David Coveney

A personal blog transitioning into an exploration of the intersection of design, technology and ethics

Tag: Car

  • Hertz doubled the cost of my car rental. Here’s their process design trick.

    Hertz doubled the cost of my car rental. Here’s their process design trick.

    This year, during my family holiday, I discovered how Hertz – and many other car hire companies – have crafted a process involving dark patterns to trick stressed travellers into paying far more than necessary for their car hire. I’ve used Hertz several times over the years, particularly in the 2000s, so I expected good…

  • Taller buildings let us design better towns

    Taller buildings let us design better towns

    I lived in a range of places as a kid, partly because my father was a bit of an itinerant who didn’t know what he wanted in life, other than that I mustn’t live with my mother. Go figure. Eventually I got to settle down with my grandmother, but in the process I learned a…

  • Don’t design in customer traps on your systems

    Don’t design in customer traps on your systems

    You know that friend, the one who always promises to help you move flat, or help you fix your mower, but then doesn’t turn up? Yes. Or the guy who goes on a date and pays for the meal and somehow that comes with access to your body? Or the airline that makes you think…

  • A new manifesto for the web

    A new manifesto for the web

    This blog post has now been re-arranged with the manifesto at the top, and the reasoning that led up to it beneath. Because, after all, placing the important content six or seven hundred words in is hardly being pure, is it? Web Dogma 24. By me. Content First. All articles, images, and graphics must be…

  • AI is predictive, not intelligent

    AI is predictive, not intelligent

    I hope you haven’t missed the big AI revolution going on right now? No? Yes? YES? You have no idea about it? Where do you live? On Mars? Ah OK, you were kidding. AI is being talked about everywhere, new devices like the Humane AI Pin or the Rabbit R1 are very much about it,…

  • Design Dilemmas: When bathrooms become battlegrounds

    Design Dilemmas: When bathrooms become battlegrounds

    In the world of transgender rights, the battle for the bathroom has reached fever pitch, especially in the USA. Now, I’m not here to referee in this brawl – because on one side of the debate you have the ‘TERFs”, and on the other, the trans rights activists sometimes labelled “handmaidens”. Both are terms about…

  • The astonishing power of modern computing

    The astonishing power of modern computing

    Being very old (or at least, that’s how I feel being in tech!) means that after coming up to nearly forty years in technology, I’ve seen some changes. My first computer at home, that I owned, that I could truly call my own, was a Dragon 32. It was a small, 32KB computer using the…

  • Recovering from a heart bypass. The physical and mental challenges.

    Having a coronary artery bypass isn’t much fun and comes with challenges. Four years later I thought I’d describe some more of my experiences.

  • Are VW in trouble with their electric car strategy?

    Are VW in trouble with their electric car strategy?

    Could VW really be in trouble, if they’re cancelling a factory and pushing back a car launch? I don’t think so, but they’re not entirely in the clear…

  • Steps and missteps on my path out of poverty

    Steps and missteps on my path out of poverty

    At 18 I was skint and got made homeless. It took a lot of graft, patience and mistakes to get out of that and into a moderate middle class lifestyle. Here’s how.