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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

#211
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Tesla does not want to have these controls, the only reason they have them is because regulation forces them to. Tell me again how the big bad government is ruining Tesla's freedom to do the stupidest things You think the stupidest thing, I am not anti-touch screen like most here are. In-fact I replaced alot of the factory buttons in my older car with a Aftermarket Large display that is basically a huge android tab…

> Why the government preventing me from choosing the control I like the best For the same reason you can't drive while on the phone or drunk. If it's less safe than buttons, it's putting others in unnecessary danger.

I am sure you are not going to agree or like my response to this argument then.

It should be incumbent upon the driver to learn how to operate their car safely. If our ultimate goals are to maximize highway safety, we should be punishing reckless driving. It shouldn't matter if it's caused by alcohol, sleep deprivation, prescription medication, text messaging, or Touch Screens. If lawmakers want to stick it to dangerous drivers who threaten everyone else on the road, they can dial up the civil and criminal liability for reckless driving, especially in cases that result in injury or property damage.

The punishable act should be violating road rules or causing an accident, not the factors that led to those offenses.

//Some statements herein are rephrased / updated statements from "Abolish Drunk Driving Laws" https://reason.com/2010/10/11/abolish-drunk-driving-laws-2/

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

#212

I have 2022 Kia Telluride that gets a lot of this right, it there is one major issue - Google maps on Car Play starts falling behind where I am on the route. Like you to half a mile. It has put me in some very dangerous situations where I am in an unfamiliar town or area.

Could you try another device? This could be caused by anything from the phone's GPS to Google Maps running slow.

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

#213

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…

> also the B-brand, which has seen it fit to replace most of the controls in some of its cars with a single multi-function stalk (iDrive, I think?) that isn't good for anything, except as a reason to return your car for a refund

This is exaggerated and inaccurate. I have a recent BMW and it has numerous physical controls for climate, radio and various settings like auto-hold or disable engine auto-stop/start.

The multifunction puck in BMWs is fantastic, it even allows for text entry while looking at the road. I have trained myself to not use the touchscreen as much as possible and now feel very comfortable even navigating Apple Carplay with it.

I also have a recent model Audi, which is far more egregious with the touch screen. Disabling auto-stop/start cannot be done persistently and it is a touch screen button, along with hill descent. Climate controls have their own dedicated touch panel, and there is no real alternative to touching anything like iDrive. The exception is that it does have an actual volume knob with on/off and next-prev functionality.

It’s also worth noting that both cars also have audio controls on the steering wheel itself.

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

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because leaving it "to the market" is always a race to the bottom, and there ends up being no choice on voting with your wallet.

You do know that Touch Screen got included in Cars due to government regulations right? The government mandated Backup Camera's and once you had to put in a screen to serve as display for the backup camera then it only makes since to use that screen for more and more things This is yet another unintended consequence of government regulations, where by now people want to use government regulation to "fix" the problems…

> the market more than anything in human society has driven more wealth, and higher standards of living.

Competition occurs because it is promoted through regulations. Contracts, private property, stock markets, etc. all exist due to regulations. If competition tends to stop (e.g. a company cornering a market), then regulators can step in to change things so that competition is once more possible. If your goal is to increase wealth and standards of living, you should support regulations making that possible.

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

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I cannot imagine how anybody can stand the constantly changing value of a digital speedometer as it flickers around whatever your intended speed is. Give me a needle any day.

The majority of digital speedos these days have a needle drawn with an acceptably high refresh rate and low latency.

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

#218
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.....

So, wtf did you put up with all that (presuming it wasnt a company car)? And, even then, you should have a trail of paperwork a mile/ kilometre long to audi - publish all that.

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

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

[flagged]

Legislation like this would 'protect persons' as making the wise decision not to buy a car with the offending UI won't stop you from being t-boned by someone who did.

Consumers need protection from people who make selfish decisions.

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

#220
On commercial aircraft, which have more of a safety culture than cars, they go so far as to have different knobs and buttons with different shapes so that a pilot can tell by feel that they have right one. For example, the knob to change speed is a different shape than the knob to change heading.

Here's the autopilot panel of an Airbus A320:

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/overhead-panel-airb...

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