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Not just Tesla. Every car manufacturer. So far it's only Mazda IIRC who said they are getting rid of touch controls. Meanwhile Mercedes Benz proudly advertiser

Not just Tesla. Every car manufacturer. So far it's only Mazda IIRC who said they are getting rid of touch controls. Meanwhile Mercedes Benz proudly advertisers this crap: https://youtu.be/SuFE5x6fPqw https://youtu.be/SuFE5x6fPqw

bob1029 6y ago
Mercedes and Audi are easily the worst offenders right now.
- gambiting 6y ago
  No, Volkswagen is even worse. Have a look at the Mk8 golf or even the ID.3 - literally everything is a touch surface, made out of shiny black plastic. Volume controls, climate controls, "buttons" on the steering wheel are tiny touchpads.....it's truly truly awful. I've used the latest Golf recently and the fact that the only way to adjust temperature is to swipe your finger on a tiny touch surface without any feedback is just mindboggingly stupid.
BoorishBears 6y ago
You do see the buttons that do almost everything you'd want to do while driving on the steering wheel right? Along with a voice operated climate control, you don't need to touch the screen, ever
- dmitriid 6y ago
  > You do see the buttons that do almost everything "Almost" is to say that no, it's not enough. Show me climate controls on the steering wheel. > Along with a voice operated climate control No. A very very small minority of people operate anything via voice control. Especially in cars where voice control is universally horrendous.
  - BoorishBears 6y ago
    You can control the screen from the steering wheel buttons, and there's a dedicated home button, so you can get to a given control with a repeatable set of inputs on the wheel. Same with the console mounted touchpad. Both of which don't require the level of coordination touching a touchscreen would require. There's also the fact they're giving people what they wanted, voice control suck but that's how you make it work with a giant touch screen, and people's buying habits and feedback on Teslas have shown it's what they want. It wasn't until last year Tesla's voice input was even doing natural language-ish stuff. MBUX meets the (low) bar that's been set.
    - dmitriid 6y ago
      >You can control the screen from the steering wheel buttons, and there's a dedicated home button Riiight. And to see where exactly you are on the screen you need... guess what, look at it. > There's also the fact they're giving people what they wanted, voice control suck but that's how you make it work with a giant touch screen Yup. You got it all backwards. - They install a huge touchscreen with horrible controls - These controls are incredibly bad, and are a hazard when the car is in motion - Instead of fixing the horrendous UX, they patch it with voice control - Voice control, by your own admission, sucks So, no, they are not giving people what the want. People want sane and safe controls inside a car. A huge touchscreen with no physical buttons, tiny controls and touch targets, and a voice control that sucks is not what people want. > MBUX meets the (low) bar that's been set. How about raising the bar instead of leaving it on the ground?
      - BoorishBears 6y ago
        > Riiight. And to see where exactly you are on the screen you need... guess what, look at it. If your cognitive functions are a limiting factor, sure? One of my cars has a touch screen and a knob to control it. It took my about 2 days of owning the car to know how many knob clicks to get to "Change input". At worst I might glance at it for a second if I overshoot by an item, no different than when we had individual knobs for everything and you might occasionally glance to see how far you turned the knob - Also, maybe read things twice. > voice control suck but that's how you make it work with a giant touch screen Read that again, slowly. It means that they add a touch screen and make it work by patching in voice. You didn't need to repeat my point for me. - Your problem is you think this is some sort of debate where I'm backing "Team Big Touchscreen And Voice Controls" and you're going "aha! Gotcha! You don't like voice either!" No. I don't. But you're wrong, people do want touchscreens and crappy voice controls, and Tesla's cult following is proof. That garbage interior is hailed as futuristic over it's tablet, and everyone is following them because, despite your illusion that what you want is what everyone wants .. people like the idea of a big shiny touch screen in their car to make it "futuristic", that's why people end ip retrofitting 12 inch screens into their 10 year old Camry now. MBUX is above the bar that's been set in useability, but they don't set the bar because they don't have the image or mind share to do so. If tomorrow morning Tesla removed the screen and replaces it with AR goggles I promise you that will be the new bar.
- fanatic2pope 6y ago
  Did you actually watch the video? It clearly shows the driver being distracted by controls on the touch screen to "share" media with a backseat passenger. That's a terrible design that could easily lead to deaths.
  - BoorishBears 6y ago
    First off, it doesn't let you share media or most of the more advanced functions if the car is in any form of motion. Second... are you kidding me?! A driver deciding to look down at their screen to share media while driving would be blamed... on the infotainment, is that a joke? By that logic you're also allowed to look down at your cupholder and count the crumbs that have accumulated, that's a terrible design and the cupholder should be mounted at your sightlines. - Normally I'm in the "putting screens in is adding unnecessary temptation" camp, but please. Personal culpability is still a concept. MB kept all the stalks that make sense, they kept the steering wheel buttons, they kept physical buttons for stuff specific screens. They did fine for the parameters they're playing with, which is "Tesla has made not sticking a giant touchscreen in your car not seem futuristic".
orev 6y ago
So has Honda
BbzzbB 6y ago
Frankly I find that more appealing than the airplane dashboard that are currently MBs. I was actually just wondering the other day as I was driving with family owning one (well, two) if they will take the route of Tesla and get rid of the bazillion useless buttons.
- dmitriid 6y ago
  "Removing bazillion useless buttons" != remove all physical buttons especially those that are often used.
6d6b73 6y ago
Not Toyota.. They always have stuff that's 1 gen behind, but it always works the way it should.
- speedgoose 6y ago
  The cruise control knob on Toyota cars is not very user-friendly, to say the least.
  - 6d6b73 6y ago
    It's been the same knob for 10+ years. It could be better, of course, but it works. Always.
    - speedgoose 6y ago
      Sure it works, if you know how to use it. I think they should have switched to a simpler system about 10 years ago.

bob1029 6y ago

Mercedes and Audi are easily the worst offenders right now.

gambiting 6y ago
No, Volkswagen is even worse. Have a look at the Mk8 golf or even the ID.3 - literally everything is a touch surface, made out of shiny black plastic. Volume controls, climate controls, "buttons" on the steering wheel are tiny touchpads.....it's truly truly awful. I've used the latest Golf recently and the fact that the only way to adjust temperature is to swipe your finger on a tiny touch surface without any feedback is just mindboggingly stupid.

BoorishBears 6y ago

You do see the buttons that do almost everything you'd want to do while driving on the steering wheel right? Along with a voice operated climate control, you don't need to touch the screen, ever

dmitriid 6y ago
> You do see the buttons that do almost everything "Almost" is to say that no, it's not enough. Show me climate controls on the steering wheel. > Along with a voice operated climate control No. A very very small minority of people operate anything via voice control. Especially in cars where voice control is universally horrendous.
- BoorishBears 6y ago
  You can control the screen from the steering wheel buttons, and there's a dedicated home button, so you can get to a given control with a repeatable set of inputs on the wheel. Same with the console mounted touchpad. Both of which don't require the level of coordination touching a touchscreen would require. There's also the fact they're giving people what they wanted, voice control suck but that's how you make it work with a giant touch screen, and people's buying habits and feedback on Teslas have shown it's what they want. It wasn't until last year Tesla's voice input was even doing natural language-ish stuff. MBUX meets the (low) bar that's been set.
  - dmitriid 6y ago
    >You can control the screen from the steering wheel buttons, and there's a dedicated home button Riiight. And to see where exactly you are on the screen you need... guess what, look at it. > There's also the fact they're giving people what they wanted, voice control suck but that's how you make it work with a giant touch screen Yup. You got it all backwards. - They install a huge touchscreen with horrible controls - These controls are incredibly bad, and are a hazard when the car is in motion - Instead of fixing the horrendous UX, they patch it with voice control - Voice control, by your own admission, sucks So, no, they are not giving people what the want. People want sane and safe controls inside a car. A huge touchscreen with no physical buttons, tiny controls and touch targets, and a voice control that sucks is not what people want. > MBUX meets the (low) bar that's been set. How about raising the bar instead of leaving it on the ground?
    - BoorishBears 6y ago
      > Riiight. And to see where exactly you are on the screen you need... guess what, look at it. If your cognitive functions are a limiting factor, sure? One of my cars has a touch screen and a knob to control it. It took my about 2 days of owning the car to know how many knob clicks to get to "Change input". At worst I might glance at it for a second if I overshoot by an item, no different than when we had individual knobs for everything and you might occasionally glance to see how far you turned the knob - Also, maybe read things twice. > voice control suck but that's how you make it work with a giant touch screen Read that again, slowly. It means that they add a touch screen and make it work by patching in voice. You didn't need to repeat my point for me. - Your problem is you think this is some sort of debate where I'm backing "Team Big Touchscreen And Voice Controls" and you're going "aha! Gotcha! You don't like voice either!" No. I don't. But you're wrong, people do want touchscreens and crappy voice controls, and Tesla's cult following is proof. That garbage interior is hailed as futuristic over it's tablet, and everyone is following them because, despite your illusion that what you want is what everyone wants .. people like the idea of a big shiny touch screen in their car to make it "futuristic", that's why people end ip retrofitting 12 inch screens into their 10 year old Camry now. MBUX is above the bar that's been set in useability, but they don't set the bar because they don't have the image or mind share to do so. If tomorrow morning Tesla removed the screen and replaces it with AR goggles I promise you that will be the new bar.
fanatic2pope 6y ago
Did you actually watch the video? It clearly shows the driver being distracted by controls on the touch screen to "share" media with a backseat passenger. That's a terrible design that could easily lead to deaths.
- BoorishBears 6y ago
  First off, it doesn't let you share media or most of the more advanced functions if the car is in any form of motion. Second... are you kidding me?! A driver deciding to look down at their screen to share media while driving would be blamed... on the infotainment, is that a joke? By that logic you're also allowed to look down at your cupholder and count the crumbs that have accumulated, that's a terrible design and the cupholder should be mounted at your sightlines. - Normally I'm in the "putting screens in is adding unnecessary temptation" camp, but please. Personal culpability is still a concept. MB kept all the stalks that make sense, they kept the steering wheel buttons, they kept physical buttons for stuff specific screens. They did fine for the parameters they're playing with, which is "Tesla has made not sticking a giant touchscreen in your car not seem futuristic".

orev 6y ago

So has Honda

BbzzbB 6y ago

Frankly I find that more appealing than the airplane dashboard that are currently MBs. I was actually just wondering the other day as I was driving with family owning one (well, two) if they will take the route of Tesla and get rid of the bazillion useless buttons.

dmitriid 6y ago
"Removing bazillion useless buttons" != remove all physical buttons especially those that are often used.

6d6b73 6y ago

Not Toyota.. They always have stuff that's 1 gen behind, but it always works the way it should.

speedgoose 6y ago
The cruise control knob on Toyota cars is not very user-friendly, to say the least.
- 6d6b73 6y ago
  It's been the same knob for 10+ years. It could be better, of course, but it works. Always.
  - speedgoose 6y ago
    Sure it works, if you know how to use it. I think they should have switched to a simpler system about 10 years ago.