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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

#301

Post by LeftHandPath »

bedobi wrote: post #203
TacticalCoder wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the VW group, but on the high-end luxury side, the rotating display (three positions) of the Bentley Continental GT (that car shares its platform with the Porsche Panamera, also from the VW group, but the Panamera doesn't have that rotating display): https://youtu.be/JZNGniDpJ-s

the side with the analog dials looks amazing shame they made the dash shiny black though :P I hate it as much as I hate touchscreens haha shakes walking stick

They have many options for the veneer - carbon fiber, aluminum, and a number of gorgeous wood options.

If I find the dough I really hope to buy one before they're forced to go all EV.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#302

Post by izacus »

munificent wrote: post #214

I'm surprised the article didn't mention one of the key regulations that led to this as an unintended consequence: By law, cars in the US must now have a back-up camera. That means every car must have a screen. Given that, automakers figured they may as well use the damn thing for everything else too and cut costs. It wasn't just that they wanted to take away tactile controls to save money. It was that they had to ma…

Plenty of automakers put those cameras elsewhere (e.g. Kia integrated it into rear view mirror) so your statement is nonsense.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#303

Post by 14 »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #189

I wouldn't mind touchscreens as long as these imbecile developers would strictly limit UI response time to under 16ms. In no world where you're barrelling 3,000+ lbs of mass at tens of miles an hour should you be distracted by some moronic app or subsystem failing to respond in time because it was written by under-experienced software "engineers." Any software running as a part of a motor vehicle should be federally…

That would require a device with the power of an iPad. I’m sure it could be done but again adds another $500-$1000 to the final price of the car. A physical button costs a couple bucks. If we are going to get people on board with electric cars we need to get an economy version and any cost cutting they can do will make the difference.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#304

Post by izacus »

joppy wrote: post #232
wlesieutre wrote: post #38

Saw 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.

The Mazda software works ok with the wheel, but using something like CarPlay with it is almost impossible without taking your eyes off the road for a long time. It’s worse than touch-screens in that respect: what will the spinning knob select next on a screen which has three separate panes?

Is CarPlay really that terrible? I don't have issues using Android Auto easily with my Mazda, it all takes a few very learnable clicks.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#305

Post by masklinn »

randerson wrote: post #249
sircastor wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because it was written by under-experienced software "engineers." I used to be an infotainment software engineer for an Auto maker. There’s this idea in the software industry that because the software behaves poorly on your car’s system, it must’ve been written poorly by someone who didn’t know what they were doing. In my experience it was almost always a matter of the hardware being stretched way past its limits.…

Even if the infotainment has been in development for 15 years, all new cars I've played with seem less responsive than a 1st-generation iPhone despite having a UI that is no more capable. Either the engineers aren't making the most of the hardware or the hardware is underpowered by a few decades.

> or the hardware is underpowered by a few decades.

Wouldn’t surprise me, automotive-grade components tend to trade power for durability & certs, and then you cut down on BOM.

And then the infotainment is hardly ever a visible make or break, people will shrug, then sigh heavily for years as they try to use the POS.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#306

Post by tom9729 »

bedobi wrote: post #89

Audi have some very recent cars that are completely screen free - they have a screen which completely retracts into the dashboard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_F2dpj5Kas&t=42s and if you have analog gauges too, there are no screens. (except the tiny one between the gauges which doesn't count imo) They're also completely piano black free. Best car interior maybe ever. Thread here https://old.reddit.com/r/Audi/comm…

It's a neat feature, but I'd be worried about it getting stuck and being unable to retract.

Later model years removed the ability to retract the screen on demand, due to backup-camera laws, and the 2021-ish refresh ditched the retractable display for an in-dash display similar to the 10th-gen Honda Civic (which amusingly, ditched the in-dash display in its 11th-gen for the previous A3 style).

This might be cheating but if you want a mostly screen-free recent Audi your best bet is probably the TT (or its big brother the R8 :-), the only screen is the entire gauge cluster and it's certainly not a touch screen.

Just do _not_ get a modern VW with its touch sensitive steering wheel controls...

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#307

Post by bluSCALE4 »

sircastor wrote: post #229
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #189

I wouldn't mind touchscreens as long as these imbecile developers would strictly limit UI response time to under 16ms. In no world where you're barrelling 3,000+ lbs of mass at tens of miles an hour should you be distracted by some moronic app or subsystem failing to respond in time because it was written by under-experienced software "engineers." Any software running as a part of a motor vehicle should be federally…

> because it was written by under-experienced software "engineers." I used to be an infotainment software engineer for an Auto maker. There’s this idea in the software industry that because the software behaves poorly on your car’s system, it must’ve been written poorly by someone who didn’t know what they were doing. In my experience it was almost always a matter of the hardware being stretched way past its limits.…

I buy this. Did you all forget the GTA5 loading delay caused by a JSON added after the game was developed in game purchase items.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#308

Post by ISO-morphism »

sircastor wrote: post #229
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #189

I wouldn't mind touchscreens as long as these imbecile developers would strictly limit UI response time to under 16ms. In no world where you're barrelling 3,000+ lbs of mass at tens of miles an hour should you be distracted by some moronic app or subsystem failing to respond in time because it was written by under-experienced software "engineers." Any software running as a part of a motor vehicle should be federally…

> because it was written by under-experienced software "engineers." I used to be an infotainment software engineer for an Auto maker. There’s this idea in the software industry that because the software behaves poorly on your car’s system, it must’ve been written poorly by someone who didn’t know what they were doing. In my experience it was almost always a matter of the hardware being stretched way past its limits.…

I believe that the engineers are competent at developing software, and think that a lot of the quality issues are due to engineers abdicating authority over the software to managers and never saying "No, adding in that feature at this point in the timeline is going to make this a steaming pile of shit and I refuse to do it and still call myself a software engineer."

I get that we have families to feed, but I've seen far too much of a mindset shift in fellow engineers into thinking that we're warcraft peons rather than professionals. "The business" has engineering feedback as a necessary input, and speaking individually with steakholders they expect this - they'll push until we push back.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#309

Post by bigmattystyles »

I feel vindicated in a high school argument I had 25 years ago that the controls on the Star Trek Next Generation shuttlecrafts (and I guess the helm of the enterprise itself) would have been awful, especially in combat situations. In defense of the show, it must have felt like such a valid reason to make set design cheaper.
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