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Physical buttons are far harder to produce and, once made, are set in stone until the car is recycled. Touch controls can be reprogrammed, updated, improved, et

Physical buttons are far harder to produce and, once made, are set in stone until the car is recycled. Touch controls can be reprogrammed, updated, improved, etc, mixed with voice input, etc. Far more possibilities for improvement.

Hallucinaut 4y ago
if only someone could invent a device with physical buttons that could connect to a device like a tablet or other computer.
assttoasstmgr 4y ago
Who said physical buttons cannot be mixed with voice input? Most physical buttons these days are just an interface to the CAN bus, where the function is performed (in software) in the BCM and can easily interface with the voice module. "Improved" is an interesting term. How much improvement can you make to climate control buttons? Their function in most vehicles has not changed in 30 years and are largely the same aside from styling. I feel like we just had this conversation two days ago, with the Amazon driver that has to use a touchscreen to open the cargo door in his new EV delivery van. Another ridiculous design courtesy of SV. Maybe the Juicero engineers found a new life at the EV manufacturers.
giantrobot 4y ago
That's ridiculous. Multi-function displays/inputs have been a thing for decades. A physical button does not need to map to one and only one function. Just like MFDs in aircraft, physical buttons in a car display can perform different tasks depending on the mode of the display. I've had several car head units over the years with multi-function buttons. Touch screens in cars are shit. Not only is there no tactile feedback but you can't place your finger on a button before pressing it like you can a physical button. To touchscreens a touch is a press so you better hope you touched the screen in the right place and your finger didn't move around because of a bump in the road.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
  When the original iphone premiered, a lot of experts were saying it'll be a failure because it lacks physical controls and it makes calling while driving impossible. Fast forward to now, even Android phones have lost all physical buttons for home/back/menu and now it is all just touch screens. This approach allowed changing button-controlled interface to gesture-controlled. So touch screens might be shit, you just don't need to touch them while driving.
  - rsj_hn 4y ago
    People spend a lot of time staring at their phones because of those touchscreens. Which is what the phone makers want. But automakers and fellow drivers -- not so much. For the same reason, the US Navy announced it was moving away from touchscreen controls. When actions need to be taken quickly, muscle memory and tactile feedback are preferred. https://news.usni.org/2019/08/09/navy-reverting-ddgs-back-to-physical-throttles-after-fleet-rejects-touchscreen-controls https://news.usni.org/2019/08/09/navy-reverting-ddgs-back-to...
    - Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
      I didn't know car drivers need to be really quick when taking actions like climate control or music volume adjustments.
      - rsj_hn 4y ago
        If they are driving, yes, they do, because their attention needs to be focused on the road.
        Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
        Changing climate controls never requires any kind of immediacy.
        4y ago
Brian_K_White 4y ago
Controls that change based on mode are terrible for a vehicle. IE, a physical button that's programmable and doesn't always do the same thing, is no good. Controls that change location or behavior from one day to the next, are absolutely horrendous.

Hallucinaut 4y ago

if only someone could invent a device with physical buttons that could connect to a device like a tablet or other computer.

assttoasstmgr 4y ago

Who said physical buttons cannot be mixed with voice input? Most physical buttons these days are just an interface to the CAN bus, where the function is performed (in software) in the BCM and can easily interface with the voice module. "Improved" is an interesting term. How much improvement can you make to climate control buttons? Their function in most vehicles has not changed in 30 years and are largely the same aside from styling. I feel like we just had this conversation two days ago, with the Amazon driver that has to use a touchscreen to open the cargo door in his new EV delivery van. Another ridiculous design courtesy of SV. Maybe the Juicero engineers found a new life at the EV manufacturers.

giantrobot 4y ago

That's ridiculous. Multi-function displays/inputs have been a thing for decades. A physical button does not need to map to one and only one function. Just like MFDs in aircraft, physical buttons in a car display can perform different tasks depending on the mode of the display. I've had several car head units over the years with multi-function buttons. Touch screens in cars are shit. Not only is there no tactile feedback but you can't place your finger on a button before pressing it like you can a physical button. To touchscreens a touch is a press so you better hope you touched the screen in the right place and your finger didn't move around because of a bump in the road.

Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
When the original iphone premiered, a lot of experts were saying it'll be a failure because it lacks physical controls and it makes calling while driving impossible. Fast forward to now, even Android phones have lost all physical buttons for home/back/menu and now it is all just touch screens. This approach allowed changing button-controlled interface to gesture-controlled. So touch screens might be shit, you just don't need to touch them while driving.
- rsj_hn 4y ago
  People spend a lot of time staring at their phones because of those touchscreens. Which is what the phone makers want. But automakers and fellow drivers -- not so much. For the same reason, the US Navy announced it was moving away from touchscreen controls. When actions need to be taken quickly, muscle memory and tactile feedback are preferred. https://news.usni.org/2019/08/09/navy-reverting-ddgs-back-to-physical-throttles-after-fleet-rejects-touchscreen-controls https://news.usni.org/2019/08/09/navy-reverting-ddgs-back-to...
  - Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
    I didn't know car drivers need to be really quick when taking actions like climate control or music volume adjustments.
    - rsj_hn 4y ago
      If they are driving, yes, they do, because their attention needs to be focused on the road.
      - Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
        Changing climate controls never requires any kind of immediacy.
        4y ago

Brian_K_White 4y ago

Controls that change based on mode are terrible for a vehicle. IE, a physical button that's programmable and doesn't always do the same thing, is no good. Controls that change location or behavior from one day to the next, are absolutely horrendous.