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European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

arstechnica.com

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Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#291

Post by Zenst »

It is somewhat crazy that the shift to a touch screen, which for some, is hard to use and for all, lacks tactile feedback. You can't beat a button or a dial-in in that respect or even replicate that fully on the limitations of a touchscreen.

It almost feels like there is an untapped market for after-market physical controls that can interface with the car that is begging to be tapped. Equally, shudder if somebody patented the ability to add physical controls to augment touch interfaces.

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#292

Post by modeless »

Kuinox wrote: post #288
modeless wrote: post #207

> Now, Euro NCAP is not insisting on everything being its own button or switch. But the organization wants to see physical controls for turn signals, hazard lights, windshield wipers, the horn, and any SOS features This is much more reasonable than I assumed. Unlike seemingly most people here I have no problem whatsoever with fan controls or audio controls or whatever on the touchscreen, as long as it is responsive (…

> I have no problem whatsoever with fan controls Fan controls are important to remove fog on the windows. I should be able to enable it without looking away the road.

If you live in a place where this is frequently required, in a Tesla you can put the defrost button on the shortcut bar at the bottom of the screen, where it only requires a quick glance to align your thumb to activate it. Which is actually easier than many cars with physical controls that may require multiple button presses and/or knob turns to configure all of the correct climate settings for defrosting in the current conditions.

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#293

Post by freeAgent »

nly wrote: post #282
userbinator wrote: post #16

But the organization wants to see physical controls for turn signals, hazard lights, windshield wipers, the horn Are there really cars where the horn is not a physical button/ring on the steering wheel? IMHO the driving UX peaked in the 1960s, and was largely unchanged into the 2000s, until touch screens started taking over. Compare: https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads... https://images-stag.…

I've been driving for 15 years and only ever used my horn once.

Then it’s likely you don’t have a significant commute to work in a city with heavy traffic.

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#294

Post by freeAgent »

speedgoose wrote: post #161
noirbot wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've owned one for so long and it makes me so upset that Mazda doesn't have an EV yet. I just want my current car as an EV and I'd be happy.

They do sell en EV in some places, the MX-30. It’s a terrible EV that was outdated before its release, so that’s perhaps why they don’t try to sell it more. We are talking about the company that still invest in internal combustion engines so don’t have too high hopes.

They are partnering with Toyota on future EVs, not that Toyota has been a leader there either…

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#295

Post by arethuza »

modeless wrote: post #292
Kuinox wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have no problem whatsoever with fan controls Fan controls are important to remove fog on the windows. I should be able to enable it without looking away the road.

If you live in a place where this is frequently required, in a Tesla you can put the defrost button on the shortcut bar at the bottom of the screen, where it only requires a quick glance to align your thumb to activate it. Which is actually easier than many cars with physical controls that may require multiple button presses and/or knob turns to configure all of the correct climate settings for defrosting in the curr…

Much easier to have a single physical button.

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#296

Post by squarefoot »

I couldn't agree more. Touch screen aren't cool, they're a necessary inconvenience where there's no room for physical controls (ie, phones and tablets) and can have some uses in multimedia systems, but using them for driving related or critical controls in cars is both stupid and dangerous: latency and lack of feedback could distract the driver attention away from the road, then a single hit on the screen and the user loses all controls at the same time.

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#297

Post by mrweasel »

mannycalavera42 wrote: post #258

say their names: all the "UX experts" who pushed for their removal

If any UX testing had been done on these cars it would have been noticed that the drivers eyes drift from the road for far to long while operating auxiliary features. These large glass interfaces are meant as eye candy and/or cost saving.

It's really sad that companies no longer care to do any type of UX research, we need it more than ever. There are so few good product left in pretty much all product categories. It seems that with the introduction of the iPhone even Apple has opted to just stop doing any type of research and experimentation into UX.

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#298

Post by concordDance »

williamcotton wrote: post #219
tmikaeld wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> …Teslas. Or at least it was, until they removed the physical turn signal controls. The turn signals wasn’t removed, they moved them to the steering wheel as physical buttons. Which ofc isn’t optimal, because you turn it…

So that’s why everyone who drives a Tesla never uses their turn signal?

I've seen hundreds of Teslas driving in the UK and they're just as likely to use a turn signal as anyone else (~99%).

I'm not sure I've seen a less substantive comment on hacker news that wasn't flagged.

Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

#299

Post by rlt »

darkwater wrote: post #220
threeseed wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue with the horn is referring to the Tesla Model S. And specifically the horn button being capacitive co-located with the voice assistance and windscreen wiper buttons. Which in a safety situation was difficult to locate and press.

They just reverted the horn positioning in the soon-to-be-released refresh of the Model S/X. Sometimes even Elon admits he was wrong.

I mean, one of his mantras is "If you're not adding things back in at least 10% of the time, you're clearly not deleting enough."
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