17 ms·

There are too many screens, time to go back to gauges

67 points by t23 7y ago

HenryBemis 7y ago
This website has so much crapware running on it (adsrvr.org, adsafeprotected.com, amazon-adsystem.com, chartbeat.com, doubleclick.net, connect.facebook.net, google-analytics.com, ... I stopped copying and pasting at the letter "G"). I got 18 AdBlockPlus kills, 15 NoScript kills, 17 PrivacyBadger kills. I lost all interest to reading what the article is about..
- Mountain_Skies 7y ago
  That's pretty typical for the Gizmodo family of sites. Usually I avoid going to any of them because of the high amount of clickbait but hoped this article would be a bit more than "man yells at cloud".
  - frou_dh 7y ago
    HN User Whines About Blog's JS/CSS is quite analogous to Old Man Yells At Cloud
  - stallmanite 7y ago
    I really believe that some clouds need yelling at.
Mountain_Skies 7y ago
Physical gauges? Meh, don't really care that much. Just as long as the data on the screen is clear and where it is expected to be. Physical buttons with physical feedback so they can be adjusted by feel while keeping eyes on the road? Those are important. Maybe they can be replaced with a voice interface at some point but I'd like to see a few more sigmas of reliability before relying on voice recognition to turn on the windshield wipers.
- giancarlostoro 7y ago
  Precisely. Touch screens are not ideal for drivers only passengers. Let the driver use buttons and let the passenger use the touch screen without restriction. I cant even pull up GPS coords on a 2020 car without having my wife pull over. Meanwhile I can pull out my phone and search anything. The benefit of the maps being on there is that she can see the map clearer. Except its useless once you drive. Sometimes driving plans change whilst driving.
  - mszcz 7y ago
    Yeah, the decision to go with touchscreens in an environment where you cannot turn your eyes away and focus on something is boneheaded IMO. The AC in my car is controlled by dials which also have a button in the middle. I can control this while driving in the middle of the night and will never have to turn my eyes away. The reason for that is that I can use touch to find the right dialm align my fingers by touch alone and just turn it. Now try doing something "by touch" or "from memory" on a touch screen. Suddenly, your glove compartment opens :P Anyhow, IMO, the orgy of the screens in the car is probably a stupid, misguided way to try and sell more cars, and will go the same way of the 3D TV and curved TV.
- Crosseye_Jack 7y ago
  > Maybe they can be replaced with a voice interface at some point but I'd like to see a few more sigmas of reliability before relying on voice recognition to turn on the windshield wipers. There are people who are unable to speak but are perfectly able to drive. Replacing controls instead of them being an additional form of control of the existing controls can have the effect of removing people’s ability to drive simply because of an infliction they are unable to control. Heck what happens the day you get a bad throat, lose your voice and you are unable to drive yourself to the local pharmacy because your unable to control your windscreen wipers.
hinkley 7y ago
In a similar vein, I was always a little bummed that Ambient Devices or some competitor never got more traction in the market, and never got much cheaper. I thought they’d gone out of business but they are still alive and kicking. Unfortunately most of their devices no longer look much like gauges. Most look like clocks.
lqet 7y ago
> Screens are also less likely to break than mechanically moving gauges What? If you buy a 30 year old car, the gauges are most likely still intact, and original. If you have an older house, things like the water gauges (or even regular clock gauges) are also decades old. I want to see the screen that will work for > 20 years in a constantly moving and vibrating environment, under massive temperature changes, without any additional care or repairs or replacement. Take passenger information displays in public transit. Not until a few years ago, it was still common that the head signs in trains, buses or subways where mechanical. It was often just a paper roll [0] that was adjusted to display the correct destination, or even just a plate that was changed by the conductor [1]. Things like car numbers or seat reservations were displayed by simple paper signs. Fast-forward to the 90ies, where at least in Europe, they began to replace these things by LCDs. After a few years, it was normal to see trains with broken head signs, broken car numbers, and broken reservation systems [2]. Fast-forward to today, where it is now en vogue to use full-fledged displays everywhere. The result (at least in the towns I use public transportation) are regularly broken displays [3] [4] [5] that even when they work, often offer no advantage over LCD or LED or even mechanical display from a passenger perspective. They just look more modern. Add to this that the display software is mostly some variant of Windows with a poorly built and designed web application running on it. Think of all the people, all the knowledge, all the hours, all the resources and all the energy required to build and run a full-fledged high-resolution display, an operating system, the web application and a central server in the vehicle running those displays - all to replace a simple roll of paper with a less reliable solution! As computer scientists and software developers, this is what pays us - but as soon as the rest of the society realizes what is going on, I fear that there will a massive backlash. [0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/2009-08-19-obus-eberswalde-by-RalfR-03.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/2009-08-... [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Wupper-Expresszugschild.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Wupper-E... [2] https://soscheescho.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/wirre-anzeige-am-bahnhof.jpg https://soscheescho.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/wirre-anze... [3] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/06/33/aa/0633aa8ad996cfeb793672266cc99f44.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/06/33/aa/0633aa8ad996cfeb7936... [4] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/33/a0/b7/33a0b7ac6e5563f48f668aaa10cb2c8e.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/33/a0/b7/33a0b7ac6e5563f48f66... [5] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DkI_ZEbXsAEcknf.jpg:large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DkI_ZEbXsAEcknf.jpg:large
rhacker 7y ago
My RAM truck does have a tiny digital display that has a ton of functionality and I can read the tire pressure on all 6 tires. A lot of the standard stuff also has a secondary mechanical analog display too, because I purchased this truck in 2016. Of course, forget about tire pressure on those analog displays, that would be crazy complicated to have. The other thing, is the RAM display is not connected to the internet, so I don't have to worry about the menu changing locations or button order changing. What I got when I purchased will stay the same. That's comfortable. How do I feel about EVERYTHING moving to a large LCD panel that could play Netflix if I really wanted? I think as long as manufacturers guarantee the interface won't change in very substantial ways since the purchase of the car, I would be OK with it. I would imagine that if the speed limit and engine temperature sudden swapped position, people would get into deadly car accidents very quickly. I know it's not that simple, but you have to realize we're talking about not just you, but 5-7 billion people that may have digital displays to worry about when they are driving. When you scale those UX mistakes, people will die. So if updates and digital screens are on the way for all cars, I would recommend some basic rules for manufacturers to follow. (Of which I don't know what would be good but it should exist)
- asaph 7y ago
  > How do I feel about EVERYTHING moving to a large LCD panel that could play Netflix if I really wanted? The Tesla Model 3 is already like this, including the Netflix part. > So if updates and digital screens are on the way for all cars Tesla has been doing over the air software updates and had digital screens for years.
  - rhacker 7y ago
    These are definitely the more rhetorical parts of my post...?
- manicdee 7y ago
  What if oil pressure and engine temperature didn’t matter anymore? The only number of concern is the speed, and that’s displayed in prime position and never moves.
GhettoMaestro 7y ago
I don’t mind the displays being screens as long as certain things have mechanical buttons. Eg: The AC/Max AC. Don’t make people go through touchscreen menus that take a minute just to boot. When it’s 100F outside and you need max ac, that minute is a LONG minute.
ajsharp 7y ago
Related: Mazda is removing screen from future vehicles due to the clear safety issues. https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1121372_why-mazda-is-purging-touchscreens-from-its-vehicles https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1121372_why-mazda-is-pur...
- kart23 7y ago
  * touchscreen. All US cars still need a screen because of the government required backup camera.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    Is that really true? Some backup camera systems used to display as part of the rearview mirror. (I don't know if the size and nature of the display meets the current requirements though and, in practice, I imagine all but the lowest end vehicles do use a screen for at least some entertainment functions. Big volume knobs are probably mostly a lost cause.)
    - Gibbon1 7y ago
      A technology I see a lot of apparent work on is light field displays which would be perfect for synthetic rear view mirrors.
    - kart23 7y ago
      I just said they need a screen. And to display video you need a screen somewhere, so yeah it's true. And the government does mandate all new cars to have a backup camera monitoring system.
    - Tagbert 7y ago
      Yes, but the ones in the mirror are too small. The big, wide angle backup cameras are wonderful. So much better than the limited mirror. They see a much wider area and below the bumper.
- brandonmenc 7y ago
  The Mazda puck control is awesome. Hands-down the best car UI. I drive a Mazda and didn't even realize the screen was touchable because there is absolutely no reason to not use the puck. (If you've never seen it, the puck is an all-in-one scroll wheel, button, and directional joystick - on the center console exactly where your arm naturally rests, no reaching necessary.)
artemonster 7y ago
On the note: does anyone know about some actual studies that measured information registering speed on gauges VS written numbers? I'm still kind of puzzled about it and cannot reliably say, when reading a number is faster than evaluating a gauge.
- Mountain_Skies 7y ago
  Not sure about screens versus gauges since a screen can mock the appearance of a physical gauge but I do recall a lecture during a UI/UX class I took long ago that about analog gauges being easier and quicker to understand than seven segment displays. Something about the brain needing to interpret the actual number for the seven segment display versus quickly understanding the approximate speed from the needle on the gauge.
  - detaro 7y ago
    Gauges especially are great to see the rate of change.
  - wkearney99 7y ago
    Gauges give you a nominal position. A point where the needle rests during normal activity. You can quickly scan the needles and only have to care if their position is out of place. Likewise scale, you don't have to calculate if it's beyond the reasonably expected level, you can simply see where it falls on the dial. With digits you have to examine each of them with specific knowledge of what those numbers mean. That takes valuable attention away from the more immediate tasks at hand.
blakesterz 7y ago
My boss showed me the screen on his new 2019 vehicle. He had been complaining about it for weeks, and all I could think was "OK boomer, how bad could it be". Well it was beyond terrible. The number of clicks (I guess touches is the proper term) was crazy. To do ANYTHING it was like 5 menus deep. All I could think is the people that designed this thing HATE their users. I still drive a 2010 that's mostly gauges. Not looking forward to the upgrade.
- thrower123 7y ago
  Yeah, it's just not safe. My wife has a 2019 Ford, and turning the defrost on is 3-5 touches, depending on where the UI is when you start from. On my 2010, I punch one big physical button.
Mountain_Skies 7y ago
Going in the other direction, there's a pretty good YouTube channel called amstudio that shows how to hook up physical gauges to your computer for use in racing simulators. IIRC, they've even taken out entire instrument panels from cars and interfaced them to the simulator.
smokey_the_bear 7y ago
I’d never driven a car where the gauges bothered me, so I didn’t worry about it when buying a 2019 minivan to replace my 2006 Prius. I hate the screen. The clock isn’t always displayed! And it displays in multiple places! I just don’t use the radio because it’s too many taps to be safe while driving.
- war1025 7y ago
  Slightly related, I just finally was forced to upgrade from a 2010-era brick phone to a smart phone (they were turning the 2g towers off). With my old phone, I could pretty safely check an incoming call or text without taking my eyes off the road for more than a second or so. With me new phone, I can't even manage to unlock my phone without feeling like I'm going to kill someone. I guess it makes sense that the rise of all the anti-cellphone laws coincided with the rise of smartphones. They are absolutely hostile to anything but undivided attention.
  - PyroLagus 7y ago
    You shouldn't check calls or texts while driving regardless of the type of phone, and on a smartphone you can at least have it announce who is calling or who sent the text (and even read the text for you.) You can also tell the phone to accept the call and put it on speaker (although that's technically also unsafe, but so is having a conversation with another person in the car while driving.)
mmphosis 7y ago
I'm a minimalist. Speed, distance, fuel, 6 volt plug-in. http://www.oldbug.com/lightfoot41.jpg http://www.oldbug.com/lightfoot41.jpg
- Smoosh 7y ago
  If we're being serious about the UX, this loses marks as the knobs are not clearly labelled.
jdsully 7y ago
I'm a big fan of an uncluttered instrument cluster, preferably with analogue gauges but I've seen some digital versions that are fine. The real problem seems to be the screens suffer the same fate as all software, adding gimmicks and superfluous information just because it's easy. With a physical instrument cluster each gauge costs real money which enforces discipline on the design.
allovernow 7y ago
Tangent: I can't help but feel like we're automating away the driving experience - although most people probably never appreciated it. There's a magical zenlike state of flow that feels like a seamless merging of man and machine, and personally I think it's much easier to cultivate with analog features which force you to think carefully about control, and it is important that a driver is occasionally allowed to exceed the limits of control. That means standard transmission, no traction control, and arguably even ABS could be done away with. This goes for information display as well - it's hard to describe the qualia that comes from glancing at a purpose built, mechanical indicator, that you know will always be in the same place. These things together combine to give a car a soul. I'm no Luddite but I have no desire to drive what amounts to a high tech robot. Where's the joy in pressing the gas and having a car simply drive itself? Sure, for the vast majority, a car is a tool for transport from A to B. But I think many of these people are missing out on a unique experience.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- lazyasciiart 7y ago
  Sounds like an experience better had on a closed course than a public street.
- mojuba 7y ago
  I can't agree more and very strange your comment is downvoted. Right now the EV market I think is open to electric cars for people like us: physical gauges, just the bare minimum for driving (I'd include ABS for safety and cruise control for some minimal comfort), slick interior with a subtle vintage touch maybe. No autopilot, no Netflix for you. Oh and physical keys. I'm constatnly thinking about this, but unfortunately starting a car company seems to be almost as difficult as going to Mars. But who knows, maybe some day.
  - ColanR 7y ago
    > starting a car company seems to be almost as difficult as going to Mars And yet think of all the economic benefit that would come with starting that new company. I don't know what you're thinking of as the difficulties , but my mind immediately went to the intense regulation involved. Too bad it isn't easier.
axiom92 7y ago
There's an entire book making essentially the same point: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Interface-No-brilliant-technology/dp/0133890333 https://www.amazon.com/Best-Interface-No-brilliant-technolog...
xwowsersx 7y ago
There really are too many screens. I was driving a BMW SUV recently and switching the multimedia input to my phone and then connecting Bluetooth etc required going through so my screens. It'd be one thing if the navigation mechanism were easy/intuitive, but it's not. At the same time, there's so much functionality that cars now have and it's only increasing so I'm not sure how gauges can really help. It feels like what's needed is a built in iPad almost which at least has simple touch navigation.
gumby 7y ago
Indeed, gauges are so much better than digit-based displays, just as dial watch faces can be usefully read at a glance. When your attention is supposed to be on the road, knowing your speed is close to the posted limit is more useful than parsing your precise speed.
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  Comment I read decades ago was analog gauges impart meaning that digital ones don't. The context was analog fuel gauges for aircraft. 120 gals of fuel in a P51 means you have around two hours for flight time left. 120 gallons in B17 means you have half an hour.
lokedhs 7y ago
I saw some video of the inside of the crew console for the SpaceX capsule. It's all touch screens as far as I can tell. That seems to me to be incredibly stupid. I'm sure it'll be very easy to access those controls when it's shaking violently and (heavens forbid) the entire capsule gets smoke-filled in an emergency. I'm sure they've thought about these things, so I'm curious as to what I've missed.

67 points by t23 7y ago

This website has so much crapware running on it (adsrvr.org, adsafeprotected.com, amazon-adsystem.com, chartbeat.com, doubleclick.net, connect.facebook.net, google-analytics.com, ... I stopped copying and pasting at the letter "G"). I got 18 AdBlockPlus kills, 15 NoScript kills, 17 PrivacyBadger kills. I lost all interest to reading what the article is about..

Mountain_Skies 7y ago
That's pretty typical for the Gizmodo family of sites. Usually I avoid going to any of them because of the high amount of clickbait but hoped this article would be a bit more than "man yells at cloud".
- frou_dh 7y ago
  HN User Whines About Blog's JS/CSS is quite analogous to Old Man Yells At Cloud
- stallmanite 7y ago
  I really believe that some clouds need yelling at.

Mountain_Skies 7y ago

Physical gauges? Meh, don't really care that much. Just as long as the data on the screen is clear and where it is expected to be. Physical buttons with physical feedback so they can be adjusted by feel while keeping eyes on the road? Those are important. Maybe they can be replaced with a voice interface at some point but I'd like to see a few more sigmas of reliability before relying on voice recognition to turn on the windshield wipers.

giancarlostoro 7y ago
Precisely. Touch screens are not ideal for drivers only passengers. Let the driver use buttons and let the passenger use the touch screen without restriction. I cant even pull up GPS coords on a 2020 car without having my wife pull over. Meanwhile I can pull out my phone and search anything. The benefit of the maps being on there is that she can see the map clearer. Except its useless once you drive. Sometimes driving plans change whilst driving.
- mszcz 7y ago
  Yeah, the decision to go with touchscreens in an environment where you cannot turn your eyes away and focus on something is boneheaded IMO. The AC in my car is controlled by dials which also have a button in the middle. I can control this while driving in the middle of the night and will never have to turn my eyes away. The reason for that is that I can use touch to find the right dialm align my fingers by touch alone and just turn it. Now try doing something "by touch" or "from memory" on a touch screen. Suddenly, your glove compartment opens :P Anyhow, IMO, the orgy of the screens in the car is probably a stupid, misguided way to try and sell more cars, and will go the same way of the 3D TV and curved TV.
Crosseye_Jack 7y ago
> Maybe they can be replaced with a voice interface at some point but I'd like to see a few more sigmas of reliability before relying on voice recognition to turn on the windshield wipers. There are people who are unable to speak but are perfectly able to drive. Replacing controls instead of them being an additional form of control of the existing controls can have the effect of removing people’s ability to drive simply because of an infliction they are unable to control. Heck what happens the day you get a bad throat, lose your voice and you are unable to drive yourself to the local pharmacy because your unable to control your windscreen wipers.

hinkley 7y ago

In a similar vein, I was always a little bummed that Ambient Devices or some competitor never got more traction in the market, and never got much cheaper. I thought they’d gone out of business but they are still alive and kicking. Unfortunately most of their devices no longer look much like gauges. Most look like clocks.

lqet 7y ago

> Screens are also less likely to break than mechanically moving gauges What? If you buy a 30 year old car, the gauges are most likely still intact, and original. If you have an older house, things like the water gauges (or even regular clock gauges) are also decades old. I want to see the screen that will work for > 20 years in a constantly moving and vibrating environment, under massive temperature changes, without any additional care or repairs or replacement. Take passenger information displays in public transit. Not until a few years ago, it was still common that the head signs in trains, buses or subways where mechanical. It was often just a paper roll [0] that was adjusted to display the correct destination, or even just a plate that was changed by the conductor [1]. Things like car numbers or seat reservations were displayed by simple paper signs. Fast-forward to the 90ies, where at least in Europe, they began to replace these things by LCDs. After a few years, it was normal to see trains with broken head signs, broken car numbers, and broken reservation systems [2]. Fast-forward to today, where it is now en vogue to use full-fledged displays everywhere. The result (at least in the towns I use public transportation) are regularly broken displays [3] [4] [5] that even when they work, often offer no advantage over LCD or LED or even mechanical display from a passenger perspective. They just look more modern. Add to this that the display software is mostly some variant of Windows with a poorly built and designed web application running on it. Think of all the people, all the knowledge, all the hours, all the resources and all the energy required to build and run a full-fledged high-resolution display, an operating system, the web application and a central server in the vehicle running those displays - all to replace a simple roll of paper with a less reliable solution! As computer scientists and software developers, this is what pays us - but as soon as the rest of the society realizes what is going on, I fear that there will a massive backlash. [0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/2009-08-19-obus-eberswalde-by-RalfR-03.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/2009-08-... [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Wupper-Expresszugschild.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Wupper-E... [2] https://soscheescho.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/wirre-anzeige-am-bahnhof.jpg https://soscheescho.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/wirre-anze... [3] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/06/33/aa/0633aa8ad996cfeb793672266cc99f44.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/06/33/aa/0633aa8ad996cfeb7936... [4] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/33/a0/b7/33a0b7ac6e5563f48f668aaa10cb2c8e.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/33/a0/b7/33a0b7ac6e5563f48f66... [5] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DkI_ZEbXsAEcknf.jpg:large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DkI_ZEbXsAEcknf.jpg:large

rhacker 7y ago

My RAM truck does have a tiny digital display that has a ton of functionality and I can read the tire pressure on all 6 tires. A lot of the standard stuff also has a secondary mechanical analog display too, because I purchased this truck in 2016. Of course, forget about tire pressure on those analog displays, that would be crazy complicated to have. The other thing, is the RAM display is not connected to the internet, so I don't have to worry about the menu changing locations or button order changing. What I got when I purchased will stay the same. That's comfortable. How do I feel about EVERYTHING moving to a large LCD panel that could play Netflix if I really wanted? I think as long as manufacturers guarantee the interface won't change in very substantial ways since the purchase of the car, I would be OK with it. I would imagine that if the speed limit and engine temperature sudden swapped position, people would get into deadly car accidents very quickly. I know it's not that simple, but you have to realize we're talking about not just you, but 5-7 billion people that may have digital displays to worry about when they are driving. When you scale those UX mistakes, people will die. So if updates and digital screens are on the way for all cars, I would recommend some basic rules for manufacturers to follow. (Of which I don't know what would be good but it should exist)

asaph 7y ago
> How do I feel about EVERYTHING moving to a large LCD panel that could play Netflix if I really wanted? The Tesla Model 3 is already like this, including the Netflix part. > So if updates and digital screens are on the way for all cars Tesla has been doing over the air software updates and had digital screens for years.
- rhacker 7y ago
  These are definitely the more rhetorical parts of my post...?
manicdee 7y ago
What if oil pressure and engine temperature didn’t matter anymore? The only number of concern is the speed, and that’s displayed in prime position and never moves.

GhettoMaestro 7y ago

I don’t mind the displays being screens as long as certain things have mechanical buttons. Eg: The AC/Max AC. Don’t make people go through touchscreen menus that take a minute just to boot. When it’s 100F outside and you need max ac, that minute is a LONG minute.

ajsharp 7y ago

Related: Mazda is removing screen from future vehicles due to the clear safety issues. https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1121372_why-mazda-is-purging-touchscreens-from-its-vehicles https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1121372_why-mazda-is-pur...

kart23 7y ago
* touchscreen. All US cars still need a screen because of the government required backup camera.
- ghaff 7y ago
  Is that really true? Some backup camera systems used to display as part of the rearview mirror. (I don't know if the size and nature of the display meets the current requirements though and, in practice, I imagine all but the lowest end vehicles do use a screen for at least some entertainment functions. Big volume knobs are probably mostly a lost cause.)
  - Gibbon1 7y ago
    A technology I see a lot of apparent work on is light field displays which would be perfect for synthetic rear view mirrors.
  - kart23 7y ago
    I just said they need a screen. And to display video you need a screen somewhere, so yeah it's true. And the government does mandate all new cars to have a backup camera monitoring system.
  - Tagbert 7y ago
    Yes, but the ones in the mirror are too small. The big, wide angle backup cameras are wonderful. So much better than the limited mirror. They see a much wider area and below the bumper.
brandonmenc 7y ago
The Mazda puck control is awesome. Hands-down the best car UI. I drive a Mazda and didn't even realize the screen was touchable because there is absolutely no reason to not use the puck. (If you've never seen it, the puck is an all-in-one scroll wheel, button, and directional joystick - on the center console exactly where your arm naturally rests, no reaching necessary.)

artemonster 7y ago

On the note: does anyone know about some actual studies that measured information registering speed on gauges VS written numbers? I'm still kind of puzzled about it and cannot reliably say, when reading a number is faster than evaluating a gauge.

Mountain_Skies 7y ago
Not sure about screens versus gauges since a screen can mock the appearance of a physical gauge but I do recall a lecture during a UI/UX class I took long ago that about analog gauges being easier and quicker to understand than seven segment displays. Something about the brain needing to interpret the actual number for the seven segment display versus quickly understanding the approximate speed from the needle on the gauge.
- detaro 7y ago
  Gauges especially are great to see the rate of change.
- wkearney99 7y ago
  Gauges give you a nominal position. A point where the needle rests during normal activity. You can quickly scan the needles and only have to care if their position is out of place. Likewise scale, you don't have to calculate if it's beyond the reasonably expected level, you can simply see where it falls on the dial. With digits you have to examine each of them with specific knowledge of what those numbers mean. That takes valuable attention away from the more immediate tasks at hand.

blakesterz 7y ago

My boss showed me the screen on his new 2019 vehicle. He had been complaining about it for weeks, and all I could think was "OK boomer, how bad could it be". Well it was beyond terrible. The number of clicks (I guess touches is the proper term) was crazy. To do ANYTHING it was like 5 menus deep. All I could think is the people that designed this thing HATE their users. I still drive a 2010 that's mostly gauges. Not looking forward to the upgrade.

thrower123 7y ago
Yeah, it's just not safe. My wife has a 2019 Ford, and turning the defrost on is 3-5 touches, depending on where the UI is when you start from. On my 2010, I punch one big physical button.

Mountain_Skies 7y ago

Going in the other direction, there's a pretty good YouTube channel called amstudio that shows how to hook up physical gauges to your computer for use in racing simulators. IIRC, they've even taken out entire instrument panels from cars and interfaced them to the simulator.

smokey_the_bear 7y ago

I’d never driven a car where the gauges bothered me, so I didn’t worry about it when buying a 2019 minivan to replace my 2006 Prius. I hate the screen. The clock isn’t always displayed! And it displays in multiple places! I just don’t use the radio because it’s too many taps to be safe while driving.

war1025 7y ago
Slightly related, I just finally was forced to upgrade from a 2010-era brick phone to a smart phone (they were turning the 2g towers off). With my old phone, I could pretty safely check an incoming call or text without taking my eyes off the road for more than a second or so. With me new phone, I can't even manage to unlock my phone without feeling like I'm going to kill someone. I guess it makes sense that the rise of all the anti-cellphone laws coincided with the rise of smartphones. They are absolutely hostile to anything but undivided attention.
- PyroLagus 7y ago
  You shouldn't check calls or texts while driving regardless of the type of phone, and on a smartphone you can at least have it announce who is calling or who sent the text (and even read the text for you.) You can also tell the phone to accept the call and put it on speaker (although that's technically also unsafe, but so is having a conversation with another person in the car while driving.)

mmphosis 7y ago

I'm a minimalist. Speed, distance, fuel, 6 volt plug-in. http://www.oldbug.com/lightfoot41.jpg http://www.oldbug.com/lightfoot41.jpg

Smoosh 7y ago
If we're being serious about the UX, this loses marks as the knobs are not clearly labelled.

jdsully 7y ago

I'm a big fan of an uncluttered instrument cluster, preferably with analogue gauges but I've seen some digital versions that are fine. The real problem seems to be the screens suffer the same fate as all software, adding gimmicks and superfluous information just because it's easy. With a physical instrument cluster each gauge costs real money which enforces discipline on the design.

allovernow 7y ago

Tangent: I can't help but feel like we're automating away the driving experience - although most people probably never appreciated it. There's a magical zenlike state of flow that feels like a seamless merging of man and machine, and personally I think it's much easier to cultivate with analog features which force you to think carefully about control, and it is important that a driver is occasionally allowed to exceed the limits of control. That means standard transmission, no traction control, and arguably even ABS could be done away with. This goes for information display as well - it's hard to describe the qualia that comes from glancing at a purpose built, mechanical indicator, that you know will always be in the same place. These things together combine to give a car a soul. I'm no Luddite but I have no desire to drive what amounts to a high tech robot. Where's the joy in pressing the gas and having a car simply drive itself? Sure, for the vast majority, a car is a tool for transport from A to B. But I think many of these people are missing out on a unique experience.

deleted 7y ago
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lazyasciiart 7y ago
Sounds like an experience better had on a closed course than a public street.
mojuba 7y ago
I can't agree more and very strange your comment is downvoted. Right now the EV market I think is open to electric cars for people like us: physical gauges, just the bare minimum for driving (I'd include ABS for safety and cruise control for some minimal comfort), slick interior with a subtle vintage touch maybe. No autopilot, no Netflix for you. Oh and physical keys. I'm constatnly thinking about this, but unfortunately starting a car company seems to be almost as difficult as going to Mars. But who knows, maybe some day.
- ColanR 7y ago
  > starting a car company seems to be almost as difficult as going to Mars And yet think of all the economic benefit that would come with starting that new company. I don't know what you're thinking of as the difficulties , but my mind immediately went to the intense regulation involved. Too bad it isn't easier.

axiom92 7y ago

There's an entire book making essentially the same point: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Interface-No-brilliant-technology/dp/0133890333 https://www.amazon.com/Best-Interface-No-brilliant-technolog...

xwowsersx 7y ago

There really are too many screens. I was driving a BMW SUV recently and switching the multimedia input to my phone and then connecting Bluetooth etc required going through so my screens. It'd be one thing if the navigation mechanism were easy/intuitive, but it's not. At the same time, there's so much functionality that cars now have and it's only increasing so I'm not sure how gauges can really help. It feels like what's needed is a built in iPad almost which at least has simple touch navigation.

gumby 7y ago

Indeed, gauges are so much better than digit-based displays, just as dial watch faces can be usefully read at a glance. When your attention is supposed to be on the road, knowing your speed is close to the posted limit is more useful than parsing your precise speed.

Gibbon1 7y ago
Comment I read decades ago was analog gauges impart meaning that digital ones don't. The context was analog fuel gauges for aircraft. 120 gals of fuel in a P51 means you have around two hours for flight time left. 120 gallons in B17 means you have half an hour.

lokedhs 7y ago

I saw some video of the inside of the crew console for the SpaceX capsule. It's all touch screens as far as I can tell. That seems to me to be incredibly stupid. I'm sure it'll be very easy to access those controls when it's shaking violently and (heavens forbid) the entire capsule gets smoke-filled in an emergency. I'm sure they've thought about these things, so I'm curious as to what I've missed.