Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles • Hacker News Board

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#681

Post by svachalek » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 6:13 PM UTC

vchak1 wrote: post #643

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. >…

From a user experience perspective, it seems strange to me that one would only consider the driver experience and not include the passenger. I 100% agree with you about the need for tactile non distracting controls for the driver. At the same time carplay controlled by the passengers phone has a lot of value in terms of value add to passengers.

In the case of being driven by the passenger's phone, there's no need for a touchscreen in the car itself.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#682

Post by laughinghan » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

JangoSteve wrote: post #633

smackay wrote: post #631

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of wires and connectors that come with mechanical controls. Everything need to be certified to make sure you don't have a recall of a million or two vehicles because the air-conditioning dials break after 6 months. All that must be crazy expensive compared to solid state electronics.

None of this is untrue with touchscreens. They also have wires and connectors and must be certified.

They have 2. One for power and one for data. Usually they're replacing a lot more than 2 buttons/knobs.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#683

Post by Johnny555 » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 6:17 PM UTC

gerbilly wrote: post #627

mikestew wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're wasting your lives people! The fact that some just want some directions to where they're going, and to listen to some music along the way, hardly represents the downfall of civilization. I'll give you credit for avoiding the temptation to break out the ol' "wake up, sheeple!", though.

> The fact that some just want some directions to where they're going, and to listen to some music along the way, hardly represents the downfall of civilization. Yeah, but on the directions front, it does represent a big loss in self efficacy. I don't rely on GPS, even when travelling to foreign countries. I know people who don't even know the cities they live in. They are living in the phone's world itself, you coul…

On the other hand, the security of a smartphone with maps that cover the world have opened up self-guided international travel to people that may have otherwise limited themselves to guided tours.

I just took a sibling on her first non-guided international trip a couple years ago -- her fear was always getting lost in a strange city, but when she found out how easily her cell phone would help her navigate the city streets and transit systems, she's been on two trips on her own since then and enjoys the freedom of being able to explore on her own with much less worry of getting lost.

Of course, she could lose or break her phone, but then she's no worse off them if she lost a paper map, she'd have to ask for directions, take a cab, or find a new map, but the cell phone gives her the freedom to explore at her own pace.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#684

Post by laughinghan » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 6:18 PM UTC

ThePirateofOz wrote: post #649

JangoSteve wrote: post #633

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of this is untrue with touchscreens. They also have wires and connectors and must be certified.

And every single application loaded and installed, software library, SDK and license has to be rolled up into the BOM for every headunit sold/installed.

It seems obvious to me that one team of software engineers doing testing and diagnostics on a piece of software is way cheaper than training and then paying entire factories to do testing and diagnostics on each button and knob. (Not to mention we're talking about like, volume controls. Not exactly the most complicated and expensive kind of software to engineer.)

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#685

Post by IOT_Apprentice » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 6:19 PM UTC

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. >…

Mazda and other automakers build TRULY AWFUL UIs in their cars. Carplay is a godsend in this case. You can direct Siri to send texts, read texts and you have a superior GPS application. CHeck out the abomination that it Mercedes-Benz carousel for showing/selecting radio stations on their cars.

What you are really advocating is tactile feedback for digital displays--with some method of shaped feedback on by the screen itself. As a touch screen's in cars don't offer haptic feedback, that is an issue. That said some aspects like moving up and down stations or songs in a playlist can be controlled by steering wheel paddles or buttons on the wheel.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#686

Post by anderspitman » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

I'm a huge fan of physical/tactile input (and output) devices. I use foot pedals hooked up to an Arduino for my CTRL/SHIFT/META keys both at work and home, which helps my RSI enormously. I also designed a wearable bluetooth device for adding physical buttons to phones[0] for a school project. I think there's a huge potential for such products, and I'd love to get back to exploring that space at some point.

If you want to get excited about this type of stuff, I highly recommend this TED talk[1].

[0] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lTOxHxHFjwJXeCLROAPf6OJD...

[1] https://www.ted.com/talks/david_eagleman_can_we_create_new_s...

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#687

Post by yakshaving_jgt » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

asdf21 wrote: post #570

yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a tech guy, and a car guy. I love cars. Keep the "features" the hell away from my cars. I don't want to sit about in a mobile cinema. I want a car I can drive . The big touch-screen is a reason why I would not buy a Tesla. The reasons to buy one are economy and performance. Hell, the Prius might have actually been a decent car if it didn't look like a shoe, sound like an overburdened vacuum cleaner, and handle li…

Lol, the Prius is an excellent car, and it doesn't look, sound nor handle as you describe.

You must never have driven any kind of decent car.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#688

Post by rixrax » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 6:22 PM UTC

What car manufacturers could|should do is focus on making Android and iPhone apps that replace these screens. Apps that would update regularly and allow controlling various functions of the car. And have analog controls and small dash etc. display to access | configure systems that are essential for driving and safety, complete with e.g. voice control.

I agree from personal experience that these LCD screens in cars are distracting, and what’s worse, don’t get updates so that in just a few years UIs will feel sluggish and ugly (if not already the day it rolls out of dealership (I’m looking at you Ford)).

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#689

Post by leonroy » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 6:23 PM UTC

pwg wrote: post #578

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. You are viewing the 'need' from the end user perspective. That is likely not the driving force that is causing touch screen proliferation. The likely driving force that is causing it is the manufacturers BOM costs. A single, rectangular, touch screen, that can swallow up a bunch of different knobs and button…

> The likely driving force that is causing it is the manufacturers BOM costs.

Whilst I think this is part of it's about more than just reducing the BOM. There's a trend to move all interfaces from knobs and switches to touch screens even when money isn't the problem. For example the SpaceX Dragon capsule also takes this approach which you can see from the images below:

https://www.spacex.com/crew-dragon

A heavily vibrating vehicle which needs to be operated quickly and with 100% reliability by a human operator really should not be operated via a proliferation of touch screens and touch buttons as the images above show.

I think current fashions are very much to blame in a lot of cases. A sleek touchscreen operated car in the showroom is a sexier buy than your more traditional button festooned dashboard. Buyer's only get a chance to regret it after they've spent a lot of time with the vehicle.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#690

Post by gerbilly » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 6:24 PM UTC

Johnny555 wrote: post #678

celticmusic wrote: post #630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think people are arguing that cell phones and technology is bad, just cautioning for moderation.

I don't think people are arguing that cell phones and technology is bad, just cautioning for moderation. Some people are: I'd argue that life is worse since smartphones were invented, on many axes. and: Now almost everyone has been turned into a phone zombie. You're wasting your lives people!

Yeah that's me quoted above, and yes arguing against smartphones.

I believe smartphones are a net loss to people's happiness.

All of these liberating technologies are fun for the early adopters, but then become oppressive once you are expected to have them. We are quickly reaching that point.

What they really are are surveillance transponders that we carry around voluntarily.