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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

#111

Post by phpisthebest »

richbell wrote: post #103
lozenge wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be true for the first time people buy a touch screen car, but after that they'll swear off them. Unless they never used any alternative...

> Unless they never used any alternative... It's the product quality equivalent of the Overton Window. People are impressed by their appliances lasting 5 years, or other mediocre accomplishments, because that's increasingly the norm.

Who is impressed by appliances lasting 5 years. If I buy a new Stove or Fridge and is craps out before 15 years I never buying that brand again.

Smaller table top appliances lasting 5 years is ok I guess, something like an Air Fyer or even a Microwave, but larger ones no that should be 15 years.

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

#112

Post by richbell »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #74
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awareness in my view is useless because touchscreens in auto infotainment are far more visually impressive so they will always be preferred from a buyer's perspective. What we need is to build a body of scientific evidence to support regulating Auto infotainment within some form of safety-critical guard rails. It is obvious that touch without mechanical/haptic feedback is dangerous both in terms of decreasing eyes-on…

Regulating is how we got here. They put the screens in to serve backup cameras. Once you need to have a screen somewhere why not make it replace all the stuff? Engineers love it because less moving parts, fewer parts. Software loves it because ship garbage now fix with updated version later. Designers love it because "clean lines and crap". Marketing loves it because high tech. Bean counters love it for all the above…

> Regulating is how we got here. They put the screens in to serve backup cameras.

And for good reason, they make reversing your vehicle significantly safer. But saying "you must have a backup camera" is in no way an endorsement for massive info-tainment screens.

> Once you need to have a screen somewhere why not make it replace all the stuff?

Because touchscreens don't help serve any purpose of the car, they are merely cool flashy tech that actually makes things less safe. The fact this stuff made it out of prototyping is baffling.

https://youtu.be/G2PMzSo1Bss

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

#113

Post by karaterobot »

There was that story about the U.S. Navy removing touch screens from their destroyers after their horrible usability was implicated in some very embarrassing collisions. That was in 2019. If that doesn't change anything, it's not a question of car manufacturers just not being aware touch screens are more error prone.

As I think most people know, the main reason they use touch screens is because it's cheaper to develop than physical buttons: you don't have to redesign the dashboard and wiring in order to change the UI. That's important to them.

Secondary to that, there are still some people who see a big colorful touchscreen on the dashboard and think "golly, this car's fancy", and might be more likely to buy a car with a shiny (greasy, coffee-splattered, fingerprint-laden) touchscreen on it. When you upgrade the trim level on a car, a lot of times they just give you a bigger touch screen, as though it were a status symbol for some people. I think the internal term for these people is 'rubes', but I'd need to check that.

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

#114

Post by [deleted] »

ajross wrote: post #75
afandian wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the Tesla FSD video[0] the driver spent a lot of time swiping back and forth on the map. If that touchscreen were an iPad, that behaviour would be illegal in the UK. I don't know what the road law is in the US, and if they sell the same Tesla model in the UK. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34268454

What's the proper control to use for interacting with a navigation aid in the UK? Or are you saying that UK law forbids in-car maps? These arguments always end up in this kind of hyper-specific realm where they seem to apply only to Tesla's particular design choices. But, in car maps are everywhere now (and, yes, Tesla's implementation is by far the best), and the natural way you use them is with touch. They absolute…

[deleted]

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

#115

Post by randerson »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #77
goda90 wrote: post #5

Will regulators act on this? I really want them to, but I feel like they won't and we'll continue to see a trend of car makers taking the cheap route and doing touch screens. At least it feels that way wherever I look into an evening l exciting EV. What do the choices look like in the new car market these days?

Touch screens are only the cheap route so long as you are required to have a backup camera. If you're gonna spend the resources to put a screen in the cost conscious way to do that is to use it for everything you possibly can. Look at 3rd world cars. No screens.

I'd argue that 3rd world cars don't have screens because they're cheaper to maintain, not cheaper to build. Buttons are dead simple and reliable, and can be fixed by any mechanic, computers cannot.

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

#116

Post by zht »

Ma8ee wrote: post #25
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awareness in my view is useless because touchscreens in auto infotainment are far more visually impressive so they will always be preferred from a buyer's perspective. What we need is to build a body of scientific evidence to support regulating Auto infotainment within some form of safety-critical guard rails. It is obvious that touch without mechanical/haptic feedback is dangerous both in terms of decreasing eyes-on…

> Awareness in my view is useless because touchscreens in auto infotainment are far more visually impressive so they will always be preferred from a buyer's perspective. Except that the HN audience also buys cars, and prefers something else. And we aren't that unique or exceptional.

there’s certainly people on HN that are quite unique and exceptional (the only question is to what extent)

People who don’t use smartphones, people who only pay with cash, people who have smart phones without data plans, people who turn off notifications on their phone for a large percentage of their day, people who own Android devices and strip out everything Google related, list goes on

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

#117

Post by atoav »

vel0city wrote: post #107

I have a car with many buttons[0] and a car with few buttons[1]. I'd take the few button one every time. While my few button car doesn't have many buttons, all to the critical to driving inputs have physical controls. Lights, wipers, defrosters, volume, etc is all on or immediately around the wheel. Meanwhile, on my many button car, sure there's a button for most things this car can do. But almost all those buttons i…

I don't think any person that wants physical interfaces (buttons, knobs, levers, sliders, ...) doesn't also think (touch-)screens can be nice for certain tasks.

Being an electrical engineer there is one thing that I can tell you about electromechanical parts: They are expensive — especially in the good and reliable variant.

That means car manufacturers have a real incentive to make you believe you don't need them and put everything on a touch screen instead.

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

#118

Post by mycocola »

phpisthebest wrote: post #104
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…

>>I would love to see some EU legislation Why does the EU believe every facet of life needs to be ordered and control by government regulation, is there any area of life at all in the EU that should be free from government interference? That is an honest question because every time anything comes up the first response from citizens of the EU is to declare government should be the right and proper resolution to the pr…

What is government for, if not for solving the issues of the populace it is governing?

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

#119

Post by flavius29663 »

javajosh wrote: post #97
acdha wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If your car doesn't have any internet connected software, then there is no mechanism to make a feature artificially scarce, requiring you to pay money on an on-going basis to remove the artificial limit. People may have sold subscription services for cars before 2010, but they were luxuries and without "teeth". This is different.

the car can be connected and still have manual controls...it's not like the touchscreen is required for internet.

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

#120

Post by messe »

phpisthebest wrote: post #104
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…

>>I would love to see some EU legislation Why does the EU believe every facet of life needs to be ordered and control by government regulation, is there any area of life at all in the EU that should be free from government interference? That is an honest question because every time anything comes up the first response from citizens of the EU is to declare government should be the right and proper resolution to the pr…

Generally, it only tends to come up in any area where the market seems to be failing consumers. This is interpreted as an externality that the market doesn't account for (in this case consumer safety, in the case of USB-C charging e-waste), which regulations are then introduced to correct for.
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