7 ms·

Tesla’s Touchscreen UI: A Case Study of Car-Dashboard User Interface

67 points by r0n0j0y 7y ago

kumarvvr 7y ago
I really loved the Windows phone live tiles and the new windows start menu. Large tiles, demarcated with bold aolid colors, separated with proper whitespace. That would be a good design for a Tesla in car screen. Large bold touch targets.
- GordonS 7y ago
  I've used something like that in the past for mobile apps for an engineering workforce working in a factory and yard. They really appreciated the high contrast and not needing to be too precise.
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    The annoying part is that UX design for these use cases is well known. It's old boring stuff but Tesla (and other OEMs, but none of them have as much of a need for good touchscreen UX as Tesla) just won't implement it for whatever reason.
    - GordonS 7y ago
      My guess is that they UIs like this just don't have the "wow factor" that will appeal to new car buyers.
      - BlackRing 7y ago
        When it comes to any user experience dealing with a touch-screen in a vehicle, I don't want to wow myself into the hospital. I love my TM3 but the UI could use some tweaking and I wished we had the ability to alter it.
        GordonS 7y ago
        Agreed, I'd be quite happy if there was an option to simplify the UI.
stefan_ 7y ago
People are using these gimmicky car displays on the tiny instrument cluster for changing lanes? I sure as fuck hope not. That just seems like extra data from their vision systems, which is also why cars randomly disappear in it or swerve wildly. No, the Tesla implementation of this is lazy. Every other car with lane assist has a warning light in the corresponding side view mirror. This forces the user to look into the mirror, which also means a failure of the system to detect an obstacle is not a big deal.
- yitchelle 7y ago
  Totally agree with you. The usage of smartphone style UI for central console or even the instrument cluster itself are a really dangerous practice. The driver should be able to reach out with one hand and made the change immediately, not swiping to the correct context a few times before making the change. /rant off.
- tomp 7y ago
  Personally, I think the side-view-mirror-warning-lights are a nuisance, every time I've driven in a car that has them I wanted to turn them off. The rate of false positives is high, and because they flash at the edge of your viewing field, they divert your attention from the road...
  - mhb 7y ago
    I don't know what car you drove, but, as a counter-factual, the Subaru ones are great. I've never had a false positive or negative and don't find them distracting. I'm also impressed with how well the rest of their safety tech works - lane changing warning, back up obstacles, etc.
    - jclardy 7y ago
      Agreed, but with my Mazda. Maybe it is an older model? Mine is 2015. The only annoyance I have with it is if you are in a double left turn lane and actually use your signals. It'll beep at you since it detects a car and doesn't know you are turning vs changing lanes.
snarfy 7y ago
I really hate touch screens, more so in a vehicle. Physical buttons will be a deciding factor in my next vehicle purchase.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  > I really hate touch screens Do you own a modern smartphone?
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    I think "in cars" was the implicit qualifier there.
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      Why do you think so? There's a pretty explicit qualifier that seemingly distinguishes that the snarfy hates all touch screens, especially when they're in cars. I'm responding explicitly to the first part while ignoring the second half, with which I somewhat agree.
      - snarfy 7y ago
        Yeah, I hate touch screens. If I can use something else I will. Phones are small enough there really isn't a better alternative to a mouse, but I would still rather have a physical keyboard than a touch keyboard. On laptops with touch pads I always connect a mouse. If it's a laptop or desktop with a touch screen, the last thing I want touching the screen is my greasy fingers. I have a mechanical keyboard and gaming mouse for a reason. They are superior input devices.
  - meggar 7y ago
    Clearly a giant Blackberry would be a better UI for a car.
    - jsight 7y ago
      That's exactly what I think about in this debate. The myriad of physical buttons on a lot of cars actually isn't better than the touchscreen. The notable exception for might be climate controls, as those tend to be placed well enough to reach without looking. Many other physical controls aren't done so well.
jdhn 7y ago
I had a chance to drive the Model 3, and it threw me off that users have to swipe up on the music player to view additional functionality. In fact, swiping on a touchscreen when your main focus should be somewhere else just doesn't make a lot of sense to me in general.
- tomp 7y ago
  Anything not on the dashboard / driving wheel shouldn't be your focus while driving. That's why many modern cars have music controls on the driving wheel. Whether the center console control is buttons, touch screen buttons or touch screen swipes doesn't matter that much... (except of course for a few important buttons that you should remember the location of, like 4 blinkers, lock car doors, etc.)
  - jdhn 7y ago
    I believe that this was done on purpose. Elon clearly wants the driver seat to really be a passenger seat, in the sense that the buyer of the Tesla would simply pop on Autopilot and then be able to focus this attention on the screen. I personally think that this is incredibly wistful thinking on his part, but to his credit if he didn't think big, Tesla wouldn't have gone anywhere.
    - jnty 7y ago
      I'm all for 'thinking big' but not in a way that seems to have literally killed people in the meantime.
  - NeedMoreTea 7y ago
    > Whether the center console control is buttons, touch screen buttons or touch screen swipes doesn't matter that much Could not disagree more. I find it matters greatly - with buttons and switches on the central console, I simply don't look away from the road to adjust the heating, turn the demist on or whatever. Only takes a very short while to become accustomed to where they are in a new vehicle, and extent of rotation etc. Then it's 99% muscle memory. No eyes required. Which of course is entirely impossible with touch screen - you have to look, every single time. Swipe or press is irrelevant - it's the look that's the problem. Like most I appreciate a decent map screen, but I detest the rise of touch to replace standard switches and buttons in a vehicle.
noxToken 7y ago
This wouldn't encompass everything that's been discussed here and in TFA, but perhaps the UI decisions were made to help discourage usage while driving? The mobile-like interface, the far positioning and small buttons make it difficult to use while driving. I'm not saying that these are the proper UX choices to discourage screen usage while in motion, but perhaps that reason influenced the aforementioned choices.
- ryl00 7y ago
  Probably better to just completely disable most functionality when the car is in motion; that's what my non-touchscreen UI does in my car.
coldtea 7y ago
That's a case study on how NOT to do a car dashboard... Plus hell of a lot of "change it for the change of changing it" (e.g. regular gauges would be far better and more reliable).
tomp 7y ago
I only skimmed the article, and I've only driven a Tesla (Model S) for a day, so my review/comments might be incomplete, but I almost completely disagree with this article. 1. I love the size and quality of the touch screen. Nothing in other cars compares. Usually screens are small, low resolution, require forceful touch or aren't touch. (Recent issues with screens failing in heat are a big minus, but I'm sure technology will improve soon.) 2. I barely use any of the "buttons" (or other controls) while driving. I almost always use the same temperature, and usually set it when I get in. Same with navigation destination. Edit: In any case, I think the big safety risk is using central controls at all, regardless whether they're touch-screen or physical buttons. 3. Most controls that you use while driving should be placed on the steering wheel - things like music/radio and cruise control. I don't recall how it was in Model S, but many other cars have this, so I consider it a solved problem. 4. Reverse video camera, in most cars, automatically starts when you start reversing (I don't remember reversing in Model S so maybe they didn't do implement this yet). As this requires the car to come to a stop, even pressing some obscure button can't be "unsafe", at most a nuisance. 5. Some controls are important and are usually not on the steering wheel - things like lock/unlock car doors, and the 4 blinkers button. I think these would best be placed on the driver's door, or alternatively on the top of the center console (above the screen) so that the passenger can also access them. 6. I don't use lane assist, and I'm not sure whether having it is a great idea... people might come to rely on it and thus become worse drivers on their own. It's often implemented as a light in the side mirror, which I personally dislike - the implementation is bad (false positives, or turns on when I'm not changing lane) and the light flashing at the edge of my viewing field distracts me from the road ahead, so I always want to turn it off. I think a useful UI would be, to change the sound that the blinkers make, if the car detects an obstacle on the side. To conclude, I can't wait until big touch screens are adopted by other car manufacturers and most other buttons are removed.
- danso 7y ago
  If you feel this positively about the touchscreen, then having only a day's worth of driving experience might be a point in favor of Tesla's implementation. My reflexive skepticism re: a touchscreen interface would be how unintuitive and unfamiliar (and likely obfuscated) the controls would feel in comparison to the physical interface I've used my entire life.
11thEarlOfMar 7y ago
It works in spite of these legitimate concerns because the actual time it takes to visually acquire the target is measured in milliseconds, and drivers already know how to assess the road and determine that 'nothing can happen' in the next few hundred milliseconds. If you're in tight traffic with drivers jockeying for position, you don't take that opportunity to skip a song. You wait until it's settled. We do this already when we eat or drink in the car, turn to look at a passenger during conversation, read a billboard, etc.
- SolaceQuantum 7y ago
  "...drivers already know how to assess the road and determine that 'nothing can happen' in the next few hundred milliseconds." Is this actually true? Isn't it recommended to never eat or drink in the car while driving, that being on the phone or conversing while driving lowers driving skill, etc?
- nkrisc 7y ago
  > We do this already when we eat or drink in the car, turn to look at a passenger during conversation, read a billboard, etc. All of which are other things you should not be doing while driving.
InTheArena 7y ago
A problem that Tesla has is that the current UI is built for the model 3. The layout of that screen makes a ton of sense. It doesn’t work nearly as well with the S, because of landscape versus orientation. It took me about 5 minutes to get use to the model 3s display - even without the binnacle. My Honda feels horribly cluttered on the rare occasions I drive it.
Shivetya 7y ago
Own a TM3, so bear with my bias. I find the whole haptic feedback issue a bit silly. First off I went from a Chevrolet Volt to a TM3. So lets start off with buttons. Steering Wheel TM3, two omni direction buttons. Two stalks. Volt, 5 buttons to do the same purpose as the two on the Telsa, then four more buttons for extra functions on front, three lever like buttons on back of wheel. Center Stack TM3 - touch screen, only the quick actions menu leads to one level sub mensu Volt - touch screen with four dedicated buttons and knob below. Menus and be many layers deep, some are four or five deep. HVAC below has thirteen buttons and two knobs. The come all the controls on doors and seats. Some cars put some items in different places meaning for each car you need to adapt. However as I will state below, you never really need to use the majority of them so it does not matter. Most cars are like the Chevrolet Volt, there are between thirty to fifty buttons. Now tell me how that is worse than a touch screen. Lets double down on this, how many buttons do you actually use during the course of a drive. Try this, put a sticker on each before a drive and remove those you use. How many can you reach for any not take your eyes off the road. Any radio or screen will do that regardless. The kicker is, you don't need to interact with the UI of the Tesla or the super majority of most buttons in any car these days because for the most part settings are set and forget. HVAC systems are set to maintain a temperature, radio stations or music is usually only volume tweaked plus many other items are automatic like headlamps and even wipers. I was accustomed to my TM3 before I got home the day I picked it up. I can get accustomed to nearly any car in minutes as the most used controls are always where you expect them, from turn signals to horns to volume control over the radio. I will say this, the navigation on voice is superb in the TM3. Are there flaws with the Tesla UI, sure. Namely you still must use your phone to change play lists. I know of no other brand with this limitation. I do think the horizontal display of the TM3 is superior to the vertical display for both information pickup and icon spacing. I agree the top icons can get hard to see when map features underlap and that needs to be tweaked to fade those map images
- tinbad 7y ago
  Same can be said for keys on a keyboard you rarely use but why not have it there for that one time you need it? I for one, don’t want to be going through menus just to adjust my steering wheel - especially when I already started driving (which surprisingly happens often that someone else adjusted the steering wheel and I don’t notice until I’m already driving). As far as comparing with the Volt, the Model 3 and Volt are in two different leagues. The volt is a mass market EV that could’ve been had (ironically, they discontinued it ;) for well under $30k. Model 3 starts at 40k and is competing with BMWs, Audi’s and Mercedes with much better ergonomics due to increased R&D spending over something like a Chevy.
tinbad 7y ago
I realize this is a Tesla tear down (and I agree with a lot of it, having driven different Tesla’s myself) but I would like to see a more comprehensive analysis comparing different other infotainment systems on the market because there are much better ones than Tesla’s. For example, one of the biggest complaints of touch screens mentioned in the article is lack of haptic feedback. I believe Audi/Porsche solved that really well in their latest models by using (multiple) touch screens that provide physical feedback upon pressing. In addition, half of the “buttons” have a fixed placement and can be blindly operated.
ggg2 7y ago
this thread show how teslas are the new mac in terms of blind fanboyish buyers remorse denial. people will defend the one button mouse just because. > study proving that the way information essential to driving (e.g. changing lanes, checking rear view) is scattered in several disconected features/screens. > all threads are people defending that you should not fiddle with controls while driving, and because of that the article is wrong and the touchscreen is perfect. get a grip people. at least pretend to have read the article.
xfitm3 7y ago
I really like physical buttons. I detest touch screen interfaces in cars.
eindiran 7y ago
I don't really have a horse in this race (I've never driven a Tesla, but a few of the points in the article seem valid), but I think its worth remembering that the Nielsen Norman Group has a few clients amongst the large automotive companies (Ford and General Motors, if I recall correctly). This was more-or-less paid for by Tesla competitors, so maybe take it with a grain of salt. YMMV.

67 points by r0n0j0y 7y ago

I really loved the Windows phone live tiles and the new windows start menu. Large tiles, demarcated with bold aolid colors, separated with proper whitespace. That would be a good design for a Tesla in car screen. Large bold touch targets.

GordonS 7y ago
I've used something like that in the past for mobile apps for an engineering workforce working in a factory and yard. They really appreciated the high contrast and not needing to be too precise.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  The annoying part is that UX design for these use cases is well known. It's old boring stuff but Tesla (and other OEMs, but none of them have as much of a need for good touchscreen UX as Tesla) just won't implement it for whatever reason.
  - GordonS 7y ago
    My guess is that they UIs like this just don't have the "wow factor" that will appeal to new car buyers.
    - BlackRing 7y ago
      When it comes to any user experience dealing with a touch-screen in a vehicle, I don't want to wow myself into the hospital. I love my TM3 but the UI could use some tweaking and I wished we had the ability to alter it.
      - GordonS 7y ago
        Agreed, I'd be quite happy if there was an option to simplify the UI.

stefan_ 7y ago

People are using these gimmicky car displays on the tiny instrument cluster for changing lanes? I sure as fuck hope not. That just seems like extra data from their vision systems, which is also why cars randomly disappear in it or swerve wildly. No, the Tesla implementation of this is lazy. Every other car with lane assist has a warning light in the corresponding side view mirror. This forces the user to look into the mirror, which also means a failure of the system to detect an obstacle is not a big deal.

yitchelle 7y ago
Totally agree with you. The usage of smartphone style UI for central console or even the instrument cluster itself are a really dangerous practice. The driver should be able to reach out with one hand and made the change immediately, not swiping to the correct context a few times before making the change. /rant off.
tomp 7y ago
Personally, I think the side-view-mirror-warning-lights are a nuisance, every time I've driven in a car that has them I wanted to turn them off. The rate of false positives is high, and because they flash at the edge of your viewing field, they divert your attention from the road...
- mhb 7y ago
  I don't know what car you drove, but, as a counter-factual, the Subaru ones are great. I've never had a false positive or negative and don't find them distracting. I'm also impressed with how well the rest of their safety tech works - lane changing warning, back up obstacles, etc.
  - jclardy 7y ago
    Agreed, but with my Mazda. Maybe it is an older model? Mine is 2015. The only annoyance I have with it is if you are in a double left turn lane and actually use your signals. It'll beep at you since it detects a car and doesn't know you are turning vs changing lanes.

snarfy 7y ago

I really hate touch screens, more so in a vehicle. Physical buttons will be a deciding factor in my next vehicle purchase.

saagarjha 7y ago
> I really hate touch screens Do you own a modern smartphone?
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  I think "in cars" was the implicit qualifier there.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    Why do you think so? There's a pretty explicit qualifier that seemingly distinguishes that the snarfy hates all touch screens, especially when they're in cars. I'm responding explicitly to the first part while ignoring the second half, with which I somewhat agree.
    - snarfy 7y ago
      Yeah, I hate touch screens. If I can use something else I will. Phones are small enough there really isn't a better alternative to a mouse, but I would still rather have a physical keyboard than a touch keyboard. On laptops with touch pads I always connect a mouse. If it's a laptop or desktop with a touch screen, the last thing I want touching the screen is my greasy fingers. I have a mechanical keyboard and gaming mouse for a reason. They are superior input devices.
- meggar 7y ago
  Clearly a giant Blackberry would be a better UI for a car.
  - jsight 7y ago
    That's exactly what I think about in this debate. The myriad of physical buttons on a lot of cars actually isn't better than the touchscreen. The notable exception for might be climate controls, as those tend to be placed well enough to reach without looking. Many other physical controls aren't done so well.

jdhn 7y ago

I had a chance to drive the Model 3, and it threw me off that users have to swipe up on the music player to view additional functionality. In fact, swiping on a touchscreen when your main focus should be somewhere else just doesn't make a lot of sense to me in general.

tomp 7y ago
Anything not on the dashboard / driving wheel shouldn't be your focus while driving. That's why many modern cars have music controls on the driving wheel. Whether the center console control is buttons, touch screen buttons or touch screen swipes doesn't matter that much... (except of course for a few important buttons that you should remember the location of, like 4 blinkers, lock car doors, etc.)
- jdhn 7y ago
  I believe that this was done on purpose. Elon clearly wants the driver seat to really be a passenger seat, in the sense that the buyer of the Tesla would simply pop on Autopilot and then be able to focus this attention on the screen. I personally think that this is incredibly wistful thinking on his part, but to his credit if he didn't think big, Tesla wouldn't have gone anywhere.
  - jnty 7y ago
    I'm all for 'thinking big' but not in a way that seems to have literally killed people in the meantime.
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
  > Whether the center console control is buttons, touch screen buttons or touch screen swipes doesn't matter that much Could not disagree more. I find it matters greatly - with buttons and switches on the central console, I simply don't look away from the road to adjust the heating, turn the demist on or whatever. Only takes a very short while to become accustomed to where they are in a new vehicle, and extent of rotation etc. Then it's 99% muscle memory. No eyes required. Which of course is entirely impossible with touch screen - you have to look, every single time. Swipe or press is irrelevant - it's the look that's the problem. Like most I appreciate a decent map screen, but I detest the rise of touch to replace standard switches and buttons in a vehicle.

noxToken 7y ago

This wouldn't encompass everything that's been discussed here and in TFA, but perhaps the UI decisions were made to help discourage usage while driving? The mobile-like interface, the far positioning and small buttons make it difficult to use while driving. I'm not saying that these are the proper UX choices to discourage screen usage while in motion, but perhaps that reason influenced the aforementioned choices.

ryl00 7y ago
Probably better to just completely disable most functionality when the car is in motion; that's what my non-touchscreen UI does in my car.

coldtea 7y ago

That's a case study on how NOT to do a car dashboard... Plus hell of a lot of "change it for the change of changing it" (e.g. regular gauges would be far better and more reliable).

tomp 7y ago

I only skimmed the article, and I've only driven a Tesla (Model S) for a day, so my review/comments might be incomplete, but I almost completely disagree with this article. 1. I love the size and quality of the touch screen. Nothing in other cars compares. Usually screens are small, low resolution, require forceful touch or aren't touch. (Recent issues with screens failing in heat are a big minus, but I'm sure technology will improve soon.) 2. I barely use any of the "buttons" (or other controls) while driving. I almost always use the same temperature, and usually set it when I get in. Same with navigation destination. Edit: In any case, I think the big safety risk is using central controls at all, regardless whether they're touch-screen or physical buttons. 3. Most controls that you use while driving should be placed on the steering wheel - things like music/radio and cruise control. I don't recall how it was in Model S, but many other cars have this, so I consider it a solved problem. 4. Reverse video camera, in most cars, automatically starts when you start reversing (I don't remember reversing in Model S so maybe they didn't do implement this yet). As this requires the car to come to a stop, even pressing some obscure button can't be "unsafe", at most a nuisance. 5. Some controls are important and are usually not on the steering wheel - things like lock/unlock car doors, and the 4 blinkers button. I think these would best be placed on the driver's door, or alternatively on the top of the center console (above the screen) so that the passenger can also access them. 6. I don't use lane assist, and I'm not sure whether having it is a great idea... people might come to rely on it and thus become worse drivers on their own. It's often implemented as a light in the side mirror, which I personally dislike - the implementation is bad (false positives, or turns on when I'm not changing lane) and the light flashing at the edge of my viewing field distracts me from the road ahead, so I always want to turn it off. I think a useful UI would be, to change the sound that the blinkers make, if the car detects an obstacle on the side. To conclude, I can't wait until big touch screens are adopted by other car manufacturers and most other buttons are removed.

danso 7y ago
If you feel this positively about the touchscreen, then having only a day's worth of driving experience might be a point in favor of Tesla's implementation. My reflexive skepticism re: a touchscreen interface would be how unintuitive and unfamiliar (and likely obfuscated) the controls would feel in comparison to the physical interface I've used my entire life.

11thEarlOfMar 7y ago

It works in spite of these legitimate concerns because the actual time it takes to visually acquire the target is measured in milliseconds, and drivers already know how to assess the road and determine that 'nothing can happen' in the next few hundred milliseconds. If you're in tight traffic with drivers jockeying for position, you don't take that opportunity to skip a song. You wait until it's settled. We do this already when we eat or drink in the car, turn to look at a passenger during conversation, read a billboard, etc.

SolaceQuantum 7y ago
"...drivers already know how to assess the road and determine that 'nothing can happen' in the next few hundred milliseconds." Is this actually true? Isn't it recommended to never eat or drink in the car while driving, that being on the phone or conversing while driving lowers driving skill, etc?
nkrisc 7y ago
> We do this already when we eat or drink in the car, turn to look at a passenger during conversation, read a billboard, etc. All of which are other things you should not be doing while driving.

InTheArena 7y ago

A problem that Tesla has is that the current UI is built for the model 3. The layout of that screen makes a ton of sense. It doesn’t work nearly as well with the S, because of landscape versus orientation. It took me about 5 minutes to get use to the model 3s display - even without the binnacle. My Honda feels horribly cluttered on the rare occasions I drive it.

Shivetya 7y ago

Own a TM3, so bear with my bias. I find the whole haptic feedback issue a bit silly. First off I went from a Chevrolet Volt to a TM3. So lets start off with buttons. Steering Wheel TM3, two omni direction buttons. Two stalks. Volt, 5 buttons to do the same purpose as the two on the Telsa, then four more buttons for extra functions on front, three lever like buttons on back of wheel. Center Stack TM3 - touch screen, only the quick actions menu leads to one level sub mensu Volt - touch screen with four dedicated buttons and knob below. Menus and be many layers deep, some are four or five deep. HVAC below has thirteen buttons and two knobs. The come all the controls on doors and seats. Some cars put some items in different places meaning for each car you need to adapt. However as I will state below, you never really need to use the majority of them so it does not matter. Most cars are like the Chevrolet Volt, there are between thirty to fifty buttons. Now tell me how that is worse than a touch screen. Lets double down on this, how many buttons do you actually use during the course of a drive. Try this, put a sticker on each before a drive and remove those you use. How many can you reach for any not take your eyes off the road. Any radio or screen will do that regardless. The kicker is, you don't need to interact with the UI of the Tesla or the super majority of most buttons in any car these days because for the most part settings are set and forget. HVAC systems are set to maintain a temperature, radio stations or music is usually only volume tweaked plus many other items are automatic like headlamps and even wipers. I was accustomed to my TM3 before I got home the day I picked it up. I can get accustomed to nearly any car in minutes as the most used controls are always where you expect them, from turn signals to horns to volume control over the radio. I will say this, the navigation on voice is superb in the TM3. Are there flaws with the Tesla UI, sure. Namely you still must use your phone to change play lists. I know of no other brand with this limitation. I do think the horizontal display of the TM3 is superior to the vertical display for both information pickup and icon spacing. I agree the top icons can get hard to see when map features underlap and that needs to be tweaked to fade those map images

tinbad 7y ago
Same can be said for keys on a keyboard you rarely use but why not have it there for that one time you need it? I for one, don’t want to be going through menus just to adjust my steering wheel - especially when I already started driving (which surprisingly happens often that someone else adjusted the steering wheel and I don’t notice until I’m already driving). As far as comparing with the Volt, the Model 3 and Volt are in two different leagues. The volt is a mass market EV that could’ve been had (ironically, they discontinued it ;) for well under $30k. Model 3 starts at 40k and is competing with BMWs, Audi’s and Mercedes with much better ergonomics due to increased R&D spending over something like a Chevy.

tinbad 7y ago

I realize this is a Tesla tear down (and I agree with a lot of it, having driven different Tesla’s myself) but I would like to see a more comprehensive analysis comparing different other infotainment systems on the market because there are much better ones than Tesla’s. For example, one of the biggest complaints of touch screens mentioned in the article is lack of haptic feedback. I believe Audi/Porsche solved that really well in their latest models by using (multiple) touch screens that provide physical feedback upon pressing. In addition, half of the “buttons” have a fixed placement and can be blindly operated.

ggg2 7y ago

this thread show how teslas are the new mac in terms of blind fanboyish buyers remorse denial. people will defend the one button mouse just because. > study proving that the way information essential to driving (e.g. changing lanes, checking rear view) is scattered in several disconected features/screens. > all threads are people defending that you should not fiddle with controls while driving, and because of that the article is wrong and the touchscreen is perfect. get a grip people. at least pretend to have read the article.

xfitm3 7y ago

I really like physical buttons. I detest touch screen interfaces in cars.

eindiran 7y ago

I don't really have a horse in this race (I've never driven a Tesla, but a few of the points in the article seem valid), but I think its worth remembering that the Nielsen Norman Group has a few clients amongst the large automotive companies (Ford and General Motors, if I recall correctly). This was more-or-less paid for by Tesla competitors, so maybe take it with a grain of salt. YMMV.