Touchscreens Are Out, and Tactile Controls Are Back

Touchscreens can stay, but only for non-essential tasks like changing settings or entering addresses. Climate, media, and all other controls you usually use while driving should be tactile by mandate.

I just want to say that I think this is the dash from my old car a Toyota Yaris.

I miss you ole' buddy. I'm sorry you got rear ended and totaled. You were a great car.

I prefer the tactile controls over the touchscreen. While you're at it, bring back manual transmissions too!

Cool, now bring back single cab light trucks with full length beds.

Should be illegal to have touchscreen controls in a car, it requires you to look at it to effectively control it, which means the car forces you to ignore the road to do anything.

You know what I would really hate? Automatic diagnostics on my dashboard. Nah. Please make those as LED blinks where the mechanic has to supply his own LED, Jerry rigged to the obd connector. And make it so that only one guy in Minnesota has the manual. Every mechanic has to contact that guy. Then the mechanic has to interpret the LED Morse code manually. Oh yes this would be so useful. And to add a 3Ghz motherboard with only access to Apple music. Totally awesome. Make the display show a video of "all I want for Christmas is you" I'll certainly be making use of that.

The article doesn’t mention which cars unfortunately

They are more safe since people can feel the buttons without taking their eyes off of the road. I don't understand why they thought it was a good idea to use touchscreens.

No.

Out the way, boomers.

I'm so glad I kept my car and weathered through this shitty phase of car manufacturing.

If only there was hope for weathering through the data collection, subscription-based features and the death of sedans though...

Also, bring back gauges, instead of idiot-lights. It's nice to know when a problem is beginning (overheating, etc) before it becomes a crisis when you have no choice but to pull over.

Can we address headlights that are brighter than the sun now?

Finally!

Back in the 80s, Don Norman popularized the term affordance. Humans need something to push, pull, turn or otherwise interact with. We are physical beings in a physical world.

Driving vehicles is potentially life-endangering. Just because the technology is there and cheaper does not mean that humans can push aside their physiological limitations in a critical situation.

Take the emergency blinker. You know where it is, you see it all the time - it's right there in front of you! But when a real emergency happens, you'll be fumbling for the button, concentrating on the situation at hand. Now imagine that button on a touchscreen.

Can we return to transparent cases for Consoles and Tech next? I've always thought a touchscreen in cars were pretty scary since you have to take your eyes off the road.

All cars should function like a cockpit- each function has its own independent metal toggle switch that goes 'KAK when switched. I will fight you on this. We need someone to make an interior that does this; sells well, and then the golden age of independent buttons shall return!

THANK JESUS H. VISHNU.

About fucking time.

But on the other hand, people seem to have a hunger for physical buttons, both because you don’t always have to look at them—you can feel your way around for them when you don’t want to directly pay attention to them—but also because they offer a greater range of tactility and feedback.

If you look at gamers playing video games, they want to push a lot of buttons on those controls.

She talks a bit… weird?

I've been around just long enough to suspect that this will be part of a cycle going back and forth between tactile controls and touchscreens.

That is, give it a decade and touchscreens will be the in-thing again. And another decade and someone will have the "fantastic new idea" of bringing tactile controls back.

And there'll be a combo breaker of some sort where a new technology comes along (probably no screens, or controls, only voice control) which a small few will absolutely love - due to sunk cost fallacy mostly - and no-one else will buy (compare: 3D TVs), and the cycle will begin again.

Bonus points for: 1) Manufacturers managing to have cycles out of step with others because the market forces aren't quite enough (people not having the money to buy new cars) to bring them all into line. 2) External factors like, say, the world ending, breaking the cycle.

I was pleasantly surprised when I sat in a modern Hyundai for the first time (Kona Electric SX2) and there were soooo many buttons. Yes, some things are still touch-controlled, but compared to what I was used to in a Volkswagen it was such a blessing

I just want a coffee table book with pictures of these stupid executive's faces who approved the original all touchscreen versions that were becoming ubiquitous.

While you're at it bring back the Amber, its such a perfect color for the dash

What about extreme violations of privacy? Let me know when that is "out", too.

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/

Great! Now bring back phones with physical QWERTY keyboards.

Yay, I never left having physical controls for things like HVAC controls and volume.

Touchscreens are great for context-sensitive controls, but less so for things that should be accessible at all times and usable without looking.

Touchscreens were never popular with customers. Manufacturers kept cramming touchscreens in cars and using them to control everything becuase they were being stupid with new tech.

They could go one step further and add braille support directly, it's just nudges. Tactile feeling is the only reason they are back.

Yes, I'm aware there are no blind drivers. The point is not having to look at your controls and doing so with something that already exists.

Yes please.

I don't know how much longer my button & dialled up 2012 shitbox is going to last. Being able to buy new without the crap is something to look forward to.

Then again, there's the whole 'car phones home/connected services' thing to consider as well. I like my car safe, but dumb as rocks otherwise.

except at rivian. they have stated future models will have an all touchscreen dashboard

Fucking YES

But we've still got a good 10 years of avoiding used cars. This era is literally landfill.

When I’m driving, it’s actually unsafe for my car to be operated in that way. It’s hard to generalize and say, buttons are always easy and good, and touchscreens are difficult and bad, or vice versa. Buttons tend to offer you a really limited range of possibilities in terms of what you can do. Maybe that simplicity of limiting our field of choices offers more safety in certain situations.

Or maybe being able to consistently and reliably operate the thing without taking your eyes off the road has something to do with it? Hmm... Yes, this is really hard to generalize.

God I hope so

Finally. Are they actually hiring decent UX folks this time or are they using the people who designed 1980s VCR programming UIs again?

Fucking finally.

Now make cars look like cars again. Last 30 years has been a parade of Jellybeans and Electric Shavers.

thank fuck

How about just generic opensource communications via Ethernet rj45? Then you just plug in any screen/computer including raspberry pi so you can have whatever system you want.

I just hope they don’t go overboard one way or another. All touchscreen was too much but all buttons would be excessive too

About. Fucking. Time.

Now if only that were the case for phones. Blackberry keyboards were better than any shitty touch screen.

Sick so I can just not get a touchscreen car I waited it out

Drivers will see this and say hell yeah

Hard disagree. Touch screens are more intuitive, can be updated to be made better, have the option for more controls, and don't take any more time with your eyes off the road.