“Traditional buttons, knobs, and switches have a tactility that allow drivers to intuitively find and adjust them while keeping their eyes on the road. A slippery touchscreen does not.”
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@bfurnas
I agree. They are hard to use even when they are new. As the age the touchscreens get flakey. You can get into an accident, just trying to turn the heater down. Give me a knob or lever any day.
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@bfurnas
100%. Bring back shallow menus, fewer meaningless alerts, and physical controls. True luxury is lessening user’s cognitive load imo. This goes for autos, kitchen appliances and anything with a HMI
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@bfurnas
@tanyapazzy
Driving a Tesla the voice recognition is so good, the screen is mostly for glancing at the map. You don't really need to use it to touch. Not sure about other cars though. I remember the touch screen in my old Toyota was terrible and it didn't have a voice recognition option.
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@bfurnas
Shocking! Physical knobs & buttons safer than focusing on a screen? 🤔 … soon someone will also comfirm that water is wet! 😜
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@bfurnas
I was a Tesla fanboy for 10 years, until i actually drove a Tesla last month and had to interact with a touch screen while driving
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@bfurnas
Yep
Beyond parody: “Take your eyes off the rear-view camera monitors and you'll notice another three - yes, three! - full-colour screens running the width of the Honda e's dashboard. This isn't a car, it's a tech superstore.”
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@bfurnas
Not to mention that some switchless, knobless cars become (absurdly, comically… tragically?) rolling, $50,000 paperweights if there’s a screen or software malfunction.
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@bfurnas
When I started my career it was conventional wisdom that "executives won't type". That was a fiction based on legacy technology. Same here. There's nothing inherently easier about turning a knob than touching a screen. It is just experience and expectations. People will learn.
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@bfurnas
What if the function is automated - not needing to find a button/knob is better. What about voice commands? Didn’t read but wonder if that’s taken into account.
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@bfurnas
@fascinatorfun
This is also discussed here on a podcast I happened to listen to a few weeks back
#waroncars
Distracted to Death
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@bfurnas
reject modernity, embrace tradition
I just want more scifis where people flip switches and punch buttons instead of touch touchscreens
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@bfurnas
There should be a German word for opening the glovebox in a Tesla. After the 1:00am software update.
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