Please recall my car, the touchscreen is a hazard to me and everybody else.
Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens
141–150 of 1001 posts
Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens
#142I like a big display with buttons on the side. I like getting to see the song name, the station and some of that digital info, I like Apple Maps on Apple car play. Those are nice features. I love the back up camera display. But I have to have a button or knob to adjust temp, audio, next track, etc... because while those things are helpful, when I'm going down the highway and I need to adjust while paying attention ju…
Imagine an iPod-like scrubwheel positioned so that your thumb can scroll while your hands are at 10 and 2.
Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens
#143Saw the Impreza’s 2024 redesign, apparently Subaru missed the memo. https://www.carscoops.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2024-Su... I recently test drove a Mazda, and while I’ve seen people online complain about their “commander knob” and lack of touch screen, I liked it pretty well. Screen up further on the dashboard is nice for glancing at maps.
It has physical volume and climate controls, including seat heaters - I don't mind this?
Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens
#144I like a big display with buttons on the side. I like getting to see the song name, the station and some of that digital info, I like Apple Maps on Apple car play. Those are nice features. I love the back up camera display. But I have to have a button or knob to adjust temp, audio, next track, etc... because while those things are helpful, when I'm going down the highway and I need to adjust while paying attention ju…
Yeah seems like physical controls for input, screen for output is the sweet spot.
I think you can go more detailed on that and say physical controls for common, quick inputs especially ones people use while they are driving and you don't want them to look down for.
Touch screen is fine for setup screens, extra info, fine tuning stuff etc.
Point is when I'm driving down the road I should be able to muscle memory/tactily skip song, change volume, change air-conditioning settings etc...
But Bluetooth settings... changing colour of display, changing voice assistant tone... leave that on the touch screen. Don't need it.
Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens
#145Pro Tip: So do ER Doctors and Insurance Companies. What would be best is something along the lines of a hybrid aircraft controls. See F/A-18 Hornet cockpit. Basically tactile buttons around the perimeter (maybe just side or bottom for consumer), but the options can change. Also for consumers, touchscreen should be a value-add to tactile controls, with hardware buttons as primary. So you could touch-scroll with a fing…
It would be best not to change what the buttons do very much. It could add unnecessary levels of confusion. "OK, I think I hit the wrong button, and now I'm not sure what mode the system is in... better look down at the controls while I drive along at 60 MPH." Maybe I'm biased. My old car has a great UI. No touchscreen, just a panel of physical knobs and buttons for media and climate control. The phone integration co…
As long as there is a dedicated back/home button, it's okay in my experience.
Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens
#146Saw the Impreza’s 2024 redesign, apparently Subaru missed the memo. https://www.carscoops.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2024-Su... I recently test drove a Mazda, and while I’ve seen people online complain about their “commander knob” and lack of touch screen, I liked it pretty well. Screen up further on the dashboard is nice for glancing at maps.
I have a new miata, the touch screen is disabled above a certain speed. It's the worse of both worlds. Touch screen sometimes, jog wheel other times. The cursor on the screen lags so you're looking at the screen trying to figure out what is highlighted vs taking 1 second to touch the button you want. It's so bad I ripped out the screen and installed a 3rd party wireless carplay screen before the first car payment. It…
FWIW I've never had an issue with the wheel in my CX5. I don't use the touchscreen at all, even at low speeds.
Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens
#147Someone should do something like this smart knob[0]. It looks incredible. [0] https://youtu.be/ip641WmY4pA?t=58
Neat. Jog control knobs are great when you want fine control over a large dynamic range. They can feel wrong when used for for controlling a limited range that only needs coarse tuning. My microwave has a rotary encoder for the power level (10% to 100%) and it just feels so wrong that it doesn’t have a limit but can just keep turning (actually a slider would be a lovely UI for power level, however the knob is multi-f…
I feel like it should be feasible to add a motor that gives tactile feedback by resisting turning by a little bit (e.g. for discrete power/volume level values within the allowed range) or a lotta bit (e.g. for the boundaries of said range).
Re: multi-functional sliders, I do know that motorized sliders exist in the pro audio space (e.g. to be able to program presets on mixers and such); shouldn't be too hard to adapt them to multiple functions (probably with some sort of indicator on or adjacent to the slider to show the function being manipulated).
Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens
#148Question for car owners with massive screens in the console who live in rural areas: Does the ambient interior light from the screen + dashboard overpower your ability to see the road at night?
i live in a city but drive through rural areas all the time. if the lowest dimmer setting on your screen and dash are still too bright compared to your headlights, there's something wrong with your headlights. incandescent bulbs fade after some time and need to be replaced before they actually burn out.
Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens
#149remember the time when GM said it’s not going to include CarPlay in its vehicles? And how most of hn was in revolt? here comes News that says we should get rid of touchscreens, why is hn supporting this? (For the record, I hated touch screens in cars before that was a thing and I am OK with gm removing carplay.)
These are 2 separate issues you're discussing.
> remember the time when GM said it’s not going to include CarPlay in its vehicles? And how most of hn was in revolt?
Most OEM's made terrible infotainment software that is outdated, lacking features and often extremely sluggish and clunky to use. CarPlay and Android Auto are able to bring modern features OEM's can't seem to figure out, like Google Maps integration instead of some terrible maps implementation that is outdated, as in not having addresses added in the last few years, not just "old" and cumbersome to use. I can just open up google maps on my phone, type an address and directions appear on my screen. Same with music streaming apps like Spotify.
> here comes News that says we should get rid of touchscreens, why is hn supporting this?
Not eliminate touchscreens entirely, but rather stop putting every single control they possibly can into them making vehicles dangerous to operate. Putting climate, radio, lighting, etc... into a touch screen, especially when buried in sub-menus, is just lazy cost cutting. The other big complaint are touch capacitive "buttons" and sliders. They're distracting and difficult to use, especially on anything but perfectly smooth roads. For example, the Cayenne's interior is basically just a wall of touch capacitive "buttons"[1] that you can't easily reach down to press with your eyes on the road, you have to look down at it. The other issue is feedback from it. Constant beeping from input on menus, like Toyota, just becomes obnoxious. Buttons provide instant mechanical feedback that does't lave you guessing if you pressed on the right spot. Here's a clip discussing some complaints about VW doing all of this to the Golf [2] and how frustrating it is to use.
[1] https://cdn.carbuzz.com/gallery-images/2022-porsche-cayenne-...
Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens
#150I like a big display with buttons on the side. I like getting to see the song name, the station and some of that digital info, I like Apple Maps on Apple car play. Those are nice features. I love the back up camera display. But I have to have a button or knob to adjust temp, audio, next track, etc... because while those things are helpful, when I'm going down the highway and I need to adjust while paying attention ju…
Imagine an iPod-like scrubwheel positioned so that your thumb can scroll while your hands are at 10 and 2.
Imagine paying attention to the road and not needing to look at radio to be able to do everything.