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Way OT: touch screen tech in a car what do you think?

implmex

Diamond
Joined
Jun 23, 2002
Location
Vancouver BC Canada
Hi All:
I drove a rental car a couple of days ago with a touch screen panel for the radio and climate control and etc etc.
I found it distractingly difficult and even dangerous to do simple things like adjust the radio volume: things that were way easier to do with eyes on the road, back when it was just a simple knob I could work without having to look at it.
I hated it and would never buy it.

Is it as bad for you guys as it was for me or am I just an old fart who can't adapt?

Cheers

Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining
 
Im 33 and I hate it as a standalone dash, as a display for certain functions it's nice (large backup cam screen, for instance). However, I feel the core dash functions need hard buttons, stuff like radio and AC.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
 
I also feel they are a distraction and require the driver to take his/her eyes off the road to make simple changes of the sound and climate controls. The addition of controls on the steering wheel helps some once you get used to them. In my wife's Prius, the energy management display (which is the default and on continuously) keeps me watching it, trying to maximize fuel economy and monitor battery condition. I find myself unintentionally slowing down because of it. Might as well be a TV.
 
You are correct, it is a distraction.

The automotive industry is going to have to come to grips with all of these extra "features" as they are creating a problem with sensory overload. I see little difference between fiddling with touch screen menus on the dash and having a cell phone in my hand and do not not think that we should drive while talking on our cell phone in the hand.

Aviation has been struggling with this issue for years. They have discovered that there is only so much that humans can process at one time and once you exceed the threshold limit, the extra alarms or warning devices only become distractions.

Automotive interior design is in the same place now. The interior designers and gadget makers are driving the end design as these extra features are high markup items.
 
In my wife's Prius, the energy management display (which is the default and on continuously) keeps me watching it, trying to maximize fuel economy and monitor battery condition. I find myself unintentionally slowing down because of it.
So this is why the annoying slow car on the road is usually a prius.
 
One big push for these screens, I think, is that they're cheap and infinitely configurable. Unfortunately that comes at the cost of tactile feel.

If someone could merge the two effectively that would be great, but given that it's a touch operated apparatus that seems quite challenging.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
 
So this is why the annoying slow car on the road is usually a prius.

Exactly! My neighbor complained about this very thing. I let him drive it home when I bought it. Afterwards, he said he understood. There should be a setting to auto-shutoff the display.
 
Sure. They're incredibly poor. So are all the "menus" that you're obligated to scroll through just to do something that used to take one button. Imagine that - I now need 4 distinct taps and my eyes to change from floor air to defrost. I used to just need to push one button and I never had to take my eyes off the road.

But...who cares about you? The automakers recognize you for what you are - a dinosaur. You might buy one or two new cars before you die. Their target audience are the 20 and 30 year olds raised on touch screens and menus. They eat that shit up.

Cell phones? Sure they're not great. But they've also become the target of the safe driving crowd. What about eating? Smoking? What about the radio? What about intercourse with other riders? All those things create plenty of accidents but no one is against them.
 
Hi Greg SY:
You wrote:
What about intercourse with other riders?

I don't know about any problem having intercourse with other riders...I have always had the car parked in some secluded place when I was doing that, so it was a distraction, but not a hazardous one (well maybe once or twice).

Cheers

Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining
 
I absolutely hate... downright LOATHE touch screens or any kind of computer screens in cars. It is probably the thing I hate most about new cars. Furthermore the number one thing I hate about the whole model range of Tesla, they have taken it to the extreme.
 
I built a special machine that the customer had his pet computer guy equip with a touch screen and we spent a couple of years of misery with that piece of shit. When developing a machine, often you want to get your eyes focused on something and then press the run button. On a touch screen you can't do that, especially when the button is in the middle of the screen, preventing you from resting your hand on the screen to keep it located while you turn your attention to the mechanism. If you accidentally brush one that controls a critical function, it can be a disaster. Touch screens are fine for hamburger joints who hire illiterate help. The rest should be crushed.

Bill
 
I hate touchscreen anything, ......to me its back ward & childish - as in ''I want that one'' as a tot pokes something with it's finger.
 
The touch screens besides being distracting probably contribute to road rage. The person messing with screens that do not do what he wants is one step closer to going ballistic when something else happens.
 
I think that the technology is prone to being outdated in less than a decade, heck even five years. If you don't plan to keep your car very long, then it's probably no big deal. If you like to hold on to your vehicle for a long time it can be bad. Look at the tech they tried cramming in the 80's cars, it looks horrible now.

 
touchscreens without tactile controls in cars is the secret plan to use Darwinism to weed out the weak, either that or it is just another tool to generate accident statistics that will then be used to support the introduction of fully autonomous cars because of all the morons driving into things while trying to adjust volume or change radio station
 








 
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