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That might be the case in the EV space, but the ICE space is pretty well documented. All the major car brands are striving to increase the infotainment segment

That might be the case in the EV space, but the ICE space is pretty well documented. All the major car brands are striving to increase the infotainment segment of their cars more and more. Compare a 2020 Camry to a 2008 one. You almost can't buy a car without at least a 6" screen for the infotainment outside of the cars trying extra hard to appeal to the budget market.

yellowapple 7y ago
> You almost can't buy a car without at least a 6" screen for the infotainment outside of the cars trying extra hard to appeal to the budget market. That's exactly my point. Your only options are "nice car with touchscreen" or "mediocre car without". There's no opportunity for the market to, you know, actually speak.
- Kirby64 7y ago
  Because the market already spoke a long time ago. It used to be the fancy infotainment screen was extra on cars. Turns out the take rate on those is high enough, so it just became standard.
  - yellowapple 7y ago
    But that's the thing: because the market spoke once a decade ago, does that mean there's no room for revisiting that discussion? Tastes change, technology changes, the economy changes, people change, everything changes. It's much like the current 4k TV market. Once upon a time, The Market™ spoke in favor of putting "smart" functionality in TVs, and so manufacturers added computers with greater and greater complexity and visual pizazz and apps and such. Then, the Chromecast and Roku and Fire TV and such became popular, and - better yet - ended up being much easier to upgrade as technology marched on (you only have to replace a $35-or-so dongle or box instead of having to replace a whole multi-hundred-or-thousand-dollar TV). On top of that, the cable companies started to dip their toes in offering these "smart" features in their own set top boxes, as did Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony with their gaming consoles, and there were and still are zero TVs able to replace either category of device. So now you have a bunch of TVs with smart features that go entirely unused (or, worse, actually break, taking the TV with it) because other devices offer better versions of those features and can actually be upgraded without replacing the entire TV. Unfortunately, since The Market™ has already spoken, there is now to my knowledge exactly one 4k TV manufacturer that offers consumer-grade TVs without smart features (Sceptre), and certainly not on store shelves (I had to buy mine on Amazon, with all the risk of damage and theft that entails, and the only Prime-eligible one was the 50"). Literally every other 4k TV - including any at a brick-and-mortar store, be it Best Buy or Fry's or Wal-Mart or what have you - has smart features that cannot be removed and that are either 1) already outperformed by $20-100 devices on those same exact shelves or 2) going to be outperformed within a year because technology marches on and no TV offers a way to upgrade the computational hardware.
Marsymars 7y ago
Mazda is currently purging touchscreens from their vehicle lineup, which is, IMO, the correct approach to in-car UX. I feel strongly enough about it that I'd support a regulatory approach for eliminating touchscreens in cars.
- Kirby64 7y ago
  Keyword being touchscreen. Mazda isn't going away from a 6"+ screen, you're just going to have to use a knob to navigate on it. Regardless of your preference on in-car UX, screens displaying most of the info are here to stay.

yellowapple 7y ago

> You almost can't buy a car without at least a 6" screen for the infotainment outside of the cars trying extra hard to appeal to the budget market. That's exactly my point. Your only options are "nice car with touchscreen" or "mediocre car without". There's no opportunity for the market to, you know, actually speak.

Kirby64 7y ago
Because the market already spoke a long time ago. It used to be the fancy infotainment screen was extra on cars. Turns out the take rate on those is high enough, so it just became standard.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  But that's the thing: because the market spoke once a decade ago, does that mean there's no room for revisiting that discussion? Tastes change, technology changes, the economy changes, people change, everything changes. It's much like the current 4k TV market. Once upon a time, The Market™ spoke in favor of putting "smart" functionality in TVs, and so manufacturers added computers with greater and greater complexity and visual pizazz and apps and such. Then, the Chromecast and Roku and Fire TV and such became popular, and - better yet - ended up being much easier to upgrade as technology marched on (you only have to replace a $35-or-so dongle or box instead of having to replace a whole multi-hundred-or-thousand-dollar TV). On top of that, the cable companies started to dip their toes in offering these "smart" features in their own set top boxes, as did Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony with their gaming consoles, and there were and still are zero TVs able to replace either category of device. So now you have a bunch of TVs with smart features that go entirely unused (or, worse, actually break, taking the TV with it) because other devices offer better versions of those features and can actually be upgraded without replacing the entire TV. Unfortunately, since The Market™ has already spoken, there is now to my knowledge exactly one 4k TV manufacturer that offers consumer-grade TVs without smart features (Sceptre), and certainly not on store shelves (I had to buy mine on Amazon, with all the risk of damage and theft that entails, and the only Prime-eligible one was the 50"). Literally every other 4k TV - including any at a brick-and-mortar store, be it Best Buy or Fry's or Wal-Mart or what have you - has smart features that cannot be removed and that are either 1) already outperformed by $20-100 devices on those same exact shelves or 2) going to be outperformed within a year because technology marches on and no TV offers a way to upgrade the computational hardware.

Marsymars 7y ago

Mazda is currently purging touchscreens from their vehicle lineup, which is, IMO, the correct approach to in-car UX. I feel strongly enough about it that I'd support a regulatory approach for eliminating touchscreens in cars.

Kirby64 7y ago
Keyword being touchscreen. Mazda isn't going away from a 6"+ screen, you're just going to have to use a knob to navigate on it. Regardless of your preference on in-car UX, screens displaying most of the info are here to stay.