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After a year with touchscreens, I’m in the 10%.

amazingly? how about NO DUH

It's dangerous and a spof on any shitty brand that uses it, and mainly tezzla which ONLY uses that.

No

Thanks! Checking it out now

Yes! If the light is too bright your brain can't use the change in luminosity to gauge how fast it's travelling. It's already maxed out far away. And then when it's close, all you can see is the spot of light, surrounded by pitch darkness.

It’s that crypto conference where everyone blinded themselves all over again

After 15 years with my old car, I got a new one with bells and whistles that distract me when I’m driving. I have shut most of them off, but the touch screen is untouchable when it comes to shutting it down. So I have this rolling computer and I felt safer and more in control with the old car

THANK FUCKING CHRIST. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Duh. Duh duh duhhh.

My 2017 Audi is my first experience with a screen. Not a touchscreen. A knob & toggles in easy reach on the console. More complex software than one integrated touchscreen. I’ve driven lower end cars with touchscreens. Hated them. To be useful to the eyes, the screen has to be just out of reach.

I love the buttons and dials of my simple, user-friendly 20-year-old dashboard. Turn the ignition, put it in drive and go; nothing to take my attention off the road.

Framing it like the auto industry is "coming to their senses" when they're being forced by regulation is an absolutely bonkers decision. Just silly choices being made at Wired here

Very glad to see this. Always seemed obvious

Why "amazingly" and not "incredibly fucking obviously"?

I've wanted to upgrade my vehicle, but honestly, I've put it off because I don't want a bunch of garbage to learn. The ai part is scary- I do not want that at all. All we want are good cupholders 😭

...amazingly? You genuinely find it amazing that having to fumble to find any button at all takes longer than being drunk but knowing exactly where the button is?

I just want a dumb car again.

Yeah but tactile buttons you don't have to look down at to use are considerably safer than a touchscreen that needs your eyes to be useable.

Not 'amazingly', it was always fucking obvious

Allow me to be the first to post Tom Paris

In aeronautical design, you have to make the knobs which do different tasks feel different. The fuel cutoff knob should not feel the same as the throttle, for instance.

Hooray!

Yes please! Trying to keep my current car going as long as possible because I don't want to drive an iPhone. Give me my GD knobs!

The fact that you have to pay for the service after the trial… Take your gloves off, Unlock your phone, find the app… all to just start the car. Used to be a quick hit with the fob. Such advancements.

Amazingly? You keep using that word, etc.

I fucking hate, hate, hate the 'tablet on wheels' concept, it's end cannot come soon enough.

My car - 2022 Jeep - has a nice combo I find. Some things are on the screen but things like volume and AC/heat are buttons & knobs.

Thanks, that job was awful. We were trying to understand customer wants and needs, no one actually cared about statistics and understanding the actual data we were getting. It was almost purely political and drove me nuts. I have no doubt whatever those idiots are doing now involves heavy AI usage

What a knob!

I love my 1990 Volvo with its radio knob and heater knob…and that’s it.

Having to go through several menu choices to open the glove box is insane

I not only have to look at the screen, but I need good bump-proof aim to hit the intended button. None of the ones I‘ve tried use haptics to create physical sensations (available with medical devices). I hate controls on screens.

cc @docappleyard.bsky.social

I hired a car last week, a Merc, and forgot just how many buttons some have. I counted 92..!! I personally prefer the screen in mine.

If true, you might be able to pry my 2011 Subaru, that I've thought about EV-converting for this very reason, from my cold dead fingers.

Mazda resisting this trend and keeping all major functions tactile has made me a loyal customer of theirs.

They’re cheaper. Cuts the parts count, so less stock. Makes it easier to add “rented” features that can be granted by paid subscription. It’s a great deal from a sales perspective. It’s just crap from a human factors and ownership perspective.

It's a horrible trade off. But for a manufacturing perspective makes a lot of sense

They just don't react fast enough, and they lack the feel of an actual button or dial.

Mine also has an AI assistant that always comes on at random. Out of nowhere, music stops, directions stop, and AI goes, "Hi, how do you want me to help?" Recently it came on at a bad enough time that I said "I need you to fuck off." Got a lecture! "I'm a virtual assistant, but ur words are real"

Thank God.

I’m happy to see this since other than for back-up camera action, I hate the screens. One of the reasons I still have my 2009 Saturn.

When I was about 8, I asked my mother why something was how it was. She told me "Honey, whenever a question starts with 'Why do they...' or 'Why don't they...', the answer is always money."

This also works for every study that shows something "increases your lifespan" or "reduces the risk of <disease name>" Are you sure that the 'something' in question isn't just a proxy for being rich?

I dread my next auto shopping experience. 35 years in and never once owned an automatic. It's getting *really* difficult.

omg yes, i have no idea why they are legal in the first place. you HAVE to look down and away from the road all the time, it’s no better than phones.

good

It's really simple, if you have buttons and knobs in your car, you can use them while STILL WATCHING THE ROAD!

Was almost involved in a head on a few hours ago as a distracted driver crossed the double yellow. I’ve been complaining to my long suffering wife for years how dangerous her Acura TLC Tech is. Everything is a distraction behind the wheel now.

It's like "AI". No one asked for it, most hate it, there are 3 things it actually makes wk better & a voice robot has to intervene to allow you to function once you can't escape it. Enraged every time I have to click thru 3 screens to get to a drive mode I had a scroll bar for in the last car 🤬

I would be very interested to see the results broken down by age. I am 67 and when I'm driving, touching an exact position on a touch screen takes a LOT of my concentration off of my driving. My son who is 37 can nail it easily with no visible effect on his concentration. Are we mutating?

I want a backup window crank for if the toggle shorts out.

Physical buttons, knobs, and switches will always be king for anything that's operated by humans and requires multitasking. Touch screens work on phones and that's about it

Remember when curved monitors/TVs were a thing?

I just want a car that turns on with a key, not a button 😭

Somehow I don't think they care about our safety, so I'm dubious

Same. I also think a modern audio entertainment system would be miserable to try to operate by voice or with controls from a 90s CD player

Honda Accords still offer a good compromise.

Oh, that damn satnav! A major highway near us shouldn't have been routed where it was and there are frequent problem closing lanes. Drivers ignore the over-road warnings and go where their car tells them to. Major problems result.

yes please bring back CD players too

Not those damn-skinny steering wheels again, please! My hands have enough problems as it is. (psoriatic arthritis) We have no touch screens in our vehicles and the few digital displays are easily seen with a glance, as old school fuel gauges were.

The dash, yes, but there is something to be said for airbags.

😑

The dashboard we need:

My MGS5 EV has plenty of physical controls. However the constant audible alerts are distracting. The worst one is that our speed limit signs near schools that specify 40 km/hr 7-9am and 2-4pm on school days are understood as a standard speed sign.

I guess to end this thought vomit is: i'm glad there are styles of cars for all people.

I was visiting my sis & BIL in Kansas for Thanksgiving. I asked my BIL while driving around "Why are ALL the homes variations of beige and brown in town?" His answer: "They're prairie colors." I couldn't argue with his answer but...I thought it made everything BORING! Variety is the spice of life.😉

Cars will be colorful again when drivers buy new and expect to keep the car until it dies. IOW, when the economy is stable enough for personal taste to outweigh the resale value hit of a 'weird' color compared to a neutral one. We haven't had that in >20 years, so 'colorful' cars are dying out.

It's like trying to find an electric car which is essentially a boring car that will fit four adults and two big dogs. So many cars look big but have no real space inside, and are packed full of features no one needs. Just give me a basic car with some space inside.

Yes, although steam gauges are more instantly legible.

Agreed!

Our roads could be safe. They choose to steal our tax dollars instead.

Can they do the same for induction hobs next please

Touchscreens are the cheapest option, so of course the industry picked that 😒

Your bit in the article about how it's different in planes is like discussing the process of cheesemaking as it relates to building IKEA furniture: both are complex, but there's very little area of overlap. Pilots are taught to fly using only the instruments! There's rarely a need for the windows.

Praise be!

You have to be drunk or high to use screens.

Coulda saved the money if they just consulted a human centered designer. Now we got how many of these cars on the road? 🤦🏼‍♀️

hey uh mazda you should check this out

I know screens don't work for me. So this makes me happy.

At long bleedin' last. Decades of research showing that taking your eyes off the road is A Bad Thing™ was ignored by idiot marketing droids, managers, and designers in pursuit of a USP that could kill people. Failure to test properly should mean getting fired.

Yeah, no shit. I drifted across lanes far less when I've had six beers in my guts.

www.paravan.com/product-solu... someone mentioned voice controlling their car and this website gives me so anxiety. If your cars design is so bad that using YOUR VOICE is a viable alternative….

Thank God, bc i have a 20 year old car and rented a new van w/screen w/my dad & holy shit that was horrible, especially driving in the hills where this thing called GRAVITY pulls your arm down when you're trying to do literally anything on a screen far away I refuse to buy a "new car" bc no knobs

Hallelujah!

I prefer physical buttons.

Having to touch a screen that I have to look at to adjust air temperature and other things is quite a step backwards from analogue controls.

Hopefully, insurance companies will price this soon. Tablet on the dashboard? Higher price.

I like having a screen for the gps but i don’t need the screen for everything.

Big auto seems to like killing people.

Thank christ! I vowed never to buy a car with a screen, they drive me nuts.

Good news! My car is 12 years old and I'm dreading the day it dies and I have to replace it with something more modern, because of the whole touchscreen thing – but if new cars are going back to physical buttons for key features then I might be able to cope with that!