Toyota executive: "Taking the skin off the Model Y, it was truly a work of art"

[jonny]

Toyota has been incredibly flat footed re: electric.
Tesla has eaten their lunch because Toyota has dug their heals into hybrid.

[Sam3]

I thought Toyota was researching and going toward hydrogen as an alternate vehicle energy system.

[Ken Sp.]

Most tasks can be accomplished with voice commands.
I have over 200,000 Tesla miles, once you learn and adapt, old clunky buttons are no longer preferred.
Yes, it wasn’t better at first, but, now, regular car type controls are so much more cumbersome.
Regarding the efficacy of the touch screen vs buttons, sounds a bit like Steve Balmer saying the iPhone software keyboard "the phone didn’t have a keyboard and so had no appeal for business users"

gabester wrote:
[quote=Carnos Jax]
[quote=Tiangou]
Tesla's tablet-controls are insanely stupid, dangerous, and infuriating.

All false except the last one.
I just have to interject specifically that touch screen controls which require looking at and touching an 2D image based control (as opposed to a physical button than can be activated by position and feel alone) have been scientifically proven to diminish operators' focus on other tasks.

See this thread about the touchbar: https://forums.macresource.com/read.php?...sg-2814226

[Ken Sp.]

Agreed. The "bad rap" was deserved in the early days. The cars produced now are great, and with the new Model Y Gigacasting, are nearly perfect.
Check out the videos from an independent car design and manufacturing genius. He throws tons of kudos to Tesla for the design and production prowess. When he did the first Model 3, he was no fan at all, and pointed out lots of issues.

https://youtube.com/channel/UCj--iMtToRO_cGG_fpmP5XQ

Carnos Jax wrote:
[quote=]New Toyota CEO, with eye on Tesla, plots next-gen EV platform push. Grudging admiration for Tesla helps reinforce a stark realization at Toyota. For all its expertise in electrification going back to the first Prius hybrid, Toyota needs a great leap forward for the new era of full electrics.

https://www.autonews.com/manufacturing/h...-about-evs

There are many that still think Tesla quality sucks (I keep hearing this claim repeated), but most familiar with Tesla know this not to be true.

[Lux Interior]

Ken Sp. wrote:
Regarding the efficacy of the touch screen vs buttons, sounds a bit like Steve Balmer saying the iPhone software keyboard "the phone didn’t have a keyboard and so had no appeal for business users"

I'm not typing on my phone while doing 70 MPH on the highway.

I mean, I know some people do, but....

[kj]

gabester wrote:
[quote=Carnos Jax]
[quote=Tiangou]
Tesla's tablet-controls are insanely stupid, dangerous, and infuriating.

All false except the last one.
I just have to interject specifically that touch screen controls which require looking at and touching an 2D image based control (as opposed to a physical button than can be activated by position and feel alone) have been scientifically proven to diminish operators' focus on other tasks.

See this thread about the touchbar: https://forums.macresource.com/read.php?...sg-2814226
I don't own stock in Tesla, but that list is mostly ridiculous. I'd need to see data that showed Teslas are more dangerous to drive on the whole.

Tbh, I have believed a lot of that stuff, but with real experience, I can say it's pretty much rubbish. For example, hard paint vs soft paint. There are disadvantages/advantages to both (soft scratches more easily, but it's easier to buff scratches out). I've also found there's almost no reason to futz with anything that can't wait until I stop a light, etc. The most oft used stuff is opened by touching the corners, which I don't have to look at to do anyway. The only thing I can think of that I would like is a volume knob.

edit: What are the controls people are worried about? I just haven't noticed things being that big a pain, but maybe I just don't futz with stuff that much.

[Gareth]

kj wrote:
edit: What are the controls people are worried about? I just haven't noticed things being that big a pain, but maybe I just don't futz with stuff that much.

I believe the one that had everyone up in arms (myself included) is wiper control. But, now that I've learned there's an "Auto" mode, as well as a physical button for a single wipe, it's not as annoying as I originally thought, since you would presumably just leave it in auto mode as long as that functions well enough.

How to use the Tesla Model 3 windscreen wipers safely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6lpSrIBar4

If auto mode doesn't function correctly, or well enough, then, yea, I still think it's kind of a pain to use a touchscreen at 60mph. Voice control is another option, that seems to work well, albeit certainly slower than a physical control (and does it work well with background music/audio?).

I believe it's Chevy that has moved headlight control to the touchscreen as well (on one model so far), but again, you can just leave it in auto mode.

Although it seems to be cheaper for the manufacturer to have touchscreen controls and they can provide easy updates that way, my other concern with moving controls to the touchscreen is the cost to the consumer if that screen needs to be replaced, as that will be a stupidly expensive part compared to a physical switch. But, hopefully, that's a rare occurance.

[kj]

Gareth wrote:
[quote=kj]
edit: What are the controls people are worried about? I just haven't noticed things being that big a pain, but maybe I just don't futz with stuff that much.

I believe the one that had everyone up in arms (myself included) is wiper control. But, now that I've learned there's an "Auto" mode, as well as a physical button for a single wipe, it's not as annoying as I originally thought, since you would presumably just leave it in auto mode as long as that functions well enough.

How to use the Tesla Model 3 windscreen wipers safely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6lpSrIBar4

If auto mode doesn't function correctly, or well enough, then, yea, I still think it's kind of a pain to use a touchscreen at 60mph. Voice control is another option, that seems to work well, albeit certainly slower than a physical control (and does it work well with background music/audio?).

I believe it's Chevy that has moved headlight control to the touchscreen as well (on one model so far), but again, you can just leave it in auto mode.

Although it seems to be cheaper for the manufacturer to have touchscreen controls and they can provide easy updates that way, my other concern with moving controls to the touchscreen is the cost to the consumer if that screen needs to be replaced, as that will be a stupidly expensive part compared to a physical switch. But, hopefully, that's a rare occurance.
Yeah, between the auto-wipe and hitting the single button wipe, I feel reasonably safe. But maybe I better just park it until more studies come out ;-)

My headlights just turn on. Sometimes they turn on when I pull into my driveway, which is dumb, but not unsafe. Also, they turn on under overpasses, which is probably best, but I think it's dorky. I turned off the auto-brights. THAT was silly.

[RgrF]

Acer wrote:
My cars, which predate touchscreens in cars by a couple years, all have basic input selection, volume controls and preset station tuning on the steering wheel. Is that still a thing in Tesla and other touch-screen cars?

I'll miss that feature once the 310,000 mile Audi decides to join the great auto graveyard.