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Study finds that buttons in cars are safer and quicker to use than touchscreens

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Re: Study finds that buttons in cars are safer and quicker to use than touchscreens

#41

Post by GuB-42 »

PaulHoule wrote: post #4

I am starting to wonder if the definition of a ‘luxury car’ in 2030 will be ‘no touchscreens’ and if economy cars will be chock full of cheap android devices just to shame the people who buy them into spending more to get a car with buttons and mechanical indicators.

The Bugatti Chiron has no touchscreen, in fact it made a point to look like it has no screen at all. It is a deliberate choice, they didn't want people to look at the window and see a lifeless black screen, and one that will look outdated a few years from now.

No need to wait for 2030, look at the top end luxury cars, while they don't all have as strong a stance as Bugatti, you will see a lot of physical buttons and not too many screens there. Personally, I have already associated touchscreens with cheapness.

Re: Study finds that buttons in cars are safer and quicker to use than touchscreens

#42

Post by rpmisms »

Which is why physical controls are critical for anything you need to do fast. I recently switched from a classic Model S to a recent Model 3, and I think the 3 is about as button-light as I could go. The driver's controls are all manual, and work very well. Anything non-critical is on the screen. The Plaid would be too much. I require a physical shifter, horn, and turn signals.

Re: Study finds that buttons in cars are safer and quicker to use than touchscreens

#43

Post by acdha »

cs702 wrote: post #40
smt88 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could do almost anything with the buttons in my car without looking away from the road. That's never going to be possible with a touchscreen.

How do you, say, check tire pressure? Setup a new garage-door opener? View your calendar for today? Do you have physical buttons for those things? A car that does everything (or "almost anything") via physical buttons would be insanely hard to use . It would look like, and be about as easy to use as, a jet cockpit. The best approach is clearly not all-physical-buttons, nor all-touchscreen-buttons, nor all-voice-comma…

Those are not things you need to do while driving. There’s no reason why, say, garage door pairing can’t use a button like my 2006 Subaru does for the one time most people will do it in the life of the vehicle. Checking a calendar is distracted driving and should be illegal.

Re: Study finds that buttons in cars are safer and quicker to use than touchscreens

#44

Post by cycrutchfield »

cs702 wrote: post #18

The actual "study" (really, an unscientific test) is here: https://www.vibilagare.se/english/physical-buttons-outperfor... At home we have both traditional vehicles with lots of knobs, and vehicles (Tesla) with mainly touchscreen buttons and voice commands. My personal experience: * It takes at least a few weeks to become familiar enough with the touchscreen buttons and voice commands that they become second-nature.…

Thank you for this. There is a very vocal minority on HN that cries bloody murder about touchscreens in cars. Anything that argues against the hivemind is often downvoted and dismissed without much thought or self-reflection.

Re: Study finds that buttons in cars are safer and quicker to use than touchscreens

#45

Post by acdha »

TekMol wrote: post #22
richbell wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Should you be doing many more things while having a phone call? Turns out the concept of a phone changed. Being distracted during a phone call doesn't pose a risk of grievous injuries or death to yourself or others. Unless the nature of cars fundamentally changes, they should not under any circumstances be cool entertainment devices. Your focus should be on your mirrors and the road ahead. Full stop.

Isn't that an argument to let computers handle the driving rather than humans? Computers are extremely good at calculating physics. And they never get distracted.

It’s an argument for continuing to develop that technology but this discussion is for the cars being built now, not in 2050. Self-driving technology isn’t even functional now and nowhere near the level of safety reliability it’ll need before you can say humans will never operate a particular vehicle and therefore it’s safe to remove the controls.

Re: Study finds that buttons in cars are safer and quicker to use than touchscreens

#46

Post by acdha »

FranzFerdiNaN wrote: post #38
PreInternet01 wrote: post #17

I would love to see some EU legislation about car dashboards. As an occasional driver of many different brands and types of vehicles, I continue to be amazed at the usability crimes being committed in the name of 'looking cool' (stated reason) as well as 'cost savings' (most likely the real reason). Any function that needs to be invoked or setting that needs to be changed by a reasonable person while driving should h…

Touch screens also make it easier to lock functionality behind subscriptions.

This is only by coincidence. They’ll do that if they think they can get away with it no matter what type of controls it has.

Re: Study finds that buttons in cars are safer and quicker to use than touchscreens

#47

Post by masklinn »

PreInternet01 wrote: post #17

I would love to see some EU legislation about car dashboards. As an occasional driver of many different brands and types of vehicles, I continue to be amazed at the usability crimes being committed in the name of 'looking cool' (stated reason) as well as 'cost savings' (most likely the real reason). Any function that needs to be invoked or setting that needs to be changed by a reasonable person while driving should h…

The last car I rented had the lane assist mode on a physical button. That was surprisingly convenient as lane assist is nice on highway but a lot less so on small rural roads with more spotty markings.

Only issue is the lane assist switch 1. is not a physical toggle (it's a change mode button which doesn't change position) and 2. it's the same shape and around the buttons for quick beam adjustment and dash lighting level

Though none of the three is utterly critical, and all three are rather well notified through the dashboard (a little icon is displayed for dipped beams) so even if you get it wrong by sole touch it's not really critical.

The somewhat sadder part is as a rental (and thus entry level) only like 5 of the 8 possible buttons under the touchscreen have a function associated. Seems a bit of a shame to not put some more minor function on the last 3.

The designers also put the "mute" function on pressing both "volume up" and "volume down" at the same time, which is easy to mistakenly do (they're at the end of the same stalk, the position is convenient but it's very easy to hit both when trying to increase or decrease volume).

Re: Study finds that buttons in cars are safer and quicker to use than touchscreens

#48

Post by cycrutchfield »

beardedwizard wrote: post #27
TekMol wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The driver only needs to pay attention to the road when the software can't safely handle the situation. Software can already keep the car in the lane and at a distance to the car in front. Over time the situations it can handle will become more and more.

The problem is that this is not actually happening. Tesla fsd is still a huge problem.

They weren’t talking about Tesla FSD

Re: Study finds that buttons in cars are safer and quicker to use than touchscreens

#49

Post by Kaibeezy »

cs702 wrote: post #40
smt88 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could do almost anything with the buttons in my car without looking away from the road. That's never going to be possible with a touchscreen.

How do you, say, check tire pressure? Setup a new garage-door opener? View your calendar for today? Do you have physical buttons for those things? A car that does everything (or "almost anything") via physical buttons would be insanely hard to use . It would look like, and be about as easy to use as, a jet cockpit. The best approach is clearly not all-physical-buttons, nor all-touchscreen-buttons, nor all-voice-comma…

My car, born from jets, has no tire pressure checker, no garage door opener, no touchscreen, no automatic transmission, and smack-you-in-the-back-of-the-head turbo lag. I honestly can’t think of a new car I’d trade it for (unless selling that new car to buy more old cars isn’t cheating).

Re: Study finds that buttons in cars are safer and quicker to use than touchscreens

#50

Post by ketzu »

everdrive wrote: post #9

As folks noted in the other thread on this topic: This is self-evident to most of the HN audience, but the more studies and more awareness is brought to this topic the likelier things are to improve.

I like having those studies more so ~~I can feel selfrighteous~~ my intuitive feeling actually gets data supporting it. I try to have 'this is my opinion, not fact' as the default mode when possible.
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