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Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

autocar.co.uk

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Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#291

Post by rs23296008n1 »

My preference in cars is touchscreen for rarely used functionality, and then dials, buttons and sliders for everything else.

Messing with audio is a peripheral task so expecting me to take my eyes off the road etc is still unacceptable. Especially to change the track or adjust volume.

That said, we're all used to small touchscreens. These tend to require the user to maintain the current context on what is on screen. The whole screen is subject to change and this complicates / weakens muscle memory. I've used larger touchscreens where controls don't change around so much and muscle memory can easily kick in if the design is sane. The difference is tangible. Eg you can blind press using peripheral vision and it can work well.

The real answer might just be that we're in the early days of touchscreen use. The technology and application thereof is still immature. The design language, for want of a better term, is still evolving.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#292

Post by bonestamp2 »

avs733 wrote: post #57
koheripbal wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Touch screens are cheap and very easy to develop for. They also de-couple the software development from the device development. It also allows updates and changes after the car is in production.

lower parts count as well. More commonality possibilities between vehicles are possible. the ability to add and remove features at different prive points without having to add/remove as many physical parts is huge. They price compete on bolts and screws...removing a button is a huge cost savings when multiplied by you Munro and Associates is a company that does reverse engineering and costing work and it's wildly int…

Ya, Volvo has gone to a unified interface for their whole lineup. The standard stuff can be controlled with a few knobs and buttons and all the minor differences between models and trim levels are controlled on screen. I'm sure it saves them a ton since the part count would be very low now.

They've done a pretty good job at it too, but it needs to be customizable to be great. If I ordered the surround camera option, I want that to be easy to access, not buried a few gestures deep. Chrysler nailed it, they let you rearrange the touch screen icons and have a bar along the bottom where you can put items that are always visible. They also have more buttons and dials.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#294

Post by cmckn »

vwcx wrote: post #268
est31 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In airplanes touchscreens are less of an issue than in cars. In cars you have to have a hand on the wheel 99% of the time, and your gaze on the road. You can't afford interaction with a complicated non-haptic touch screen menu. In airplanes it's different. Here, outside of takeoff and landing, it's OK to look at a screen for 10 seconds while interacting with it with a hand.

Not necessarily. There are many moments during the operation of an aircraft where full attention is paramount. Yes, you see a pilot leaving the cockpit to use the lavatory while the co-pilot is monitoring the autopilot, but the margins are just as small as operating a motor vehicle.

My partner is a first officer, and frequently describes his job as being a glorified babysitter outside of takeoff and landing.

Worth noting that a significant amount of the information pilots use in the cockpit (at major US carriers, at least), things like flight plans, are on an iPad.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#296

Post by salawat »

debaserab2 wrote: post #249
hobs wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still loved all my physical buttons which made input a breeze and didnt require constantly correcting my dang text, in a phone context, nah, he's still wrong; maybe a hybrid is even better, but amorphous movement and inferring intent is not a great user experience as things get more complex.

My nieces and nephews seem to have zero problems navigating a touch screen and type faster than I can. Might not be intuitive to us, but it definitely is to them.

Mine don't. They've only ever really had tablets, and I just recently got a Pi for one of them to learn physical touch typing on.

I'm always annoyed phone typing specifically because I can't do anything but focus on the damn on screen keyboard until the message is complete. I remember being able to write reams of text on my old cell with a pop out keyboard, or even with the T9 setup on a Nokia brick entirely by feel, and nigh-automatic.

I don't think I've ever communicated/operated as smoothly as When I have a haptic interface to work with. That even comes down to learning unfamiliar interfaces too. With a strictly defined series of controls to be actuated in a particular order, I tend to be able to permute and learn faster when I have some level of feel to work with.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#297

Post by seanmcdirmid »

pmontra wrote: post #205
gnicholas wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Touchscreens that are huge are somewhat less of an issue because tap targets are much bigger. But most non-luxury vehicles come with 7 or 8 inch screens, so tap targets are small/clustered. Layer on that the fact that many screens aren't capacitive (and instead require a certain amount of pressure from your finger/fingernail), and things get even more annoying/dangerous.

With physical buttons we can keep eyes on the road, one hand on the wheel and the other one looks for the right button. With a touch screen we have to look at the screen, hoping we made the right decision about what's going to happen on the road. If there are laws against texting there should be laws against using touchscreens when the car is moving.

Fitts’s Law is really relevant here, even if the buttons were physical, but especially if they are touch based. Not all hit targets are the same in terms of safety.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#298

Post by Retric »

chc wrote: post #188
hnarn wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exact type of input is being grabbed by these screens? "Critical pilot systems"? Touchscreens already exist in airliners, for systems used by crew and passengers, but that's beside the point.

Critical driver systems (i.e. steering, signaling, acceleration and brakes) aren't controlled by touchscreen in any car I know of either, so if non-critical systems are beside the point, what is the criticism here? Or are you thinking of some particularly extreme cars that are even more reliant on touchscreen than the Model 3?

I have seen side mirrors controlled by touch screen, as well as some headlight functions. Which is are critical safety systems, though rarely an issue.

Still, if you’re borrowing your wife’s car it’s easy to realize you don’t have great blindspot visibility at which point looking at a touch screen is very distracting.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#300

Post by nitrogen »

_bxg1 wrote: post #89
agumonkey wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even on phones it's "bad", it requires high focus.. it's was only good in the theory that smartphones would be used for prolonged dedicated tasks. how i miss blind use of buttons on old dumbphones

It's good on phones because it allows them to become multi-tools. You can't have physical buttons for every thing any app might want to do; with a touch screen they can make their own buttons. On cars it's silly. Cars are not multi-tools; they have a finite set of dedicated functions. Even for functions that benefit from a large high-res screen (maps, music library browsing, etc.), the actual input requirements are n…

You can't have physical buttons for every thing any app might want to do

This is why the cursor keys exist, also keybindings

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