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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

#721

Post by bluGill »

matwood wrote: post #699
hasmolo wrote: post #661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i'm dropping my subaru for this among other reasons. 1. throttle response, move your foot to 20% and experience between no throttle and wide open as the 'turbos' kick in in my outback 2. every time we get near an intersection with bollards, it thinks it's a kid and slams on the brakes 3. you're not allowed to persist auto start disabling 4. you will be nagged for looking anywhere other than dead straight, especially…

Wow on 2-5, but I thought 1 was 'normal' for cars with a turbo charger?

Turbo lag is normal, but is is rarely more than a couple seconds. Even my F350 when pulling a heavy trailer I don't notice it - unless I'm in too high a gear for my speed. (I've only had a turbo with a manual transmission - I've driven some automatics that are slow enough to shift that you might think it was bad turbo lag, but those cars didn't even have a turbo)

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#723

Post by FeistySkink »

barrysteve wrote: post #694
acapybara wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our Subaru has a physical volume knob. Its position is only a "gentle suggestion" to the software to move volume up or down. At times, especially when starting the vehicle, there is major latency in the software processing the knob movement.. Also, if the knob is moved too fast, the sw gets the wrong reading. This results in volume being way too high for serveral seconds as well as many other frustrating, dangerous s…

Same with my Hyundai. Volume knob is unpredictable above a slow pace. It's a great car otherwise, but that makes the flaw stick out even more.

Last year's top trim Tucson was the most uncanny valley of cars I've ever driven. All the controls are there, and sort of work, but everything is slightly off and inconvenient in an almost imperceptible way. That and it managed to break GPS with Android Auto, so plugging the phone in resulted in a worse reception and the car frequently lost itself, jumped to parallel roads and rerouted.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#724

Post by dallbee »

hasmolo wrote: post #661
acapybara wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our Subaru has a physical volume knob. Its position is only a "gentle suggestion" to the software to move volume up or down. At times, especially when starting the vehicle, there is major latency in the software processing the knob movement.. Also, if the knob is moved too fast, the sw gets the wrong reading. This results in volume being way too high for serveral seconds as well as many other frustrating, dangerous s…

i'm dropping my subaru for this among other reasons. 1. throttle response, move your foot to 20% and experience between no throttle and wide open as the 'turbos' kick in in my outback 2. every time we get near an intersection with bollards, it thinks it's a kid and slams on the brakes 3. you're not allowed to persist auto start disabling 4. you will be nagged for looking anywhere other than dead straight, especially…

Interesting. Out of these 5 issues I've only experienced the auto start annoyance on my Subaru crosstrek 2021.

Is this limited to their higher end models?

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#725

Post by mgraupner »

tomatocracy wrote: post #531
bjarneh wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - the controls on my stove top How were these stove-top touch-buttons ever considered an upgrade to their predecessor? They always have no feedback, or that annoyingly high "beep" feedback. They are always slow to respond. They typically use only two or three buttons to control the actual temperature, forcing you to select location first, which is typically slow and terrible as well. Nobody in their right mind can…

Speaking of stove tops - Neff's "TwistPadFire" somehow manages what I previously thought was impossible - it actually takes touch buttons and makes them even worse. The control is a a magnetic circular thing you stick on a specific area on the stove top. It comes off the stove top so first of all you have to manage not to lose it / you have to find it before you can use the stove. Then when you try to use it you have…

I like their solution, much better than just touch and still easy to clean. Very fast to go from 0 to max and back. No problem in activating them, you're 'probably holding it wrong'. ;)

I don't know how one can loose/have to find them, mine is always on the stove, I only take if off while cleaning and put it back on afterwards, which is a thing of milliseconds, thanks to the magnetic attachment.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#726

Post by AlgorithmicTime »

hasmolo wrote: post #661
acapybara wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our Subaru has a physical volume knob. Its position is only a "gentle suggestion" to the software to move volume up or down. At times, especially when starting the vehicle, there is major latency in the software processing the knob movement.. Also, if the knob is moved too fast, the sw gets the wrong reading. This results in volume being way too high for serveral seconds as well as many other frustrating, dangerous s…

i'm dropping my subaru for this among other reasons. 1. throttle response, move your foot to 20% and experience between no throttle and wide open as the 'turbos' kick in in my outback 2. every time we get near an intersection with bollards, it thinks it's a kid and slams on the brakes 3. you're not allowed to persist auto start disabling 4. you will be nagged for looking anywhere other than dead straight, especially…

[dead]

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#727

Post by bluGill »

geraldwhen wrote: post #548
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.

In many states you can absolutely use your phone while driving, either to call someone or actively use gps without a window mount. What’s explicitly prohibited is texting/writing and driving.

In all states where it is allowed you can be sure there is at least one lobby group (probably bicycles) working to make it illegal.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#728

Post by gcatalfamo »

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…

Physical buttons allow you to press them without looking away from the road.

This is the only real topic about buttons and driving.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#729

Post by pnt12 »

HeavyStorm wrote: post #697

Let me just say it: at some point I felt the industry was flooded by "UX professionals" coming from other backgrounds that knew a lot about making software look good and zero about making it usable.

UX and usability tests are dead. It's all shiny UIs and A/B testing now (and the metric is always profit, never ease of use or safety).

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#730

Post by dom96 »

chrisan wrote: post #696
acapybara wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our Subaru has a physical volume knob. Its position is only a "gentle suggestion" to the software to move volume up or down. At times, especially when starting the vehicle, there is major latency in the software processing the knob movement.. Also, if the knob is moved too fast, the sw gets the wrong reading. This results in volume being way too high for serveral seconds as well as many other frustrating, dangerous s…

Clearly that is a problem with Subaru (and Honda from someone else?) and not physical buttons themselves. Just because some vehicles have a piss poor implementation doesn't mean the idea of physical is wrong. I have a 2015/16 Ford and Chevy with the infotainment screens - both have physical buttons and both respond instantly to my changes. They also both have an additional volume control on the steering wheel itself…

> and Honda from someone else?

fwiw my '20 Honda Civic doesn't have this problem. Volume knob feedback is instant.

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