?
Oh! and we found that our Antivirus was not the culprit.

Satya Vachan !!! Truth be told !!