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Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

drive.com.au

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Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#311

Post by CrimsonRain »

dangus wrote: post #166
_the_inflator wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite China, IT development is a complete disaster in Germany. All car so called German car manufacturers UX/UI is horrible to say the least. Dieter Rams is the only UX/UI designer, who became famous - outside of Germany. Hartmut Esslinger kind of popularized DR, what an irony, that two Germans made history, but of course not in Germany and even in Germany DR wasn't well known. Braun was a brand and statement, but…

Total nonsense you’re spewing here. Especially for it being very country-biased in a world where giants like Volkswagen and BMW are highly international. https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/innovation/innovation-network/te... For example, BMW tech offices exist in Silicon Valley and Shanghai, among other locations. German cars have been very well-regarded in terms of their automotive interfaces by the automotive press and re…

Where driving platform dynamics are they offering that helps normal people (not talking about car junkies here)??

All the provide is a squeeze money scheme by making everything paid upgrade, laggy software, buggy software, bad range and much more.

There's nothing good about most German cars anymore. Bmw neu klasse is finally a decent answer but it took how many years?

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#312

Post by CrimsonRain »

sgustard wrote: post #294
m463 wrote: post #275

I think they should distinguish between controls and settings. Settings are great on a touchscreen. A wide variety of options, easily navigated to and explained. They suck on physical buttons, it ends up being like setting the time on a VCR. Controls on the other hand deserve physical buttons. Or levers. or dials/knobs/spinners. It should depend on muscle memory, and the type of control. I also thing driving status s…

I used to drive a 2001 S-class ... easily counted nearly 100 physical buttons within reach of the driver. In theory you could use the 10-digit keypad like an old flip phone to enter a physical address into the navigation, but is that really what people want to go back to?

Some people just want a faster horse :)

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#314

Post by CrimsonRain »

fooker wrote: post #276
mvkel wrote: post #273

The argument of buttons vs no buttons is missing the forest for the trees. Teslas have a mere two buttons and are generally a joy to use. Why? Because the UI/UX was taken seriously, and the cpu hardware wasn't sourced from the dolllar store. This combination resulted in a screen-only experience that is responsive and easy to use (if you disagree with this, I will point you to Tesla's consumer satisfaction ratings, wh…

Tesla software is in no way a joy to use. I had rented one and it was infuriatingly bad. I'm sure people can get used to it, but people can get used to literally anything. The map looks like it really wants to be in Star Trek more than than it is meant to be usable software. Doing simple things takes getting into menus 2-3 layers deep, often while driving.

What needs to be changed during driving that needs 2-3 layers deep stuff? Examples.

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#315

Post by satvikpendem »

r0fl wrote: post #92
eurekin wrote: post #82

Never understood any appeal of a screen inside a car: 1. Reflections make you tilt, just to make some pesky highlights go away. Even if they are angled properly, there's always something (like a sun reflected by a watche's face) what causes nuissance at any angle 2. Car can go from a tunnel to a sunny valley in few seconds. That's 5 to 8 stops of dynamic range difference, that a human eye is easily designed to handle…

To expand on #4 WINTER AND GLOVES! Yes it’s a first world proven that I have to take gloves off to turn on my heated seats but buttons made sure stupid problems like this never happened in the first place

There are gloves that work with capacitive touchscreens and have existed for 20 years now ever since the iPhone came out.

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#316

Post by satvikpendem »

jval43 wrote: post #293
r0fl wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To expand on #4 WINTER AND GLOVES! Yes it’s a first world proven that I have to take gloves off to turn on my heated seats but buttons made sure stupid problems like this never happened in the first place

Counterpoint: the touchscreen in my car DOES work with gloves. Of course the knobs do too. The screen is some different tech and not quite as responsive as an iPhone screen and does not do multitouch, but otherwise works fine.

What car do you have? Usually lower end cars have resistive touchscreens which yours sounds like an example of, but higher end ones have capacitive touchscreens and those don't generally work with gloves, but of course gloves that work with capacitive touchscreens exist and have for many years now.

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#317

Post by sandworm101 »

BrentOzar wrote: post #56
donkyrf wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 992.2 has AA/CarPlay, and an outstanding user interface, with a nice mix of configurable displays and physical buttons. Fairly certain it is a top 100 product in it's market.

The cup holder situation, on the other hand… (992.1 owner)

My favorite car was a 92 BMW 325IS coupe, standard. It was a simple driving machine. It drove well. It performed when asked. It had room for four, or three plus skiis with half the rear seat folded down. And BMW took a strong stance against drinking and driving: zero cup holders.

I miss that car. I would buy one again in a heartbeat if BMW still made them.

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#318

Post by satvikpendem »

_the_inflator wrote: post #31
nokeya wrote: post #6

I’m quite suspicious that they do that not because they understood or learned something, but because China requires physical buttons starting next year. And they simply don’t want to lose one of their biggest markets.

Despite China, IT development is a complete disaster in Germany. All car so called German car manufacturers UX/UI is horrible to say the least. Dieter Rams is the only UX/UI designer, who became famous - outside of Germany. Hartmut Esslinger kind of popularized DR, what an irony, that two Germans made history, but of course not in Germany and even in Germany DR wasn't well known. Braun was a brand and statement, but…

> And to the haters: Show me any company or product from Germany in IT that is Top 100 globally. Only SAP is or has been featured somewhere below the bottom.

Much as people seem to dislike when I say this, but, Europe simply cannot compete anymore in technology and tries to legislate away its problems, which, while sometimes something good does come out of it like the DMA, it does not help long term when there are no good home grown big tech (or indeed, any sector in the top 100) companies of their own.

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#319

Post by mparkms »

jval43 wrote: post #287
geodel wrote: post #258

Last time it was VW bringing it back, then Mazda bringing it back, and so on. Also luxury cars will not use touch controls, thats only for cheap cars . It appears wishful thinking that physical buttons are coming back. This would be an idea whose time has gone. It does not even matter companies that physical buttons are better, or they can offer as choice (at higher price) if someone wanted. Like remote working, offi…

Even Toyota is going touch now, with the 2026 models lacking climate control knobs. I don't know why. Every review always praised the previous models for the physical buttons, and literally nobody asked for them. The physical buttons were perfect, yet they've taken them away. There must be some grand anti-button conspiracy, it just doesn't make any sense.

Chasing trends and it's now cheaper to have a single touchscreen with software controls than to design and manufacture physical controls.

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#320

Post by CamperBob2 »

_the_inflator wrote: post #31
nokeya wrote: post #6

I’m quite suspicious that they do that not because they understood or learned something, but because China requires physical buttons starting next year. And they simply don’t want to lose one of their biggest markets.

Despite China, IT development is a complete disaster in Germany. All car so called German car manufacturers UX/UI is horrible to say the least. Dieter Rams is the only UX/UI designer, who became famous - outside of Germany. Hartmut Esslinger kind of popularized DR, what an irony, that two Germans made history, but of course not in Germany and even in Germany DR wasn't well known. Braun was a brand and statement, but…

Nah, 991.1/981 had the best UX/UI. It used screens for the controls that need to be on screens (navigation and entertainment), and physical buttons for everything else.

There needs to be a screen, but it should be used only for optional features. It shouldn't be required. The 9x1 generation got that. In the 992, you can't even open your garage door without fumbling around with the stupid touchscreen.

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