Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

autocar.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

411–420 of 770 posts

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#411

Post by alkonaut »

Just and knobs for everything I need when driving. But please keep touchscreen for everything complex I can do while standing still. Complex setup of display options, car setups or whatever is infuriating without touch.

This is how every other device works such as a digital camera. You can’t have an unlimited amount of knobs and buttons but you can have a dozen so you choose very carefully which functions need direct manipulation.

I don’t think it’s so bad currently in many cars to be honest. My VW does what I want, there are knobs and buttons for climate and radio, but setup and other things are touch. Only complaint is that switching source between line in and bt is touch only (and is used a lot).

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#412

Post by KineticLensman »

munificent wrote: post #182
KineticLensman wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think today's DSLRs have the form factor that they have because it's objectively more usable. It's just the form factor that their self-selected customers want. One piece of evidence in favor of that is that all DSLRs do have big LCD screens on the back and often require a lot of menu diving to access any functionality that didn't exist in cameras before the digital revolution. So on my seven year old Nikon…

> So on my seven year old Nikon D3s I can use buttons to focus and change the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, WB, focusing mode and focus selection point all the while keeping my eye to the viewfinder. Sure, and you could do that with an SLR from the 90s too, as I recall. Camera manufacturers are very innovative when it comes to capabilities and new features, but incredibly conservative when it comes to user experience…

Totally agree but the broader point stands that buttons have some very useful affordances

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#413

Post by nereye »

thedance wrote: post #94
jermaustin1 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I DO have the highest trim level, so maybe that's why.

At least in the US models of the Fit there's no difference in the interior trim levels. I think part of the confused nature of this discussion is that Honda never shipped the touch-only dashboard that this article is talking about in the US market. The Fit and as far as I have seen every model Honda sells in the US has always had real knobs and switches for the climate controls. The touch climate controls were availa…

For the 2016 year model, the base model has a volume knob but the higher models do not. The 'USA interior' link above seems identical to the Non-USA link vs audio volume knob not being there. This is what the dash looks like for models with the knob (could only find 2015 lx but looks identical to 2016 lx): https://cdn.jdpower.com/ChromeImageGallery/Expanded/White/64...

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#414

Post by shoes_for_thee »

solatic wrote: post #111

Last year I bought a motorcycle (Honda CB300R) and it was a revelation. No touch screens. No stereo. No GPS. No Bluetooth. No automatic transmission. No cupholders. Basically no "modern car features". And it's a much, much better road experience than any car I've ever been able to afford to drive. Get rid of all the distractions at a price point under $30k with an engine that doesn't feel sluggish and maybe I'll cons…

Get a Miata and call it a day.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#415

Post by achenatx »

Interfaces to the car should have standardized use cases/requirements that are interface independent.

There should be requirements like - user should be able to rapidly change stations manually without looking at the interface.

For example I have a dial for my XM radio in my tundra, if I want to go from station 10 to station 100, I can easily do it by spinning the dial really fast two or three times without looking at the screen.

In my honda, to get to that UI where I can arbitrarily tune, I have to hit 3-4 buttons all in different places. Then I have to hit the up button 90 times.

I could imagine a digital tuner that is a bar that lets you simply touch where on the spectrum you want to select a station. But up/down arrow to tune should be banned.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#416

Post by raziel2p »

BrandonMarc wrote: post #374
cmckn wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

... until something goes wrong. Then a touch screen is the last thing you want. An airliner moving uncontrollably is no time to try touching just the right spot of the screen, and avoid touching the wrong spot.

I can just as easily make the argument the other way around: An airliner moving uncontrollably is no time to try touching just the right knob (of which there are like a hundred), and avoid touching the wrong one.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#417

Post by redis_mlc »

est31 wrote: post #262
CivBase wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work for an avionics manufacturer and I can assure you most of our upcoming comercial systems (and even a healthy portion of government ones) feature touch screen inputs.

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.

> it's OK to look at a screen for 10 seconds

Not really. Pilots are supposed to be visually looking for traffic 90% of the time, and the rest scanning instruments.

So to be heads-down for 10 seconds, the non-flying pilot would have to arrange that with the flying pilot.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#419

Post by thedance »

nereye wrote: post #413
thedance wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in the US models of the Fit there's no difference in the interior trim levels. I think part of the confused nature of this discussion is that Honda never shipped the touch-only dashboard that this article is talking about in the US market. The Fit and as far as I have seen every model Honda sells in the US has always had real knobs and switches for the climate controls. The touch climate controls were availa…

For the 2016 year model, the base model has a volume knob but the higher models do not. The 'USA interior' link above seems identical to the Non-USA link vs audio volume knob not being there. This is what the dash looks like for models with the knob (could only find 2015 lx but looks identical to 2016 lx): https://cdn.jdpower.com/ChromeImageGallery/Expanded/White/64...

Oh yes, I'd quite forgotten about the base model radio. Almost surprised it has no tape deck.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#420

Post by WalterBright »

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…

> Touch screens will hopefully never make it into any critical pilot systems

Touch screens in the cockpit seem like madness to me. Cockpits sometimes fill with smoke and the pilot has to be able to find and operate the controls.

Ever notice that the flap levers have little flaps on top of them? The nosewheel steering control has a little tire on the top? That's so the pilot knows without looking what his hands are on. These designs were not the result of some study group following fashion, but were the result of accidents.

Post reply on HN