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Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

motorauthority.com

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Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#901

Post by nradov »

ceejayoz wrote: post #700
leonroy wrote: post #689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The likely driving force that is causing it is the manufacturers BOM costs. Whilst I think this is part of it's about more than just reducing the BOM. There's a trend to move all interfaces from knobs and switches to touch screens even when money isn't the problem. For example the SpaceX Dragon capsule also takes this approach which you can see from the images below: https://www.spacex.com/crew-dragon A heavily vib…

> A heavily vibrating vehicle which needs to be operated quickly and with 100% reliability by a human operator really should not be operated via a proliferation of touch screens and touch buttons as the images above show. In fairness to SpaceX, Dragon largely isn't designed to be operated by a human. There's a reason that page calls out stuff like "how warm should the cabin be" as the sort of decisions being made wit…

Perhaps I'm missing something but how could the Dragon capsule automation handle something like the emergency that occurred during the Gemini 8 mission? Without manual control by the astronauts it could have turned into a real disaster.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_8#Emergency

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#902

Post by ceejayoz »

nradov wrote: post #901
ceejayoz wrote: post #700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A heavily vibrating vehicle which needs to be operated quickly and with 100% reliability by a human operator really should not be operated via a proliferation of touch screens and touch buttons as the images above show. In fairness to SpaceX, Dragon largely isn't designed to be operated by a human. There's a reason that page calls out stuff like "how warm should the cabin be" as the sort of decisions being made wit…

Perhaps I'm missing something but how could the Dragon capsule automation handle something like the emergency that occurred during the Gemini 8 mission? Without manual control by the astronauts it could have turned into a real disaster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_8#Emergency

Computing and testing has come a long way since the Gemini days. We now have aircraft (particularly military fighters) that are literally uncontrollable without the computers.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#903

Post by goshx »

ConceptJunkie wrote: post #585
electriclove wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather, let's bring the good touchscreen interface to all cars.

No. Just no. You can't use a touchscreen without looking at it constantly. Full stop.

Of course you can. It's not like the buttons will be moving around.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#904

Post by breakyerself »

marapuru wrote: post #47

Praise to Mazda for making this decision. As a User Experience Professional, I was never able to grasp the true user's need for touch screens in cars. For years I have been working on product interfaces (not just apps). Many studies I conducted actually told me that people favored analog controls over digital touch screens controls. It gives you tactile feedback, making it accessible for anyone with sense of touch. >…

I like my touch screen. There is a lot I can do on it without much distraction. If something is in a sub menu that takes more than a fraction of a second to get to then I wait until I'm on a straight away that autopilot can handle and do it while I'm on autopilot.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#905

Post by PascLeRasc »

celticmusic wrote: post #703
blacksmith_tb wrote: post #693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The giant but not very useful 11in touchscreen in my 2017 Toyota Prius Prime can just be turned off. No really vital functions live in there, it's mostly the (iffy) GPS and settings like the audio source, which I don't need to change much. Almost all the normal things, like temp, lights, cruise etc. are still accessible via physical controls.

I think the big one for me would be radio and temp. I assume no one in their right mind would put lights or cruise control behind a touch screen, but I could be wrong there. And maybe part of it is me being set in my old man ways, but I don't want a touch screen for any of that. Probably the only 2 things I can see being useful on that screen are the reverse camera and GPS that talks to you and you can glance at it o…

I'm a "millennial" (25) and I don't want a touch screen either. Car companies just can't make a phone as well as phone companies do. It's not about if the touch screen can be ignored, I specifically want to not have one, like how I don't want RGB lights on a computer or a Windows key on a keyboard, even if I can just ignore them.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#907

Post by _ea1k »

navigatesol wrote: post #405
mstade wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your assessment is spot on. CarPlay is the best all screen car interface I've used, and these days it's all I ever use if it's available in the car I'm driving. The only car interfaces I like that aren't CarPlay are all buttons and dials, i.e. pre smart phone era cars, and even then only a handful really made sense to me.

> CarPlay is the best all screen car interface I've used, and these days it's all I ever use if it's available in the car I'm driving. Curious, do you own a car, or are you renting them? Maybe that's why some people are such advocates for the Apple/Android interfaces: when you're driving different cars regularly it's helpful to have a consistent interface. Meanwhile, I have never had any problem "getting used to" the…

I own a car with Android Auto and I use it all of the time. The biggest benefit is the voice interface, but almost everything about the nav system on Android Auto is better than the builtin one.

AFAIK, one of the main feature requests for Tesla is to add Android Auto. Its one of those things that is annoying to go without, once you've had it available for a while.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#908

Post by _ea1k »

marapuru wrote: post #47

Praise to Mazda for making this decision. As a User Experience Professional, I was never able to grasp the true user's need for touch screens in cars. For years I have been working on product interfaces (not just apps). Many studies I conducted actually told me that people favored analog controls over digital touch screens controls. It gives you tactile feedback, making it accessible for anyone with sense of touch. >…

> This to me is insane reasoning. That is no way user centric. This decision is 100% business driven and has nothing to do with the end user. It basically means they have given up on developing a good branded interface between the driver and the car.

This is really wrong. People were begging Mazda to add Android Auto and Apple CarPlay for years and they have only just recently added them. Adding these features has everything to do with what people want. Android Auto is pretty amazing, and is steadily getting better as well.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#909

Post by SN76477 »

ardy42 wrote: post #845
leonroy wrote: post #689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The likely driving force that is causing it is the manufacturers BOM costs. Whilst I think this is part of it's about more than just reducing the BOM. There's a trend to move all interfaces from knobs and switches to touch screens even when money isn't the problem. For example the SpaceX Dragon capsule also takes this approach which you can see from the images below: https://www.spacex.com/crew-dragon A heavily vib…

> I think current fashions are very much to blame in a lot of cases. A sleek touchscreen operated car in the showroom is a sexier buy than your more traditional button festooned dashboard. Buyer's only get a chance to regret it after they've spent a lot of time with the vehicle. Exactly. Touch screens are pure tech fad in about 50% of use cases at least , with the decision to use them not based on any kind of practic…

Touch screens are not as mature as a button or knob. We know that using a small knob to control a radio works, it is tried and true again and again.

But we also know that replacing the steering wheel with a small knob is a bad idea.

This is because this is a mature technology has that has as many bad implications as good ones.

I guess I’m a way tough screens need to be everywhere since that is how the technology matured and we know where they should not be used.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#910

Post by rconti »

ubermonkey wrote: post #807
rconti wrote: post #724

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a 2016 Golf with CarPlay and only used it about twice. I hated how it was locked into only the functions it supported, didn't let me use the in-car nav or other functions while it took over my screen, and it also took over my phone.

If you thought CarPlay was going to let you control aspects of your car, not aspects of your phone, then you misunderstood it entirely. It also doesn't "take over" your phone. You can use your phone normally while it's plugged into CarPlay; I think the only difference is that phone calls will be done through the car's audio system.

I'm not sure what you thought I thought. I was absolutely not expecting CarPlay itself to let me "control aspects of my car". I don't even know what this means.

Here are the problems:

* When my phone is plugged into CarPlay, it completely takes over the entire head unit/nav system/screen of the car. I cannot easily swap in and out between CarPlay and the various control systems on my center screen -- Nav, car settings, etc. I'm STUCK IN CARPLAY. I cannot have the directions from the nav system show up in the MID display between the gauges, either, even though that's a separate display.

* It took over my phone. I was unable to do anything using my phone. Perhaps that has changed, but this is the way it was in 2016 which was 2nd gen of CarPlay, where they started adding more apps.

* Phone calls done through my car's audio system -- correct. However, this was also the case over bluetooth. That was the main problem with carplay. Bluetooth already solved most of the problems CarPlay purported to solve -- I had phone calls, streaming spotify, etc. The only thing I didn't have without CarPlay was a simplified Spotify (or whatever app) UI on my in-dash screen, hiding everything else I might want to do on said screen.

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