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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

#51

Post by LightG »

cycrutchfield wrote: post #44
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.

Not really. You can say the same about about both sides. I prefer buttons and touchscreen. See the ioniq 5 for a good example of this implementation.

Tesla seem to be trying to Steve Jobs / iphone the car experience, and I absolutely don't want that.

And if having a different opinion to you means I'm of the hivemind, then so be it (frankly a ridiculous comment, but anyway).

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

#52

Post by [deleted] »

TekMol wrote: post #7

The same could be said for mobile phones. Some things can be done quicker with physical buttons. That's why people thought phones with just a screen would never become popular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U But with a screen you can do many more things.

[deleted]

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

#53

Post by nulbyte »

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…

They make tire pressure gauges without touchscreens; even then, dashboards have indicators light up when pressure is too low. Garage door openers have buttons, and long-pressing often does magical things, like entering setup mode. And presumably, you have a calendar in a handheld device you carry with you everywhere; it's much more convenient then trying to carry a car in your pocket.

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

#54

Post by rsj_hn »

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…

If you want a computer to check the tire pressure, then use a computer to poll the tire pressure indicator and report a fix error when it's too low. My 2006 Passat did that, and it didn't have a touch screen (or a backup camera). Cars have had sensors that report errors for a very long time, and this doesn't require any touchscreens.

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

#55

Post by GuB-42 »

zackkitzmiller wrote: post #29
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.…

ICE vs Electric has nothing to do with buttons vs touchscreens.

The thing is: Tesla made essentially the first successful electric car, that is, an electric car people want to buy because they like it as a car, not just because it is electric.

In addition to being electric, Tesla also brought a lot of ideas that have nothing to do with the drivetrain, like big touchscreens, connectivity and "smart" features. Other manufacturers, seeing Tesla success, got the message: if you want to make a successful electric car, copy Tesla.

I think that's why we tend to associate touchscreens with electric cars: because it worked for Tesla. Also I think it gave manufacturers an excuse. It is a new market, they don't have to worry as much about making breaking changes.

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

#56

Post by ardel95 »

I admit, I’m having a hard time holding back a sarcastic reply to this article. Was there really any doubt ever that a button, which one can usually push without looking is superior to touchscreen, which for an average human requires both hands and eyes?

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

#57

Post by PreInternet01 »

misnome wrote: post #30
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…

When we bought our last car we specifically avoided touchscreen-heavy interfaces. Worst we looked at was Peugeot, which not only had framerate stuttering _on the actual digital dashboard_, the radio turned on loud for us and although the digital volume button was large, you couldn’t just hold it down - you needed to repeatedly tap/lift/tap/lift/… to move it more than just one volume notch. We bought a (non-peugeot) c…

Oh, thank you for mentioning digital dashboards, I completely forgot about those! So, in addition to mandatory physical controls for common functions, my imaginary EU legislation would also prescribe that all essential vehicle information (speed, outside light status, fuel level) has a physical representation (lights, dials, etc., in the sense that there is nothing that could be described as 'software' driving these).

The last 'owned' car that I drove was my wife's quite-high-end Audi. It had a digital dashboard, which was OK and looked extremely cool... until those moments when it froze mid-drive, requiring an engine off/on cycle to recover. Which was really lovely on the highway, cruising along at an unknown speed... (Another charming feature of this car was that the AC would sometimes decide that going into full-blast, no-you-can't-turn-this-off, full-heat mode was a really great idea. This only took, like, five software updates and 18 months to be resolved. The issue where you couldn't cancel the keyfob-based seat personalization was never fixed, so whenever I (6'5") grabbed my wife's (5'2" on a warm day) car keys by mistake, there was lots of grinding of seat motors, trying to drive my knees and head into the car interior, while ignoring my desperate inputs to the 'move the seat back and down please' controls. Comfort feature indeed!)

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

#58

Post by [deleted] »

TekMol wrote: post #21
nkozyra wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well phones typically have physical buttons for things you want to do quickly (volume rocker, power, camera shutter, home (sometimes) etc.) when you may not be expected to be looking at the phone. They seem to understand the split. A driver has only a few things they need to do while driving (beyond paying attention to the road) Menu diving to turn up the AC is just a fundamentally terrible idea, but car makers don't…

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.

[deleted]

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

#59

Post by acdha »

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.…

Your dismissal of the study reads defensively - it’s not invalid because it shows that the vehicle you own is less efficient to operate.

> by pressing a touchscreen button that is always where you expect it to be.

That last part is key to understanding why this is a concern: Tesla has moved safety-critical controls unexpectedly[1], which never happens with physical buttons, and using those controls is always harder because a touchscreen doesn’t have tactile feedback. Try using even a familiar one with your eyes closed and you’ll realize how much harder it is to maintain attention on something else.

https://www.thedrive.com/tech/43710/teslas-v11-update-blaste...

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

#60

Post by cycrutchfield »

LightG wrote: post #51
cycrutchfield wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not really. You can say the same about about both sides. I prefer buttons and touchscreen. See the ioniq 5 for a good example of this implementation. Tesla seem to be trying to Steve Jobs / iphone the car experience, and I absolutely don't want that. And if having a different opinion to you means I'm of the hivemind, then so be it (frankly a ridiculous comment, but anyway).

The point is your opinion is concordant with every other poster in this thread, aka hivemind. Note that there is no nuanced discussion on this topic, everybody has already arrived at their conclusion. Nobody is asking whether some people are fine with touchscreens in cars and why that might be the case.
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