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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

#591

Post by salmonlogs »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #221
mtrpcic wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The benefit of buttons isn't in the response time, it's in the tactile feedback that makes it so you don't need 16ms response time. I heard it click, I felt it click, it clicked. If the thing I wanted to happen doesn't, it's because it's broken and not because I can't tell if I clicked the right spot on my iPad. Not having to take your eyes off the road in these cases is the benefit of buttons, and no improvement to…

This isn't how tactile buttons in modern cars work. You're doing the same thing as pushing keys on a keyboard. The software can still be slow. Turn the physical volume dial on a car with a slow Apple CarPlay interface and tell me how that works out for you. Oh, it's too loud? But it takes 2 seconds for the software to respond due to lag and now you're fiddling with the volume button trying to not make it worse? A phy…

I can operate physical buttons without taking my eyes off the road.

I know where the volume knob is and I can easily grab it and turn it without looking away. If it's slow to respond I can go again and dial it back down, without looking away. Or I can just keep my hand on the dial and spin it back a bit.

With a digital screen I can't leave my hand on it without continually pressing the input, and if I want to put the volume down I have to look and see where that button is.

A physical control absolutely fixes this

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#592

Post by gog »

bradgessler wrote: post #413
jjav wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So what? You've got physical buttons? Big whoop. That physical button that takes 500ms to respond is still as dangerous. No, that's wrong. Problem with touchscreens is that (1) you need to look at them and (2) there is no tactile feedback of whether you pressed it or not and (3) you need to hover your arm in a moving car at just the right spot. Physical buttons cleanly resolve all of these major problems. If the ac…

> Physical buttons cleanly resolve all of these major problems > Given that with a physical button you didn't have to take your eyes off the road and given the tactile feedback you know for sure you activated/pressed/moved the control I never understand the "you don't have to look at buttons" argument—my car has lots of physical buttons and to push them, I briefly have to look at the console, find the button, and pre…

I guess it depends on the car, I don't need to look at the buttons in my car, at least not the ones on the steering wheel and the ones by the main console that are used for navigation (including a navigation wheel).

There are a few buttons I would need to look at but they are not something I would usually need while driving.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#594

Post by dontlaugh »

Archelaos wrote: post #575
TheFragenTaken wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that these cars pass safety certification, makes me question certifiers. It's illegal to look at your phone while driving, for good reason, but it's legal to fiddle with a damn computer screen, because it's part of the car. I predict it's a matter of time before we'll see a correlation between number of crashes, and cars with touchscreens.

> but it's legal to fiddle with a damn computer screen, because it's part of the car. In Germany it is only legal to operate a touch screen while driving for essential functions with only a brief glance. For example, a judgement was handed down against a Tesla driver who tried to switch up the interval of the windscreen wiper via touchscreen and ran off the road in the process. Source: https://www.burhoff.de/asp_weit…

Which would have never happened if the car had normal physical controls for that function. Mine has a little rocker on the wiper stalk.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#595

Post by trollied »

I can move my left hand down to leg height, and feel 4 buttons and a jog dial (and that's for things that aren't on the steering wheel). I know what all of them do. I don't need to look. The menus are at eye level so I don't need to look away from the road. This sort of thing should not be changed to touchscreens.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#596

Post by [deleted] »

avereveard wrote: post #327
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's just poorly thought out engineering. There's really no excuse. I owned a B7 Audi A4 which simply limited the volume level to a user-defined setting when you turned on the car. That concept is roughly 20 years old.

And it's not something limited to premium car either, my first generation 500x has three different radio startup behaviour to choose: always on, always off, as it was when you turned the car off

[deleted]

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#598

Post by ghusbands »

moffkalast wrote: post #558
nvilcins wrote: post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The elevator in our apartment building has a touch-button(?) panel. Guess what happens during the cold season when you you've got your gloves on? Yep, absolutely nothing! (bonus f.u. points if you are carrying stuff and cannot easily take the gloves off) Luckily have a fully analogue car so I'm maintaining my sanity somewhat.

You guys don't have capacitive gloves so you can use your phone while wearing them?

Those often become sporadic or just stop working, and gloves for actually-cold weather are too thick or multi-material to have that feature.

Also, the people making the warmer gloves are more interested in keeping hands warm than in adding such features.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#599

Post by [deleted] »

rollcat wrote: post #525
iakov wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only saving grace of those is the ease of cleaning spills. Otherwise I completely agree with you and GP - how annoying it is that every physical button is now a clunky touch surface!

> The only saving grace of those is the ease of cleaning spills. Disagree. Spills can turn hobs on & off, and at best cause the entire control surface to lock up and start beeping - which can quickly turn worst, if a hob happened to turn on a split second earlier. Knobs. On the front, not on the top.

[deleted]

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#600

Post by theK »

lodovic wrote: post #520
m463 wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I never understand the "you don't have to look at buttons" argument—my car has lots of physical buttons and to push them, I briefly have to look at the console, find the button, and press it You don't realize just how MUCH worse doing it on a touchscreen is. A touchscreen button is in a specific region of space, yet that region jumps and jostles around because the car and the touchscreen are moving and your arm is…

Skoda uses gestures, so when I accidentally wave my hand the infotainment system changes page. Really not thought through.

Agreed, gesture control in cars is the next worse thing after touchscreens!
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