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Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

motorauthority.com

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Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#231

Post by dsego »

pjc50 wrote: post #100
ahartmetz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Touchscreens became fashionable due to the iPhone and iPad hype. Welcome to IT, have a look at the upcoming fashions in the summer catalog.

Once something has been sold to nearly half the population of the planet for a decade or more, you can't sensibly call it a "fashion". Apple were the first people to deploy high quality capacitive multi touch screens to the general public, with a gesture UI underneath for things like pinch zoom. This was an amazing improvement over previous handheld systems.

One username here ends with 1998, which is presumably the year they were born, so a 21-year-old. The original iPhone was released in 2007, when that person was ten. These kids grew up with touchscreens, of course they think it's normal to have them everywhere.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#233

Post by SomeOldThrow »

diggan wrote: post #118
gambiting wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voice input in cars is the worst idea I've ever seen. I've had a brand new Mercedes with the MBUX interface and extensively used Android Auto, and the voice commands just don't work. Half the time I'm sitting there repeating myself like an absolute idiot because the car completely misunderstood what I mean(yes car, "Navigate to Cramlington" totally means "Navigate to Boston, US"). I have so many horror stories of and…

Guess you could call me trilingual (swedish, english and spanish) and I'm having no issues with Android Auto understanding destinations even when my spanish/english is broken as hell, with music playing in the background or engine noises coming from outside. Maybe voice commands are just not ready for polish (guessing Szczepańska is polish) but seems to work fine for at least english and spanish.

I just drove 14 hours this weekend and I can confirm the voice controls are almost entirely useless. If you’re lucky it interprets you correctly and you have a menu to sift through on a screen to pick the right option. If you’re unlucky it just does something without any confirmation. The only success I’ve really had is “direct me to ” and “direct me home”. All other efforts lead me to swear and pull over.

Granted, I was a child map reader and navigator for my parents, this isn’t easy for humans either.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#234

Post by thrower123 »

marapuru wrote: post #47

Praise to Mazda for making this decision. As a User Experience Professional, I was never able to grasp the true user's need for touch screens in cars. For years I have been working on product interfaces (not just apps). Many studies I conducted actually told me that people favored analog controls over digital touch screens controls. It gives you tactile feedback, making it accessible for anyone with sense of touch. >…

Hopefully this is a trend that catches on; I was resolved to never buy a vehicle that had touch screen controls in it, after seeing what a mess Ford had made with the UX in my wife's 2019 Edge, compared to what I have in my 2010 F150.

I think touchscreens are dangerous as hell to have in vehicles, because you cannot operate them by feel alone, like you can with a buttons and knobs interface. People are distracted enough playing on their phones while they drive, so selfishly for my own safety, I don't really want them futzing around with the janky touchscreen display to change the radio or mess with the air conditioning too.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#235

Post by practice9 »

marapuru wrote: post #47

Praise to Mazda for making this decision. As a User Experience Professional, I was never able to grasp the true user's need for touch screens in cars. For years I have been working on product interfaces (not just apps). Many studies I conducted actually told me that people favored analog controls over digital touch screens controls. It gives you tactile feedback, making it accessible for anyone with sense of touch. >…

You would reconsider your point of view if you have seen some truly evil UIs using rotary controls.

Worst thing is when you need a manual to understand how the thing works, and manual DOES NOT specify all the options.

I, as user, would prefer a large touch screen for changing settings and navigating, and several programmable analog buttons for when I'm driving.

Rotary controllers are evil.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#236

Post by rmrfchik »

bigiain wrote: post #167
rmrfchik wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it does not. None of my trips are in calendar. None of my music is in Google Play or any stock music player. And the last thing I need in my car is phone interface.

Let me guess. Motorcycle rider? (_Fellow_ motorcycle rider...)

No, just random guy on KIA RIO. I use my car primarily on weekends, using public transport on work days.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#237

Post by mrmonkeyman »

practice9 wrote: post #235
marapuru wrote: post #47

Praise to Mazda for making this decision. As a User Experience Professional, I was never able to grasp the true user's need for touch screens in cars. For years I have been working on product interfaces (not just apps). Many studies I conducted actually told me that people favored analog controls over digital touch screens controls. It gives you tactile feedback, making it accessible for anyone with sense of touch. >…

You would reconsider your point of view if you have seen some truly evil UIs using rotary controls. Worst thing is when you need a manual to understand how the thing works, and manual DOES NOT specify all the options. I, as user, would prefer a large touch screen for changing settings and navigating, and several programmable analog buttons for when I'm driving. Rotary controllers are evil.

My mazda's rotary controller is heaven on earth thank you very much.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#239

Post by [deleted] »

marvin wrote: post #181

When cars eventually go self-driving, not having a touchscreen will be a big competitive disadvantage. Over-the-air updates of car software will be essential to adapt the driving/transportation experience, also for the existing fleet of cars, as the product matures and manufacturers can use people's experiences to make improvements. This does require part of the car's user interface to be software driven, and touchsc…

[deleted]

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#240

Post by jacquesm »

m_mueller wrote: post #98
jacquesm wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The proper way to do this is by voice input.

Maybe that's a particular Swiss problem, but I suspect it's actually the case in many regions (as strong local accents are a thing): I've never seen voice input that works for place names. My current car has pretty recent technology and its voice input is great for calling someone from address book, it can even understand Japanese names. But Swiss place names? Forget it, it's impossible for the standard German interf…

Pronunciation of the names is the problem, spelling them should resolve that issue completely.
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