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I'm not convinced that a single, large touchscreen is actually good UX for a car. Knobs make me feel way safer while driving because they give be instant feedba

by foepys 8y ago

I'm not convinced that a single, large touchscreen is actually good UX for a car. Knobs make me feel way safer while driving because they give be instant feedback on my selected setting by either clicking or snapping into position. I don't want to take my eyes of the road to change my AC setting, to enable the rear window heating, or to change the radio channel. Before people now come around to tell me I can have both: there's limited space in a car for that. If you place everything too narrow, you won't gain anything in terms of safety.

askafriend 8y ago
I think you have to drive one for a weekend to truly be the judge. Your argument is the kind of argument people made about tactile keyboards when iPhone first came out with a completely software one. On the surface, it was a valid concern - physical keyboards were simply far better input devices than software based ones when considered in isolation. However keyboards are part of a system, and in the system the physical keyboard was a local maxima. For the system to grow past that local maxima, it had to ditch the physical keyboard. Yes there are tradeoffs to make, but it's a different set of tradeoffs - ones that we can adapt around given a better future for the system as a whole. That being said, you really have to live with it for a weekend before being able to judge it in full. I think people are right - purpose built physical buttons and switches will always be superior at some level to software buttons, especially when driving. However, it's worth considering if there is the promise of a better future for the whole system by going down the 100% software route. Maybe it's a bit ahead of its time, but consider a semi-autonomous future where drivers mostly only assist driving and spend 90% of their time free to do other things (1). In the mean time Tesla gets better at delivering software updates to hundreds of thousands of cars in the wild, improving their software processes as a competitive advantage. Other car companies simply aren't doing this. In the future, every car company will need to do this and learn to get good at doing it. (1) If you've tried Autopilot, you know it's good enough that engaging with the touch screen for extended periods is no problem at all.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> I'm not convinced that a single, large touchscreen is actually good UX for a car. For a car with a human driver, it's both a bound input service and bad for key driving displays. For a fully automated car with a human “commander”, it's not a bad idea, but then the centerline mount is probably not ideal.

by foepys 8y ago

askafriend 8y ago

I think you have to drive one for a weekend to truly be the judge. Your argument is the kind of argument people made about tactile keyboards when iPhone first came out with a completely software one. On the surface, it was a valid concern - physical keyboards were simply far better input devices than software based ones when considered in isolation. However keyboards are part of a system, and in the system the physical keyboard was a local maxima. For the system to grow past that local maxima, it had to ditch the physical keyboard. Yes there are tradeoffs to make, but it's a different set of tradeoffs - ones that we can adapt around given a better future for the system as a whole. That being said, you really have to live with it for a weekend before being able to judge it in full. I think people are right - purpose built physical buttons and switches will always be superior at some level to software buttons, especially when driving. However, it's worth considering if there is the promise of a better future for the whole system by going down the 100% software route. Maybe it's a bit ahead of its time, but consider a semi-autonomous future where drivers mostly only assist driving and spend 90% of their time free to do other things (1). In the mean time Tesla gets better at delivering software updates to hundreds of thousands of cars in the wild, improving their software processes as a competitive advantage. Other car companies simply aren't doing this. In the future, every car company will need to do this and learn to get good at doing it. (1) If you've tried Autopilot, you know it's good enough that engaging with the touch screen for extended periods is no problem at all.

dragonwriter 8y ago

> I'm not convinced that a single, large touchscreen is actually good UX for a car. For a car with a human driver, it's both a bound input service and bad for key driving displays. For a fully automated car with a human “commander”, it's not a bad idea, but then the centerline mount is probably not ideal.