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Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

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Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#21

Post by roland35 »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #15

"Although they look fancy, Farah said that carmakers can purchase screens for less than $50, making them significantly less expensive than tactile controls."

Having designed electronics, I absolutely appreciate how much a pain in the butt buttons are (maybe that's why they are called buttons!). It isn't just the cost... Each button requires mechanical design and tooling, graphics, manufacturing, etc etc. Plus no one is ever satisfied with the "feel" or tactical properties.

But as a driver I absolutely hate touchscreens!

Funniest button story.. one time we were working on a panel which includes a two way rocker switch to lift or lower a mechanism. Version 1 was backwards. Well, the electrical team swapped the wire harness to fix it, and the graphics team swapped the label markings. Version 2 was then also backwards (but flipped).

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#22

Post by asdfman123 »

stevage wrote: post #19
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #15

"Although they look fancy, Farah said that carmakers can purchase screens for less than $50, making them significantly less expensive than tactile controls."

That surprises me. I seem to recall having read something about the difficulty Tesla had in getting their fancy screens and how much they cost. $50 for a tiny one maybe.

Maybe that was just due to the supply shortage?

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#23

Post by karaterobot »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #2

I’m apparently unique in this, but I prefer touch screens. Not because I fail to realize the value of buttons, but I don’t find sitting in an airplane cockpit with a few hundred buttons that much better than a screen that is contextual. I like having a few buttons for common tasks like audio controls, and voice control for most else. The rest of the stuff can be on a touch screen for all I care. I get others prefer b…

I'm disappointed that your comment has gotten downvoted. Hard to see why it should be, since it's just your opinion, and you even backed it up with a reason.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#24

Post by asdfman123 »

CoolestBeans wrote: post #9
fnordpiglet wrote: post #2

I’m apparently unique in this, but I prefer touch screens. Not because I fail to realize the value of buttons, but I don’t find sitting in an airplane cockpit with a few hundred buttons that much better than a screen that is contextual. I like having a few buttons for common tasks like audio controls, and voice control for most else. The rest of the stuff can be on a touch screen for all I care. I get others prefer b…

Voice control is a bit of a nonstarter as the speech recognition (perhaps combined with the weird acoustics of a moving vehicle) has never worked for everyone; eg my father's accent never seems to work in his Honda. My car is from 2014 and definitely has more buttons than necessary. I don't mind infrequently used controls behind a touchscreen, like do the controls to set the time on the clock really need dedicated bu…

I never liked voice recognition until I had to test it myself at my job, and seen firsthand just how much better it has gotten over the past few years.

I think voice commands would be much more widely used if they hadn’t rolled it out so soon, ironically. But most of us learned early on that it sucks and never tried it again.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#26

Post by CamperBob2 »

Tagbert wrote: post #7
fnordpiglet wrote: post #2

I’m apparently unique in this, but I prefer touch screens. Not because I fail to realize the value of buttons, but I don’t find sitting in an airplane cockpit with a few hundred buttons that much better than a screen that is contextual. I like having a few buttons for common tasks like audio controls, and voice control for most else. The rest of the stuff can be on a touch screen for all I care. I get others prefer b…

I’ve never seen any car dash with more than a few dozen buttons.

I counted the buttons within reach while waiting at a long stoplight once. Was up to 55 when the light turned green.

Which is awesome. I like buttons.

Edit, from grocery store parking lot: 92

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#27

Post by zamnos »

linkjuice4all wrote: post #4

There was a company (Tactus Technology - now defunct) that had a "morphing" touch screen wherein the surface of the screen could be raised up to provide tactile feedback about "where" your fingers are on the screen (e.g. 'raised' keys for a keyboard [0]). I recall this being "the next big thing" in touch screens about 10 years ago but the tech didn't seem to go anywhere. For small screens such as your phone it was pr…

Why is it overkill for phones? I spend way more time looking at my phone than I ever look at my car's AC controls. Ofc, my car's AC controls are physical buttons and I've had the car a while, so I don't need to look at them, but I think my point remains.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#28

Post by NoPicklez »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #2

I’m apparently unique in this, but I prefer touch screens. Not because I fail to realize the value of buttons, but I don’t find sitting in an airplane cockpit with a few hundred buttons that much better than a screen that is contextual. I like having a few buttons for common tasks like audio controls, and voice control for most else. The rest of the stuff can be on a touch screen for all I care. I get others prefer b…

You aren't unique in this.

This isn't about the complete removal of touch screens or moving to purely buttons. It's about providing a better balance between physical buttons for driving essentials and then having the rest under a usable touch screen interface.

It's not all one or the other.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#30

Post by ummonk »

stevage wrote: post #19
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #15

"Although they look fancy, Farah said that carmakers can purchase screens for less than $50, making them significantly less expensive than tactile controls."

That surprises me. I seem to recall having read something about the difficulty Tesla had in getting their fancy screens and how much they cost. $50 for a tiny one maybe.

That was because there weren't any automotive grade screens of the size they wanted already being supplied to OEMs.
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