Couldn't agree more. Tesla is the biggest violator. In new Teslas, they are removing physical stalks, so if you want to reverse the car, you have to use on-screen controls!
European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
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Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
#12Touch screens are cheaper but step backwards in UX and ergonomics.
If you need to look at the screen and your finger for basic functions, that's not different from using mobile phone while driving.
Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
#13> Tesla is probably at greatest risk here, having recently ditched physical stalks that instead move the turn signal functions to haptic buttons on the steering wheel.
I hate to break it to the article writer, but a haptic button on the steering wheel, while absolutely not easy to use, is a physical control.
Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
#14Couldn't agree more. Tesla is the biggest violator. In new Teslas, they are removing physical stalks, so if you want to reverse the car, you have to use on-screen controls!
There are still physical P, R, N, D controls right below the phone chargers. They aren't exactly easy to use, though.
Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
#15Around 10 years ago, I started looking into buying a new car. I couldn't believe the number of cars that switched to touch controls even 10 years ago. It boggles my mind just how car makers thought it was safer/easier to have touch in a car while one is driving. I refused to buy any car that replaced physical buttons with touch controls 10 years ago and I still have this rule today. Then again, it also boggles my min…
> It boggles my mind just how car makers thought it was safer/easier to have touch in a car while one is driving. Does anyone actually think that though? Or was it considered “good enough” in light of its other benefits like reducing costs, reducing BOM, eliminating part design work, reducing wiring complexity, adding flexibility and customizability, (potentially) increased reliability, making it easier to jam the mu…
Yes yes I get the cheaper/update factor of touch controls. And I don't mind a touch screen for complicated functionality.
I mainly gripe about losing physical buttons for main functions such as temperature control, radio/music control, lights, windshield wipers, etc.
Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
#16But 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.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/2010...
https://www.motortrend.com/uploads/sites/5/2017/07/Tesla-Mod...
At least the steering wheel and pedals still behave the same.
Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
#17Touchscreen controls are the feature on my Tesla I dislike most. Try poking a small icon an arms length away while bouncing over typical Midwest roads and you'll see that it's impossible to do while keeping your eyes on the road. Physical controls would be fantastic, but at the very least they could:
* Radically improve the ability to control the car with the scroll wheels on the steering wheel. I don't mean assigning certain functions to the buttons, I mean having a cursor I could glance at, then put my eyes back on the road while I click right twice, up once, click again and then scroll to change whatever.
* For the love of all that is holy, ANCHOR controls to the top or bottom of the screen where you can brace your hand on the bezel while trying to poke the buttons. Pretty much the opposite of the fan control that is right in the center of the screen.
Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
#18But 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.…
>At least the steering wheel and pedals still behave the same.
For now, companies are experimenting with drive by wire. Don't think I like that concept.
Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
#19If I was buying a new car in the US today, which automakers are doing a better job wrt physical controls?
Re: European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
#20Around 10 years ago, I started looking into buying a new car. I couldn't believe the number of cars that switched to touch controls even 10 years ago. It boggles my mind just how car makers thought it was safer/easier to have touch in a car while one is driving. I refused to buy any car that replaced physical buttons with touch controls 10 years ago and I still have this rule today. Then again, it also boggles my min…
> It boggles my mind just how car makers thought it was safer/easier to have touch in a car while one is driving.
It is likely that neither safety nor ease of use were part of the automaker's "thought process".
It is much more likely that a first misguided "designer" created the first touch panel control and somehow sold it to "management" as being "futuristic" and/or "ahead of the competition". And once the first car model arrived with one, the rest, like firefox to chrome, felt the need to play the imitation game for fear of being seen as not as "trendy" or "futuristic" as that other guy. I.e., purely the "fashion trend" aspect.
Then, as they proliferated, the reduced BOM costs from removing every other previous mechanical control was reverse justified as the reason for continuing to add them to ever more car models.