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Car touchscreens are cheap, not good

ben.stolovitz.com

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Re: Car touchscreens are cheap, not good

#141

Post by JohnFen »

kleiba2 wrote: post #3

I think there is a real market for modding news cars to have physical buttons again. Whenever this discussion pops up on the internet, there's plenty if people who prefer them (they're called "old folks" ;-)) so why not mod your dashboard to feature a - wait for it - volume button for your music!

> I think there is a real market for modding news cars to have physical buttons again.

I sure hope so. I can avoid this whole touchscreen madness by only buying older cars, but there's a chance that I'll outlive the availability of cars that are old enough.

Re: Car touchscreens are cheap, not good

#142

Post by elcritch »

MisterTea wrote: post #33
citelao wrote: post #2

OP here: I always disliked touchscreens in cars, so I didn't understand why automakers kept shoving them in. I always assumed I was weird in some way, and that most consumers preferred touchscreens or something (Reddit seems to argue this in circles all the time). I planned to keep buying Mazdas, with their lovely buttons and stuff. But when Mazda unveiled their button-lite 2026 CX-5 about a year ago, I started inves…

> I'm pretty convinced that touchscreens today are primarily a cost-saving measure, and every other justification is secondary. I hope I can convince you, too! It amuses me that back in the 90's LCD color screens were magical fairy dust that cost about the same as what magical fairy dust would cost. Laptops with color LCD screens were like $6000 in the 90's, I think $3k over a greyscale. That's like $13k today. Where…

Yeah it's sorta of fascinating. Likewise now cells phones are faster than supercomputers from two decades ago and everyone can afford one. Meanwhile hardwood furniture is much more expensive now that it's usually in the "rich peoples" category.

From what I've read, the little plastic baubles part of buttons are cheap, it's the electrical wiring harnesses and assembly that are expensive part of physical controls.

Re: Car touchscreens are cheap, not good

#143

Post by bryanlarsen »

MisterTea wrote: post #33
citelao wrote: post #2

OP here: I always disliked touchscreens in cars, so I didn't understand why automakers kept shoving them in. I always assumed I was weird in some way, and that most consumers preferred touchscreens or something (Reddit seems to argue this in circles all the time). I planned to keep buying Mazdas, with their lovely buttons and stuff. But when Mazda unveiled their button-lite 2026 CX-5 about a year ago, I started inves…

> I'm pretty convinced that touchscreens today are primarily a cost-saving measure, and every other justification is secondary. I hope I can convince you, too! It amuses me that back in the 90's LCD color screens were magical fairy dust that cost about the same as what magical fairy dust would cost. Laptops with color LCD screens were like $6000 in the 90's, I think $3k over a greyscale. That's like $13k today. Where…

Injection molding is still quite cheap. I think it's the tooling and labor and wiring and parts management et cetera that makes the cost add up for fiddly little bits.

Re: Car touchscreens are cheap, not good

#144

Post by initatus »

4fterd4rk wrote: post #88

The anti-screen crowd vastly overestimates people's competence with buttons. "You can hit them without taking your eyes off the road!" Please observe the typical driver as they attempt to change their climate control settings and report back.

My sense of touch contributes to making sure I actuate the control I want. I can glance at a knob for a split second and then my hand can get "close enough" to finally navigate to the correct position using only touch. Then I can manipulate that and adjacent controls as much as I want with no hassle.

With capacitive, I'm holding my whole-ass arm in the air in a bouncing car trying to watch my finger tip float around a button, with the intensity of shooting proton torpedoes down an exhaust shaft. Alllmmoosstt tthhheerree!

Re: Car touchscreens are cheap, not good

#145

Post by wilg »

estearum wrote: post #54
wilg wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla arguably has better, more useful, and more obvious physical buttons than most cars. Most car manufacturers spray confusing physical buttons everywhere with esoteric icons and insane UX. Everything you'd want to do as a driver in a Tesla has a physical button or a set it and forget it "auto" mode.

That's why Lyft/Uber drivers who use Teslas need to cover them in stickers explaining how to do such esoteric behaviors as "open door"

That’s a physical button.

Re: Car touchscreens are cheap, not good

#146

Post by wilg »

urbsgpw wrote: post #79
wilg wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla arguably has better, more useful, and more obvious physical buttons than most cars. Most car manufacturers spray confusing physical buttons everywhere with esoteric icons and insane UX. Everything you'd want to do as a driver in a Tesla has a physical button or a set it and forget it "auto" mode.

Uhm, I like Teslas a lot. The design and the philosophy of just minimizing the amount of components. But where I would draw the line is AC via touch screen (again, if Grok can now do it reliably, fine, otherwise, buttons please). Also, depending on the model, I know some models had turn signals in some weird places (above the head? or am I hallucinating?). Also to make your point: if it hadnt been for carplay and its…

They briefly put the turn signals on the wheel which is not amazing but they’re back on the stalk now.

AC is not an issue IMO. It’s always in the same place on the screen, on auto, and I never touch it really.

Re: Car touchscreens are cheap, not good

#147

Post by ninalanyon »

kube-system wrote: post #91
ninalanyon wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither of those are a problem in my 2015 Tesla Model S for the buttons that control the climate control or media player. It seems to me that many of the problems that people report related to touch controls are more to do with how they are laid out than the fact that they are touch controls.

They're at the bottom of a portrait screen (and IIRC there's a bit of a bezel to rest your hand on), which makes it a little better. Floating screens make this harder, especially as they get larger and further from the driver Tesla has also been guilty of some particularly awful designs on later models, like requiring the driver to navigate to a submenu to turn on the wipers (which I know they changed in an update, b…

> Tesla has also been guilty of some particularly awful designs on later models,

Absolutely! They loaned me a Model 3 while my 2015 Model S 70D was having the battery replaced (just before the warranty ran out). I really disliked it despite it being considerably newer and having longer range. The big portrait screen on the old Model S being firmly embedded in the dashboard makes it much easier to use. Also part of the landscape screen on the Model 3 was obscured by my left hand on the steering wheel (UK spec right hand drive car).

I was very glad to get back into my ancient Model S.

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