When I was in high school, we counted the days until we could drive. Now so many students don’t get a license. I don’t think it’s the cost (at least in my area) … they just are completely content having people drive them and don’t want the responsibility. We wanted the freedom. And they can’t be bothered. I… don’t… get… it…

Edit: so, I hear you and I understand the logistical reasons: cars are expensive, dangerous, we have Uber now. But kids still don’t want to get in a car with friends and get away from their parents? Go to a concert or the beach or on a road trip? I’ve asked students why the don’t have licenses, but asking if they want to be free to go where they want with their friends would lead to angry parent phone calls, or being fired.

Edit 2: are kids doing some things we us do with friends (first concerts) with parents instead and have no need to drive themselves? And to clarify, I work with kids who are younger, and have some chances to ask them this, but most students are too young.

Idk how I didn’t think to check earlier considering it’s a 50 minute drive one way… I don’t think I’ll go back lol.

help

Hey all,

I wanted to raise awareness to a major disappointment that Nintendo's Tear of the Kingdom launch has provided: reports on the web suggest that some new Tears of the Kingdom Switch Pro controllers are suffering from a defect like the joy-con drift problem was.

In June 2020, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa publicly apologized for the mass defect problem that riddled joy-cons on the Nintendo Switch: https://www.polygon.com/2020/6/30/21308085/joy-con-drift-apology-nintendo-president and mentioned that Nintendo is aiming to continuously improve their products.

A later study in December 2022 would state towards the cause of the joy-con drift: the implemented dust-proofing cowls offered "insufficient" protection against "dust and other contaminants," and the "plastic circuit boards exhibited noticeable wear." i.e. that dust would be allowed to enter in as the joy-cons aged. https://gamerant.com/nintendo-switch-joy-con-drift-design-flaw-study/

In November 2021 Nintendo of America's Doug Bowser promised that Nintendo was making "continuous improvements" to their joy-cons: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/11/doug-bowser-comments-on-the-battle-against-joy-con-drift-says-nintendo-are-making-continuous-improvements

A number of lawsuits were raised over the issue. The most recent class lawsuit Nintendo won earlier in 2023 because their EULA states that as a customer, you are not allowed to sue them if you agreed to use their products. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/02/nintendo-wins-switch-joy-con-drift-class-action-lawsuit

Fortunately US customers had been offered a free repair service for joy-cons already in 2019, and now finally also customers in Europe have been made whole a month ago in 2023 when European Union forced Nintendo to provide a free joy-con repair program: https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-offers-unlimited-free-repairs-for-joy-con-drift-issue-in-europe-062645235.html

This would be the end of the story and all would be good: hardware design defects happen, Nintendo offered to repair all the defective products, and new products would be sold fixed from the defect?

Well, unfortunately not quite. It has now been widely documented that not only joy-cons suffered from drift, but also the newly released Tear of the Kingdom themed Switch Pro controllers can have a defect that causes a similar drift of the thumbsticks. Unlike "wear from aging", this defect however is present on brand new devices out of the box, so is not attributable to same explanation that was used for joy-cons.

A subreddit thread at https://www.reddit.com/r/zelda/comments/13h1kf4/totk_anyone_who_has_the_totk_pro_controller_had/ contains dozens of reports, and several similar notes can be found in many other reddit comments as well.

With joy-cons it is reported that the drift problem will exacerbate itself as time progresses. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/switch/189706-nintendo-switch/answers/584412-does-joy-con-drift-get-worse-over-time

It is unclear at this point if this same kind of worsening behavior affects the Switch Pro controller - after all the claimed root causes seem to be different (wear of age vs brand new controller)

There have been a surge of downplaying articles, like this one https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/05/psa-zelda-totk-pro-controller-drifting-after-a-few-hours-it-might-just-need-recalibrating that suggests that "you just need to calibrate it". From first hand experience, I can tell that the above article is not correct. Calibration will not help all users, and in fact, the calibration process that Nintendo offers is currently riddled with critical software bugs to even make it possible to try for some users: https://www.reddit.com/r/zelda/comments/13h1kf4/comment/jlxk3bw/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

If the issue is similar as with joy-cons that the Switch Pro controllers will get worse over time, then it is not likely that calibration will provide a 100% remedy for any user.

Reading the wording of the EU repair program decision, it is unclear if Nintendo is liable for a free lifetime repair of Switch Pro controllers as well, or if the current repair liability is limited to joy-cons only: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_2106

Dear Nintendo's Shuntaro Furukawa and Doug Bowser: it is hard to place faith in your apology, and your promise to continually improve your products does not seem to hold true. Instead you seem to be well aware that the controllers you are still manufacturing and selling today are defective. Under European and US law, when you sell an item that you know to be defective, leading the buyer to believe that the item is sound, you may be committing fraud.

We get it, your legal team is stronger than Ganondorf, but your sales behavior comes off equally as unethical on this account. This is not ok. Hopefully you will agree, and clarify the free joy-con repair program will also cover Switch Pro controllers.

When will you announce you have made stick drift testing be part of your quality control, and start selling controllers that are free from stick drift in the first place?