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Never going to happen. Some of us are the opposite, I can't stand cars with a thousand nobs and dials that take a 100 page manual to understand. I find the clut

by BluSyn 6y ago

Never going to happen. Some of us are the opposite, I can't stand cars with a thousand nobs and dials that take a 100 page manual to understand. I find the clutter 100x more distracting.

jonathankoren 6y ago
Can you explain how buttons are a distraction? Also, by “distracting”, do you mean that the present of physical knobs prevent you from paying attention to the road?
- jsight 6y ago
  He can't explain that any more than the OP can explain why having the speedometer slightly to the right is more distracting than hidden behind the steering wheel.
  - ipsocannibal 6y ago
    Sure, looking to right the forces my view away from the direction the vehicle's traveling to see information about that movement. A HUD does not.
    - jonathankoren 6y ago
      We’re talking about giant touch screens, not HUDs.
- ctdonath 6y ago
  If you reach for a button and it's not exactly where your finger lands, you're now distracted by figuring out where it is and/or why something unexpected happened. Doesn't help that some buttons physically stick and reluctantly disengage. Half the buttons allegedly do something, but they're useless or pointless. Some have indicator lights one must have reason to look at before noticing (oh, the "dual heat mode" got enabled? is that why the HVAC has been fighting itself and can't decide whether to heat or cool? defrost is stuck on, and wife is freaking out that it's too hot/cold/something in here and doesn't understand how to stop it?) My car's "infotainment" system is so bad I've given up on it. When working with a phone, the sound is good - but rattling thru menus via buttons on multiple surfaces, never quite knowing what some of the terms mean (because I'm focused on the road, not on sorting out "MEDIA SOURCE" vs "INPUT SOURCE" in context of connecting Bluetooth or whatever), and having to literally alternate between sound unit face and the "OK" button on the steering wheel, well just forget it we're using the phone's own speakers (relatively lousy but they work). There's a speech recognition system in there too, but that goes nowhere (first, memorize all the possible commands it recognizes; next, say the phrases just right in a noisy & distracting environment...). Yeah, physical buttons/knobs are distracting too. At least a touchscreen system can better present/organize information, and likely comes with a viable speech recognition system. And can sanely interface to a phone via Bluetooth.
  - jonathankoren 6y ago
    I’m not trying to be a smart ass, but none of this explains how a touchscreen is superior to physical buttons. If you hand misses a physical button, you easily orient yourself by recognizing the shape of the and relative location of the button by touch, whereas a mistouch on screen might have activated some functionality, or at the very least is harder to orient without looking because there are no physical features. While OEM infotainment systems universally suck, it’s a non sequitur to say that a touchscreen fixes any of these issues, in particular your Bluetooth and voice problems. My Acura has a touchscreen and voice and it sucks. The voice is slow to respond with constant boilerplate announcements, and the typing addresses into the gps is painful, even when using autocomplete (it animates the typing, and then forces you to reconfirm the completed text.)
    - ctdonath 6y ago
      “Why is touchscreen better” wasn’t the question. Point, directed at parent post, is buttons aren’t inherently better. Touch and voice control can be improved with an overnight software update.
      - jonathankoren 6y ago
        Actually, it was.
prepend 6y ago
The choice isn’t between a touchscreen and a thousand knobs. My current car, a random 5 year old sedan has about 4-5 knobs on the console I use- volume, heated seats, ac mode, temperature, and nav knob that rotates, pushes in, and pushed in 4 directions. I can do all this without taking my eyes off the road. I also have an 8 inch touchscreen that I never use because it’s too hard while driving.
leetcrew 6y ago
I realize most people don't actually do this, but imo it's pretty irresponsible to drive around in a 1.5+ ton vehicle without taking the time to RTFM, regardless of how complicated it is.
ipsocannibal 6y ago
My comment was specifically about forcing a drivers eyes off the road. A touchscreen does this and buttons do not. However, I agree voice controls and a HUD does solve this problem better than button.
- brokenmachine 6y ago
  HUD does not serve the same function as touchscreen or buttons. Or do you mean HUD combined with a stalk with buttons? Voice controls are terrible and I won't be convinced otherwise.

by BluSyn 6y ago

Never going to happen. Some of us are the opposite, I can't stand cars with a thousand nobs and dials that take a 100 page manual to understand. I find the clutter 100x more distracting.

jonathankoren 6y ago

Can you explain how buttons are a distraction? Also, by “distracting”, do you mean that the present of physical knobs prevent you from paying attention to the road?

jsight 6y ago
He can't explain that any more than the OP can explain why having the speedometer slightly to the right is more distracting than hidden behind the steering wheel.
- ipsocannibal 6y ago
  Sure, looking to right the forces my view away from the direction the vehicle's traveling to see information about that movement. A HUD does not.
  - jonathankoren 6y ago
    We’re talking about giant touch screens, not HUDs.
ctdonath 6y ago
If you reach for a button and it's not exactly where your finger lands, you're now distracted by figuring out where it is and/or why something unexpected happened. Doesn't help that some buttons physically stick and reluctantly disengage. Half the buttons allegedly do something, but they're useless or pointless. Some have indicator lights one must have reason to look at before noticing (oh, the "dual heat mode" got enabled? is that why the HVAC has been fighting itself and can't decide whether to heat or cool? defrost is stuck on, and wife is freaking out that it's too hot/cold/something in here and doesn't understand how to stop it?) My car's "infotainment" system is so bad I've given up on it. When working with a phone, the sound is good - but rattling thru menus via buttons on multiple surfaces, never quite knowing what some of the terms mean (because I'm focused on the road, not on sorting out "MEDIA SOURCE" vs "INPUT SOURCE" in context of connecting Bluetooth or whatever), and having to literally alternate between sound unit face and the "OK" button on the steering wheel, well just forget it we're using the phone's own speakers (relatively lousy but they work). There's a speech recognition system in there too, but that goes nowhere (first, memorize all the possible commands it recognizes; next, say the phrases just right in a noisy & distracting environment...). Yeah, physical buttons/knobs are distracting too. At least a touchscreen system can better present/organize information, and likely comes with a viable speech recognition system. And can sanely interface to a phone via Bluetooth.
- jonathankoren 6y ago
  I’m not trying to be a smart ass, but none of this explains how a touchscreen is superior to physical buttons. If you hand misses a physical button, you easily orient yourself by recognizing the shape of the and relative location of the button by touch, whereas a mistouch on screen might have activated some functionality, or at the very least is harder to orient without looking because there are no physical features. While OEM infotainment systems universally suck, it’s a non sequitur to say that a touchscreen fixes any of these issues, in particular your Bluetooth and voice problems. My Acura has a touchscreen and voice and it sucks. The voice is slow to respond with constant boilerplate announcements, and the typing addresses into the gps is painful, even when using autocomplete (it animates the typing, and then forces you to reconfirm the completed text.)
  - ctdonath 6y ago
    “Why is touchscreen better” wasn’t the question. Point, directed at parent post, is buttons aren’t inherently better. Touch and voice control can be improved with an overnight software update.
    - jonathankoren 6y ago
      Actually, it was.

prepend 6y ago

The choice isn’t between a touchscreen and a thousand knobs. My current car, a random 5 year old sedan has about 4-5 knobs on the console I use- volume, heated seats, ac mode, temperature, and nav knob that rotates, pushes in, and pushed in 4 directions. I can do all this without taking my eyes off the road. I also have an 8 inch touchscreen that I never use because it’s too hard while driving.

leetcrew 6y ago

I realize most people don't actually do this, but imo it's pretty irresponsible to drive around in a 1.5+ ton vehicle without taking the time to RTFM, regardless of how complicated it is.

ipsocannibal 6y ago

My comment was specifically about forcing a drivers eyes off the road. A touchscreen does this and buttons do not. However, I agree voice controls and a HUD does solve this problem better than button.

brokenmachine 6y ago
HUD does not serve the same function as touchscreen or buttons. Or do you mean HUD combined with a stalk with buttons? Voice controls are terrible and I won't be convinced otherwise.