If you look at like a mid-2000s Infiniti or Lexus there’s a button for fucking everything but many of them will be set once and then never touched again, or maybe used a couple times/year.
Things like moving the seat or drive modes or changing system settings. Those things can be safely tucked away in a menu.
Things like climate control, headlights, wipers and particularly media functions you might use constantly and should be physical.
You can also combine the 2. I’ve seen this on like the Hummer EV and BMWs. Mechanical buttons that do whatever is denoted on the screen above them, and change based on context.
Touchscreens are mandatory for backup cameras, might as well get some extra use out of them.
Sure, for anything else than a car. But I don’t want to have to look at it while driving 250km/h, I want to feel if I have the right button and also pressed it. Pure safety.
Everywhere else I’d surely prefer a touchscreen over haptic buttons. I mean I have through this great tech-evolution, I love it. But it all has its place, and the car doesn’t seem like the right place for it. At least not for everything.
Fair. But most of these cars have voice controls that are even safer than using an array of buttons. I’ve never felt unsafe in my wife’s Tesla except when they once moved the defrost control early on. But that was when I started using the voice controls and never look back (haha - unintentional play on words there). My Kia won’t even let you use the touch screen to type in an address while it’s in drive - however it’s voice control for navigation is terrible. But it allows car play and Siri is plenty adequate for voice control with navigation.
Touchscreens are infinitely reconfigurable. And the solution is cheaper. Some like the cleaner look when avoiding all the buttons and knobs.
Your delight ends where my safety begins. Taking your eyes off the road to operate your vehicle is a dangerous thing.
Ideally it would be a compromise of both.
If you look at like a mid-2000s Infiniti or Lexus there’s a button for fucking everything but many of them will be set once and then never touched again, or maybe used a couple times/year.
Things like moving the seat or drive modes or changing system settings. Those things can be safely tucked away in a menu.
Things like climate control, headlights, wipers and particularly media functions you might use constantly and should be physical.
You can also combine the 2. I’ve seen this on like the Hummer EV and BMWs. Mechanical buttons that do whatever is denoted on the screen above them, and change based on context.
Touchscreens are mandatory for backup cameras, might as well get some extra use out of them.
Sure, for anything else than a car. But I don’t want to have to look at it while driving 250km/h, I want to feel if I have the right button and also pressed it. Pure safety.
Everywhere else I’d surely prefer a touchscreen over haptic buttons. I mean I have through this great tech-evolution, I love it. But it all has its place, and the car doesn’t seem like the right place for it. At least not for everything.
Fair. But most of these cars have voice controls that are even safer than using an array of buttons. I’ve never felt unsafe in my wife’s Tesla except when they once moved the defrost control early on. But that was when I started using the voice controls and never look back (haha - unintentional play on words there). My Kia won’t even let you use the touch screen to type in an address while it’s in drive - however it’s voice control for navigation is terrible. But it allows car play and Siri is plenty adequate for voice control with navigation.