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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

#811

Post by the_overseer »

kaetemi wrote: post #773
the_overseer wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's part of the manager's job to tell you "I agree but don't care. Do it anyway or I will find somebody else to do it. For cheaper." Always remember that you are replaceable. When the newborn is crying and wants food you do what you've got to do. And there are many people like that.

Nah, that sounds like bad management. They should be relaying the requirements to the hardware team.

Most of the time the hardware team doesn't get to choose their hardware. There is usually a budget and in automotive you can select only hardware that has some specific certifications for use in a car so that narrows the list even further.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#812

Post by berkle4455 »

philsnow wrote: post #279
berkle4455 wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude Winamp was a clean, simple and wickedly responsive UI that allowed a multitude of real-time audio tweaks and supported playlists with thousands of files. This was in the late 90’s running on 166Mhz processors with maybe 16MB of system ram. Are you saying modern car infotainment systems have fewer resources allocated to the UI?

You’ve just reminded me that I lived in a time when my desktop machine was not powerful enough to decode and play MP3s in real time. I had to decode to wav files and play those. This was in a time when far fewer instructions were accelerated on the cpu, and my cpu at the time was something like a 66MHz 486-dx2, and even the (Frauenhofer) mp3 codec wasn’t as optimized as it was later.

Gotta use that turbo button bro

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#813

Post by the_overseer »

hyperhopper wrote: post #671
the_overseer wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood why that is happening. Are they trying to make sure there is no knowledge accumulation at a single tier 1 supplier? Kind of make sure nobody can create a competing product and just sell it to different OEMs?

The poster you replied to was being sarcastic

I actually know for a fact that a new iDrive version was reimplemented from scratch even though it was just an upgrade from the previous version and there would have been enough code to reuse. Maybe he was sarcastic but this actually happens a lot.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#814

Post by ccamrobertson »

bfrog wrote: post #802
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…

Subaru was awesome. The cvt, the ridiculous headsets, and thin paint mean this 18 xt forester is sadly my last one I think. The 5 speed outback sport I had before was absolutely a joy to drive.

We just bought a 2023 6-speed Crosstrek and it’s amazing. Also, fewer (color) screens because it’s practically the base.

Sadly the last year one can get it as a manual.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#815

Post by martyvis »

zaroth wrote: post #754
galangalalgol wrote: post #748

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't believe it could be that nad, but I looked up the video at Tesla and you really have to go to the touchscreen to speed up the wiper. That should absolutely be illegal. Does it have some autosense feature so that you usually don't have to ise it?

It does have an auto mode. But also, you can now adjust wiper speed / interval on the steering wheel in a Tesla without using the touchscreen. Feature was actually added a just a few weeks ago in a software update.

I'm sure it's the type of thing in an Elon meeting he would say "Surely we can think of a solution better than relying on drivers to provide meaningful input to the desired outcome?"

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#816

Post by kgwgk »

the_overseer wrote: post #813
hyperhopper wrote: post #671

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The poster you replied to was being sarcastic

I actually know for a fact that a new iDrive version was reimplemented from scratch even though it was just an upgrade from the previous version and there would have been enough code to reuse. Maybe he was sarcastic but this actually happens a lot.

Do you also know for a fact that each version of iDrive has been reimplemented from scratch twenty or thirty times - once for each car model?

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#817

Post by Gordonjcp »

jonathankoren wrote: post #376
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.…

I wouldn’t necessarily the engineers, but I’ll certainly blame the designers and product managers. I absolutely hate my Acura’s infotainment system. My “favorite” feature isGPS autocomplete. You type in part of an address (which of course has a very slow response time), then you pick the completion off the list. Sounds fine right? But when you click it, you’re met with a SLOW ANIMATION OF THE COMPLETION BEING TYPED I…

"He fired up the car’s onboard GPS device and began coping with its user interface."

REAMDE, Neal Stephenson

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#818

Post by rootusrootus »

esperent wrote: post #473
calmoo wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On my particular electric stovetop if I spill a tiny bit of liquid from cooking onto the buttons, the whole stove goes into protection shutdown mode, and I have to thoroughly dry the buttons to get it to work again. I hate that something that is so simple has such a terrible design flaw.

It's not just your stovetop, it's every non-high-end stove top with touch buttons. I move around a lot and stay in short term rentals. They all have stovetops that stop working if you spill a single drop of water on the controls. It's crazy. I don't think it's anything to do with touch buttons being easier to clean. I think it's just that they are cheap.

I tend to agree. I have a high end induction cooktop with touch controls, and I don't have the same problem. If I spill water on the capacitive touch buttons it might ding at me because it thinks I just pushed that button, but it doesn't freak out or anything, the buttons all still work.

I did choose the touch version specifically because I was tired of all the work cleaning my natural gas cooktop. Now that I've used it for a few months, I think I'd like the knobs better because the cooktop would still be a lot easier to clean overall, but it's not terrible. My biggest complaint is that the cat walks across it at night and I can hear the dings as it steps on the buttons. And then there's the paw prints on the glass. Sigh.

Re: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens

#820

Post by elif »

eptcyka wrote: post #603
elif wrote: post #601

Hard disagree here. I went from touchscreen only (model Y) to 1960's switchboard operator (audi Q6) for a trip helping my family and it drove me insane. The number of button presses, light illumination meanings, automatic modes I had to learn to simply turn off the air conditioning was infuriating. To change the music or interact with navigation I had to click a spinny wheel and turn it like I was tabbing thru option…

Bad UX without touchscreens doesn't warrant viability of touchscreens in cars.

The examples I gave, music and navigation, would need a full qwerty to emulate the capability of a touchscreen.

But please, continue to shit on any opinion positive about Tesla.

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