Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles • Hacker News Board

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#531

Post by CodeTheInternet » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 3:35 PM UTC

They introduce other problems than just distracted drivers.

I took in my Mazda3 to have the screen replaced. There was an issue with the sensors that mistakenly thought someone was touching the screen. At low speeds, when the toch screen re-activates, it would start navigating on its own; from changing music stations to calling people and changing GPS waypoints. Drivers trying to stop this will be more distracted than they otherwise would be. This happens at stop signs, red lights and slow-moving traffic.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#532

Post by geggam » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 3:36 PM UTC

dillonmckay wrote: post #361

baybal2 wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The market already exists: car improvement stuff on taobao is sold by tonnes: from the same independent DC-DC, and ECU interfaces to projection huds, and complete dashboard revamps I still think the bash car dashboard was that of Honda Beat or Suzuki Cara — no dashboard, with just a motorcycle style gauge, and non-driving related controls almost wholely on steering wheel levers.

Any good links for projections HUDs? My cousin had a Pontiac in the late 90s that would project the speed on the windshield.

new bmw 540i has a beautiful hud integrate into the nav system ( rented one in the EU )

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#533

Post by stevenjgarner » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 3:36 PM UTC

While I applaud the human factors engineering of removing touch-sensitive screens, it only applies to vehicles in which there is a driver. We are clearly in the final days of "driving", before the driver becomes just another passenger in the autonomous vehicle. Once fully autonomous, won't the touch-screen interface be the ideal user interface inside a vehicle - familiar, ubiquitous and simple? Wouldn't Mazda be better served in spending their design budget on accumulating the exponential real world autonomous driving data that is giving brands like Tesla an advantage?

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#534

Post by josefresco » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 3:37 PM UTC

How is a heads up display "accessible" for people with limited vision? In the web industry, we kill ourselves to make every color combination fully ADA compliant (in the US) and this involves a limited set of combinations. Not being familiar with the auto industry regulations (does ADA even apply?), I wonder how they (heads up displays) or even touchscreens could be considered accessible. Anyone have insight into how this works? Is the user possessing an active drivers license considered enough to exempt automakers from making their controls accessible to people "with disabilities".

Edit: May have found my own answers. ADA guidlines only apply to buses and other vehicles of that type: https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/transp... And most likely, not the operators.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#535

Post by JoeAltmaier » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 3:37 PM UTC

CodeTheInternet wrote: post #531

They introduce other problems than just distracted drivers. I took in my Mazda3 to have the screen replaced. There was an issue with the sensors that mistakenly thought someone was touching the screen. At low speeds, when the toch screen re-activates, it would start navigating on its own; from changing music stations to calling people and changing GPS waypoints. Drivers trying to stop this will be more distracted tha…

Hey! This happened on Sunday in my wife's CRV! We were going to lunch, and the touchscreen went apeshit, flipping between menus at the speed of light, beeping madly.

And, as you said, she immediately began fooling with it, trying to get it to stop. I had to tell her "Let me do this! You just drive!" Its very, very distracting.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#536

Post by Fins » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 3:37 PM UTC

ubermonkey wrote: post #368

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. >…

>As a User Experience Professional, I was never able to grasp the true user's need for touch screens in cars. Before phone integration, I might've agreed with you, or at least had no opinion on the subject. After watching many car companies, even high-end ones like BMW and Mercedes, fail utterly at producing reasonable phone integration systems or interfaces, though, I'm all-in on CarPlay. >It basically means they ha…

CarPlay might be good, never tried it, but Android Auto isn't all that impressive, whether there is touch screen or not. I did not find it any more impressive with a touchscreen, though.

But I think the bigger problem is that even if touchscreen were a better way of integrating with a phone, it's still a completely wrong way of interacting with anything in a moving vehicle. At least with Audi's classic MMI I could control almost everything without looking at buttons or screen (well, can't quite input addresses that way, but you shouldn't do it while driving anyway). Even apart from all the privacy-sucking implications of at least Android Auto, running infotainment through the phone with touchscreen interface sounds like a terrible idea.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#537

Post by jpindar » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 3:38 PM UTC

moftz wrote: post #318

agumonkey wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a company selling ergonomics improvement kits for cars.

You can buy little bluetooth remote controls that strap onto your steering wheel. They don't look great and you have to charge them. The charge thing is really annoying now that many cars turn off the power outlets when the car is off. I remember never really having a dead battery in my devices because they could just charge while I was parked either at work or running errands.

In many cars that's easy to fix. Just replace one relay with a jumper. Standard wire terminals fit in the relay sockets so it's not a permanent modification.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#538

Post by wvenable » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 3:39 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #534

How is a heads up display "accessible" for people with limited vision? In the web industry, we kill ourselves to make every color combination fully ADA compliant (in the US) and this involves a limited set of combinations. Not being familiar with the auto industry regulations (does ADA even apply?), I wonder how they (heads up displays) or even touchscreens could be considered accessible. Anyone have insight into how…

> How is a heads up display "accessible" for people with limited vision?

Perhaps people with limited vision shouldn't be driving.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#539

Post by gavinmckenzie » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 3:39 PM UTC

I've owned six Mazda vehicles over the past 30 years. Current owner of a 2016 CX-9. The stock behaviour was that the touchscreen doesn't accept touches unless the vehicle is stopped -- though it doesn't require you to put the vehicle in park.

Also, the vehicle has a heads-up-display projected on the windshield. The original HUD included a graphical tachometer so you could see the revs which has limited value except it looked cool and gave you some indication on when you were in boost. In a future update Mazda removed the graphical tach in the HUD citing safety as they felt the constant animating tach in the driver's field of view was a distraction. But, the tach remains displayed if you had it turned on before the update.

The voice command functionality is okay, including for the mediocre built-in navigation, once you learn the specific phrases and commands.

Last fall I upgraded to Apple CarPlay and the behaviour is the same. Touch input only works when the vehicle is stopped. There was a rumour that one of the reasons why CarPlay took so long to come to Mazda vehicles was because Mazda wanted integration with it's rotary command nob, back button, and other function buttons around the knob and on the steering wheel. Not sure if it's true, but I will say that navigating CarPlay with the knob is just fine when driving, and the physical back button allows me to navigate to the previous screen regardless of whether the previous screen is a CarPlay screen or one of the Mazda screens, which is really great.

I know some Mazda owners were upset with these limitations, complaining that it prevented the passenger from operating the screen, but that seems like a corner case.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#540

Post by SECProto » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 3:40 PM UTC

nkozyra wrote: post #379

SECProto wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My car (and many older cars) simple has two knobs. One for temperature, one for location. If you entered a tunnel, you just crank the right hand knob all the way over to defrost. Better than buttons.

Oh I agree, not every action is suited to a on/off toggle, that's why there are so many mechanical interfaces. In a car, the aim should be for logical use without eyes leaving the road much.

I absolutely agree! I just wanted to point out that a knob can be even more intuitive than buttons.