Sometimes, real buttons are better than the best touchscreen

[raz]

I like the approach my Mazda takes. At speeds greater than 0 (maybe 5mph) the touchscreen is disabled. There is a joystick on the center console that I can use without taking my eyes of the road (much).

[Lux Interior]

My Apple Watch has two physical buttons.

And one physical knob.

[sekker]

Lux Interior wrote:
My Apple Watch has two physical buttons.

And one physical knob.

Of which Apple allows developers zero access to except for volume control.

Apple's form-over-function strikes again.

[mrbigstuff]

Speedy wrote:
I thought this was going to be about cars. In my old cars I could do everything I wanted without taking my eyes off the road. Not anymore. Sucks.

This. In fact, I predict that federal regulators will start mandating exactly this in future models.

[sekker]

Speedy wrote:
[quote=sekker]
Our touchscreen on our Tesla is fine.

But I think the touchscreen on our Volt is pretty poor by comparison. And don’t get me started on the crappy Bluetooth.

Interesting. I’ve never ridden in a Tesla but I can make do fairly well with the touchscreen in our 2013 Volt. I guess after five years I just need to glance at it to know what it is showing. Plus there are a fair number of capacitive buttons on the center console to control climate and radio. Bluetooth is fine, too. So I look forward to something even better when we get a Tesla.
My 2017 electronics has been the only major negative I have with this car. I've had to replace it already, and the first thing that completely failed was bluetooth (BT was always flaky from the beginning). Then all sorts of other issues cropped up, ending with the lack of functionality for the parking assist system. Had it replaced at the GM dealer for $800 with a new unit.

Bluetooth is STILL flaky with the new hardware, plenty of times I have to just unlink it with my iPhone to get audio out. True for two different iPhones (11ProMax and 12ProMax with latest and greatest BT) and two different modules. Almost surely bad choice of BT tech from GM. I've considered just unpairing and using the speakers on the iPhone or physically plugging in for longer trips via CarPlay.

[sekker]

cbelt3 wrote:
Touchscreens in vehicles for the driver to operate are an accident waiting to happen. We called it "Pilot Workload" when developing the F-5 radar interface. And we were talking about highly trained young men and women with phenomenal vision and reflexes.

Too many damn video game designers are developing stuff for vehicles.

This! Just leave the damn buttons, they can play with their phone touchscreens.

The Tesla really has very few requirements of the driver to use that vehicle. So its touchscreen is far less demanding that it would seem at first.

[mikebw]

To be fair, not all video game designers are targeting touch screens. There are lots of Xbox, Switch and Playstation controllers out there with tons of buttons getting mashed all the time.

[Thrift Store Scott]

mikebw wrote:
To be fair, not all video game designers are targeting touch screens. There are lots of Xbox, Switch and Playstation controllers out there with tons of buttons getting mashed all the time.

True. This is because when reaction time matters such as in video games OR when driving, controls need to be already in place, in the same place every time, ready to be used instantly, and able to be identified by location and feel alone.