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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

#701

Post by celticmusic »

c0vfefe wrote: post #675
celticmusic wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm speaking with someone in the car and I detect a potentially dangerous situation, I immediately stop talking to focus. It's hard to explain, but I would say my attention is unfocused and broad. I don't know if this is ultimately safe, but I've never had an issue with it.

Part of the whole problem with distracted driving is that danger is difficult to predict.

I've never had a problem with it, but I also don't look at them while driving, and so forth. Maybe I'm the drunk driver who thinks he can totally drive better when he's drunk, but I've been driving 20+ years and never had an issue.

OTOH, I also evaluate and will not talk if I don't feel comfortable (poor road conditions, etc).

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#703

Post by celticmusic »

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #693
celticmusic wrote: post #620

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a thousand times this. A year or two ago I considered buying another car after I had a fedex semi hit me (turning left from a stop, not dangerous). I drive a 2004 corolla and love toyota, but the guy looked at me like I had grown frog legs when I asked if they had any models without the touchscreen. It was actually a major decision in me keeping my vehicle. I do NOT like the touchscreen, to me it's a complete no-brai…

The giant but not very useful 11in touchscreen in my 2017 Toyota Prius Prime can just be turned off. No really vital functions live in there, it's mostly the (iffy) GPS and settings like the audio source, which I don't need to change much. Almost all the normal things, like temp, lights, cruise etc. are still accessible via physical controls.

I think the big one for me would be radio and temp. I assume no one in their right mind would put lights or cruise control behind a touch screen, but I could be wrong there.

And maybe part of it is me being set in my old man ways, but I don't want a touch screen for any of that. Probably the only 2 things I can see being useful on that screen are the reverse camera and GPS that talks to you and you can glance at it occasionally.

Anything else should have real controls.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#704

Post by ChuckMcM »

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. >…

I too am glad Mazda did this, now I have to decide if I want to trade in my 2018 Mazda 3 for a 2019 one :-).

Touch screens are cheap, mechanical switches are expensive. Mechanicals are expensive from an acquisition cost, tooling/manufacturing cost, maintenance cost, and replacement cost. So automakers were happy to move everything into the touch screen and reduce these costs and boost their margin.

I hope Mazda will be able to hold this line with their accountants.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#705

Post by xeromal »

ilikehurdles wrote: post #516
zaroth wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla indeed has a night mode. Color pallet of the whole UI changes. Day: https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/201... Night: https://cdn-vox--cdn-com.cdn.ampproject.org/i/s/cdn.vox-cdn....

The second link doesn't work at all on my computer. It downloads a 56kb .webp file which doesn't open. I tried to extract the non-AMP url here: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55955575/... . In my opinion, this screen still looks excessively bright, distracting, and the night-time photo really showcases the screen's inability to accurately display dark colors (black still looks washed-out or gray).

You're seeing a photograph of the screen anyways. Of course the camera will wash out the screen.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#706

Post by Phillipharryt »

bumby wrote: post #626
Phillipharryt wrote: post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok perhaps I could change that to "every working button on the shuttle will do the same thing every time I press it". Your mention of zero gravity has brought up another consideration for me. Assuming it's a capacitive touchscreen you need to ensure no conductive material ever floats into contact with it by mistake. Switches and buttons have covers and rails to prevent accidental pressing but how do you manage that w…

I don't think the "every working button" buys you much here because is could just as easily be stated as "every working touchscreen does the same thing every time I press it". The point from reliability engineering is that everything works until it doesn't. The difficulty with software systems is that they often have complexity that is tough to understand all the paths let alone test/mitigate them (see Boeing 737 Max…

?? Touchscreen interfaces almost always have contextual displays. So no touching it doesn't always do the same thing every time I press it. The space where a spacebar is on your phone is the same space that is sometimes the camera button. I think contextual design does not suit important interfaces.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#707

Post by Chris_Chambers »

Shivetya wrote: post #182

Well after owning a Tesla Model 3 I am of the opinion, why in the hell do we need forty plus buttons in cars? Seriously! (Go count your buttons, some cars are higher than that) First off with regards to the touch screen in the Tesla. In the vast majority of drives I never ever touch it. Not once. Why not? Well I have my temperature preference set, I usually play the music that is coming off my phone, and well, what e…

How much were you paid to post this? Serious question.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#708

Post by NegativeK »

raydev wrote: post #490
blattimwind wrote: post #194

It's funny how the dashboard UI of lower-end cars tends to be consistently better than higher-end cars, because low end cars simply have a bunch of buttons that you can use without taking your eyes of the road. Sometimes even the location of controls is much better in low end cars; the VW up! comes to mind with all important controls located directly next to the steering wheel. Beautiful. In other cars just switching…

Ignoring the radio and focusing only on airflow controls: I dearly miss the console in my base model 2006 Yaris. It had 3 Fisher Price-sized knobs that I never had to look at when switching from feet/defog/face, changing temperature, and fan speed. It never stressed me, and each position on the knob had a satisfying clunk. I "upgraded" to a 2017 Subaru and the air controls are laid out with completely flat, indistinc…

The 2017 Subaru I have has freewheeling software knobs for most functions and all of the info is displayed in the near-windshield display. Even when I have to take over from full auto control, it's pretty quick and close to my sight-line.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#709

Post by 725686 »

filoleg wrote: post #652
justinpombrio wrote: post #634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not up for debate; we have evidence that it's dangerous. The NHTSA says: "The available research indicates that cell phone use while driving, whether it is a hands-free or hand-held device, degrades a driver’s performance. The driver is more likely to miss key visual and audio cues needed to avoid a crash. Hand-held devices may be slightly worse, but hands-free devices are not risk-free." Though it doesn't link…

>It's not up for debate; we have evidence that it's dangerous. Just like talking to other people in the car or doing anything else other than driving. I know that I will take a driver getting their messages read out to them over a driver who takes their eyes off the road and glances at the phone. Good is the enemy of the perfect, and I would rather take an attainable good over an unattainable perfect.

... perfect is the enemy of good

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#710

Post by gnopgnip »

ken wrote: post #425
ubermonkey wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 is amazingly good As someone who recently rode in a car with CarPlay and saw two young technology professionals try to use it, I disagree. One of them owned the system and drove it every day it still didn't seem like either one really understood it ("Why's it doing that?" "Maybe because ..."). I agree that all the built-in systems I've seen are terrible, but CarPlay seems like merely the "least bad" impleme…

Carplay would just be for music, navigation, and phone calls. It is only replacing the infotainment system. You should still have buttons or knobs or sliders for the AC/heat, cruise control, defrost, window heaters, seat heat, seat A/C, traction control, and anything else.
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