Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls • Hacker News Board

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#211

Post by fitzn » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 5:32 PM UTC

isaacaggrey wrote: post #28

> Honda has done what no other car maker is doing, Huh? The author is not familiar with Mazda - their latest models of the CX line (possibly others) have full control of the interface with a very functional physical knob / dial along with other tactile controls. Also, the headline is a bit misleading - they aren't removing touchscreen controls entirely - only removing them from "some" controls as their preface text i…

Yes, thank you. I was thinking the exact same thing. I was positive I read an article last year about how Mazda was doing away with touchscreens. I think someone just pasted the Mazda article above.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#212

Post by vidanay » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 5:32 PM UTC

thedance wrote: post #129

Shivetya wrote: post #92

I will defend the screen in the Tesla 3, the simple fact is that you really never have to use on your typical drive and yes muscle memory works for simple UIs like what the Tesla employs. Compared to 40+ buttons in my previous Volt AND a screen. Many cars have that many or more buttons and this is easier? Where screen's become distracting is when the UI is shit, having more than one or two clicks to do anything, and…

The backlit display on the Tesla 3 is wayyyyy too bright for night driving, even at its lowest backlight intensity and in night mode. It is like they intentionally ignored all available human factors research. Tesla is not alone here. Many automakers these days have too-bright interiors for night driving.

I've been turning the dash light intensity almost all the way down for 30+ years. They've always been too bright. If the Tesla is as bright as you say, it would literally be undriveable for me at night. (No screens or touch in either of my 18-20 year old vehicles)

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#213

Post by jkbr » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 5:32 PM UTC

Apple should follow and ditch the Touch Bar. Also, the excellent The Best Interface is No Interface book [0] talks quite a bit about unnecessary touch screen controls in cars and related topics.

[0] http://www.nointerface.com/book/

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#214

Post by Ambroos » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

closeparen wrote: post #125

woozyolliew wrote: post #23

Always seemed like a cargo cult: iphone good; touch good; buttons bad (steve said). Let’s hope it’s a new trend! I love that my Audi still has tactile buttons and wheels, and was a big factor in choosing it. My previous car had a touch screen and it was so dangerous having to brace my hand for accuracy and stare at my fingers while driving.

How do you feel about the MMI scroll wheel? I don’t feel safe using that either; it still requires eyes on the screen to see what you’re selecting. Even my passengers, who can give it their full attention, are routinely stymied by the process of pairing their phones for Bluetooth audio playback. At least I can get the volume and temperature knobs by feel.

I think the MMI interface, in one specific generation (the one just before they introduced the touchscreen, where the four-corner buttons were dropped), has one big advantage: you learn the amount of clicks things are away.

It's been over a year since I had an Audi A3 with the system, but I still remember that going from anywhere to Android Auto would be pressing home, then just giving the wheel a big turn clockwise, then back one click counter-clockwise and confirm. You got used to the common operations, and you could do them blindly after a while. In a moving car, a touchscreen is almost always problematic because you need to see if your finger is going the right direction to compensate for car movements.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#215

Post by cbhl » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

hnarn wrote: post #138

Look at the cockpit of any modern airliner and you will see screens, but they are never interactive. There are hardware buttons, dials and lights all over the place. A tactile interface is both more obvious, sturdy and more stable, and therefore safer. The problem that touch interfaces solve, ever since the advent of the first smart phone, is that the interface is now dynamic. You can change it without having to repl…

Sure, but there are still tons of touchscreens in the cabin -- controlling the climate, the lighting, and the playback of the safety video.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#216

Post by gizmo385 » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

CryptoBanker wrote: post #204

aembleton wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to see everything controllable through the touch screen, but then have plenty of physical buttons and knobs that can be programmed to map to elements on the touch screen. That way, if there is a software update; and there is a new feature it can be mapped to a button by the user in the way that they want.

Unreasonable, IMHO, for a car meant for consumption by the masses. Few people actually care about that stuff in the real world

Then provide a reasonable set of defaults and then most folks don't have to worry about it :)

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#217

Post by vidanay » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

black6 wrote: post #106

samizdis wrote: post #8

Eminently sensible call by Honda. Knobs, dials and switches work well and do not demand that a driver takes their eyes off the road. I suppose that voice controls would be a reasonably safe tech option, but probably not cost-effective.

I'm still waiting for the convenient floor-mounted headlamp dimmer switch to come back.

I don't know of any teenagers who re-wired that switch to cut off the license plate lights....no, none.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#218

Post by loriverkutya » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

Robotbeat wrote: post #175

pubstik wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your metric is safety, control, and effectiveness, there is not an argument. Touchscreens are a cost saving measure, not a feature.

> "Touchscreens are a cost saving measure, not a feature." That's why there are so many high-end phones with lots of buttons.

"If your metric is safety, control, and effectiveness, there is not an argument"

not really the metrics for high-end phones

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#219

Post by modzu » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

hallelujah!

the controls were a big reason i got a subaru; its a car you can drive the ____ out of with eyes on the road/dirt/gravel. the layout on the honda looks astonishingly similar. i duno how it is formalized in business terms, but it seems neat how all the japanese auto companies seem to cooperatively share tech

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#220

Post by ferongr » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #154

thedance wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I am familiar with why you want location data in photos. I am not familiar with any justification for why this data cannot be acquired from my mobile.

It possibly could be done in real-time using Bluetooth but I doubt it would be reliable and remember that higher end cameras might be writing out images at maybe 6+ frames/second. Alternatively you can make a point of recording a track on your phone (which tends to be hard on the battery life) and then syncing them up later. But, as someone who has done this, it's a pain in the neck.

Geotagging on my X-T3 with the Camera remote Android app is very reliable to be honest. And you don't have to query the phone at the same rate as you're taking pictures, it's perfectly sane to assume the same location for 5-10 seconds during a burst.