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Renault have had controls on the steering wheel for at least 20 years now and it's still one of the best interfaces I've ever tried. The first car I bought wit

Renault have had controls on the steering wheel for at least 20 years now and it's still one of the best interfaces I've ever tried. The first car I bought with my own money was a Clio and the ability to control the integrated radio system without looking at it or having to take away the hands from the wheel made that car my favourite place to listen to music. As a matter of fact I miss it so much that nowadays I almost don't listen to music while driving anymore. EDIT for reference the whole music controlling part was like [1], the source button switched from FM radio/AM radio/CD player and it had a wheel on the back that skipped CD tracks or radio stations, according to the current source. If I remember correctly the lower button ejected a CD in CD mode or changed from saved station to manual tuning in radio mode. If you pulled both the volume buttons at the same time, it muted the radio and paused the CD player. [1] https://www.proxyparts.com/car-parts-stock/information/part-number/8200058695/part/steering-wheel-mounted-radio-control/partid/7151550/ https://www.proxyparts.com/car-parts-stock/information/part-...

agumonkey 7y ago
There should be a company selling ergonomics improvement kits for cars.
- moftz 7y ago
  You can buy little bluetooth remote controls that strap onto your steering wheel. They don't look great and you have to charge them. The charge thing is really annoying now that many cars turn off the power outlets when the car is off. I remember never really having a dead battery in my devices because they could just charge while I was parked either at work or running errands.
  - jpindar 7y ago
    In many cars that's easy to fix. Just replace one relay with a jumper. Standard wire terminals fit in the relay sockets so it's not a permanent modification.
  - agumonkey 7y ago
    solar powered bluetooth remote
- baybal2 7y ago
  The market already exists: car improvement stuff on taobao is sold by tonnes: from the same independent DC-DC, and ECU interfaces to projection huds, and complete dashboard revamps I still think the bash car dashboard was that of Honda Beat or Suzuki Cara — no dashboard, with just a motorcycle style gauge, and non-driving related controls almost wholely on steering wheel levers.
  - dillonmckay 7y ago
    Any good links for projections HUDs? My cousin had a Pontiac in the late 90s that would project the speed on the windshield.
    - coredog64 7y ago
      IIRC, that dates back to when Hughes was still part of GM. A good HUD uses collimation to project data out in the distance. A crappy HUD throws it up at the same distance as your windshield, forcing you to refocus.
    - geggam 7y ago
      new bmw 540i has a beautiful hud integrate into the nav system ( rented one in the EU )
    - baybal2 7y ago
      【车萝卜 HUD 抬头显示器汽车通用车载多功能显示速度转速时间】https://m.tb.cn/h.efAuVoU?sm=8ee47b https://m.tb.cn/h.efAuVoU?sm=8ee47b 点击链接，再选择浏览器咑閞；或復·制这段描述￥XAN5YfMKXp2￥后到淘寳【车萝卜2代汽车抬头显示器hud 汽车通用无线导航车载机器人】https://m.tb.cn/h.eU77dAA?sm=d1a047 https://m.tb.cn/h.eU77dAA?sm=d1a047 点击链接，再选择浏览器咑閞；或復·制这段描述￥QASsYfMqMWi￥后到淘寳. Carrobot is an actual projector, thus there are no questions about focus adjustments. Other are usually just segment led or el screens, some with collimator, some without
    - agumonkey 7y ago
      I bought a stupid semi reflective sheet to put google maps on my smartphone under.. not good enough of course.
krab 7y ago
One thing that might not be obvious - this controller is just below the steering wheel and you press it from the back side. It's almost invisible and it feels very natural. The Renault I have has a combination of buttons on steering wheel, that controller, physical buttons in the center panel, touchscreen and some touch elements outside of the screen. If you want to call somebody, you have to use the touchscreen either on your phone or in the car and it's always a pain. Controlling other things in the car is fine - there are physical buttons.
- lostjohnny 7y ago
  > One thing that might not be obvious - this controller is just below the steering wheel and you press it from the back side. It's almost invisible and it feels very natural. True. Another thing that might not be obvious is that they are fixed on the steering wheel, so they are always in the same position relative the your hands, just like the gear levers in a modern Formula 1 car.
  - toyg 7y ago
    The steering wheel is where most of this stuff should be all the time. The second you force me to reposition my hand, security levels drop off a cliff, since you get involuntary movement on the other side (as proven by this post) and likely take your eyes off the road, which is bad even for a split second. I know this for a fact, having crashed a car on a motorway as I was turning down the fan (controlled by an analog button, btw). The best car interface, imho, is something like a rotary device or arrows buttons on the steering wheel (or back thereof) which can be used to manipulate an overlay projected on (or just below) the windshield. My current VW gets close, but the screen is in the lower half of the dashboard (way too far from actual view of the road), and the system can only be partially controlled by on-wheel buttons (the main control is a touchscreen in the middle of the car).
    - HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
      What about physical buttons for the more-used stuff (radio, AC, cruise control) and use voice control (along with physical buttons) for everything else? Obviously, the voice control would need to havr some way to ignore the kids in the backseat, or can ask the driver / parent for permission for this to be a good idea.

agumonkey 7y ago

There should be a company selling ergonomics improvement kits for cars.

moftz 7y ago
You can buy little bluetooth remote controls that strap onto your steering wheel. They don't look great and you have to charge them. The charge thing is really annoying now that many cars turn off the power outlets when the car is off. I remember never really having a dead battery in my devices because they could just charge while I was parked either at work or running errands.
- jpindar 7y ago
  In many cars that's easy to fix. Just replace one relay with a jumper. Standard wire terminals fit in the relay sockets so it's not a permanent modification.
- agumonkey 7y ago
  solar powered bluetooth remote
baybal2 7y ago
The market already exists: car improvement stuff on taobao is sold by tonnes: from the same independent DC-DC, and ECU interfaces to projection huds, and complete dashboard revamps I still think the bash car dashboard was that of Honda Beat or Suzuki Cara — no dashboard, with just a motorcycle style gauge, and non-driving related controls almost wholely on steering wheel levers.
- dillonmckay 7y ago
  Any good links for projections HUDs? My cousin had a Pontiac in the late 90s that would project the speed on the windshield.
  - coredog64 7y ago
    IIRC, that dates back to when Hughes was still part of GM. A good HUD uses collimation to project data out in the distance. A crappy HUD throws it up at the same distance as your windshield, forcing you to refocus.
  - geggam 7y ago
    new bmw 540i has a beautiful hud integrate into the nav system ( rented one in the EU )
  - baybal2 7y ago
    【车萝卜 HUD 抬头显示器汽车通用车载多功能显示速度转速时间】https://m.tb.cn/h.efAuVoU?sm=8ee47b https://m.tb.cn/h.efAuVoU?sm=8ee47b 点击链接，再选择浏览器咑閞；或復·制这段描述￥XAN5YfMKXp2￥后到淘寳【车萝卜2代汽车抬头显示器hud 汽车通用无线导航车载机器人】https://m.tb.cn/h.eU77dAA?sm=d1a047 https://m.tb.cn/h.eU77dAA?sm=d1a047 点击链接，再选择浏览器咑閞；或復·制这段描述￥QASsYfMqMWi￥后到淘寳. Carrobot is an actual projector, thus there are no questions about focus adjustments. Other are usually just segment led or el screens, some with collimator, some without
  - agumonkey 7y ago
    I bought a stupid semi reflective sheet to put google maps on my smartphone under.. not good enough of course.

krab 7y ago

One thing that might not be obvious - this controller is just below the steering wheel and you press it from the back side. It's almost invisible and it feels very natural. The Renault I have has a combination of buttons on steering wheel, that controller, physical buttons in the center panel, touchscreen and some touch elements outside of the screen. If you want to call somebody, you have to use the touchscreen either on your phone or in the car and it's always a pain. Controlling other things in the car is fine - there are physical buttons.

lostjohnny 7y ago
> One thing that might not be obvious - this controller is just below the steering wheel and you press it from the back side. It's almost invisible and it feels very natural. True. Another thing that might not be obvious is that they are fixed on the steering wheel, so they are always in the same position relative the your hands, just like the gear levers in a modern Formula 1 car.
- toyg 7y ago
  The steering wheel is where most of this stuff should be all the time. The second you force me to reposition my hand, security levels drop off a cliff, since you get involuntary movement on the other side (as proven by this post) and likely take your eyes off the road, which is bad even for a split second. I know this for a fact, having crashed a car on a motorway as I was turning down the fan (controlled by an analog button, btw). The best car interface, imho, is something like a rotary device or arrows buttons on the steering wheel (or back thereof) which can be used to manipulate an overlay projected on (or just below) the windshield. My current VW gets close, but the screen is in the lower half of the dashboard (way too far from actual view of the road), and the system can only be partially controlled by on-wheel buttons (the main control is a touchscreen in the middle of the car).
  - HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
    What about physical buttons for the more-used stuff (radio, AC, cruise control) and use voice control (along with physical buttons) for everything else? Obviously, the voice control would need to havr some way to ignore the kids in the backseat, or can ask the driver / parent for permission for this to be a good idea.