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Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

autocar.co.uk

331–340 of 770 posts

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#331
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still waiting for the convenient floor-mounted headlamp dimmer switch to come back.

Now would be a good time, there are very few of us who use the engine disconnect pedal these days.

What is an "engine disconnect pedal"? You rewire the ignition or something?

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#332
post #138

Look at the cockpit of any modern airliner and you will see screens, but they are never interactive. There are hardware buttons, dials and lights all over the place. A tactile interface is both more obvious, sturdy and more stable, and therefore safer. The problem that touch interfaces solve, ever since the advent of the first smart phone, is that the interface is now dynamic. You can change it without having to repl…

I work for an avionics manufacturer and I can assure you most of our upcoming comercial systems (and even a healthy portion of government ones) feature touch screen inputs.

A plane isn't a good analogy for a car.

Airplanes have keypads that control complex functions on a screen, going from that kind of keypad to a touchscreen is logical.

In the case of cars, a touchpad is overkill for controlling the cabin temperature, stereo volume, etc.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#333
As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing inherently wrong with "touchscreen controls", it's the usage and user interface assumptions.

Make a touchscreen slider and who knows, perhaps it's even more durable and reliable than a moving part. It's the whole sets of modal interfaces, and jenky controls which make this stuff unsafe, and irritating.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#334
post #138

Look at the cockpit of any modern airliner and you will see screens, but they are never interactive. There are hardware buttons, dials and lights all over the place. A tactile interface is both more obvious, sturdy and more stable, and therefore safer. The problem that touch interfaces solve, ever since the advent of the first smart phone, is that the interface is now dynamic. You can change it without having to repl…

I work for an avionics manufacturer and I can assure you most of our upcoming comercial systems (and even a healthy portion of government ones) feature touch screen inputs.

That’s too bad. Imagine unresponsive touchscreen due to dry skin or wearing gloves, or hands are too sweaty.... or the controller goes out, etc.

Flight plans is one thing but controls are all together a different sort of thing.

Why ask for trouble?

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#335
post #138

Look at the cockpit of any modern airliner and you will see screens, but they are never interactive. There are hardware buttons, dials and lights all over the place. A tactile interface is both more obvious, sturdy and more stable, and therefore safer. The problem that touch interfaces solve, ever since the advent of the first smart phone, is that the interface is now dynamic. You can change it without having to repl…

This comment is off-topic: the article is about physical buttons for non-safety-critical systems. E.g. the article explicitly mentions climate control.

Climate control is something you will want to adjust while driving, so it should be as eyes-free as possible once the basics have been acquired.

I can’t think of a car I’ve driven where the climate control was not physical though, that seems pretty insane.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#336
post #138

Look at the cockpit of any modern airliner and you will see screens, but they are never interactive. There are hardware buttons, dials and lights all over the place. A tactile interface is both more obvious, sturdy and more stable, and therefore safer. The problem that touch interfaces solve, ever since the advent of the first smart phone, is that the interface is now dynamic. You can change it without having to repl…

I work for an avionics manufacturer and I can assure you most of our upcoming comercial systems (and even a healthy portion of government ones) feature touch screen inputs.

The sad but real reason a ton of this is happening is one very big word that is typically not present in things like car / airplane design: flexibility... flexibility to change the user controls, flexibility to fix problems, flexibility to let the SW team work up until the last minute to get stuff working, and the second part that goes with this is cost. Touchscreens mean increased flexibility for the design and better control over cost to deliver features. Unfortunately, if the display dies and you can't see anything, then the car or plane may crash... so sadly it will probably take a couple of those events happening for this to be changed to have some kind of redundant systems that the pilot can use when the display dies suddenly.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#337
post #138

Look at the cockpit of any modern airliner and you will see screens, but they are never interactive. There are hardware buttons, dials and lights all over the place. A tactile interface is both more obvious, sturdy and more stable, and therefore safer. The problem that touch interfaces solve, ever since the advent of the first smart phone, is that the interface is now dynamic. You can change it without having to repl…

I was about to ask if there are any pilots on this thread who could weigh in because this was my intuition as a non-pilot. Just to drive one of your points home further, you don't want the interface to change because that could confuse the pilot. Toyota's braking fiasco is an example where unfamiliarity led to mis-operation even though the hardware or the device itself was functioning "to spec".

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#338
post #8

Eminently sensible call by Honda. Knobs, dials and switches work well and do not demand that a driver takes their eyes off the road. I suppose that voice controls would be a reasonably safe tech option, but probably not cost-effective.

> I suppose that voice controls would be a reasonably safe tech option, but probably not cost-effective.

They all suck and they’re literally not workable for rentals. Nobody will waste an hour configuring a rental car’s VA on departure.

Re: Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

#339
Fuck Honda. I'm never buying another "new" Honda:

While their new and "certified" inventory is rusting on dealer lots, they have declared [0][1] that peons owning Takata NADI inflators (SHRAPNEL BOMBS sitting inches from our faces) should just wait (NO FREE RENTAL) a few MONTHS (sometime in 2021) for them to redesign, test, manufacture, ship, and ultimately replace said shrapnel bomb.

[0] https://hondaairbaginfo.com/nadi

[1] https://hondanews.com/en-US/honda-corporate/releases/release...

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