Hacker News Reader

Comment by keymone | Hacker News Reader

disagree. having buttons and knobs just because it's the norm and auto manufacturers don't want to risk changing annoys the crap out of me.

remove every single tactile element. have convenient touch interface. have usable voice control. that's the future. that's also an exaggeration, but i'd like the pendulum to swing there and see where it stabilizes.

Edit: what is it with people not reading the message before commenting on it? that's also an exaggeration, but i'd like the pendulum to swing there and see where it stabilizes. that's also an exaggeration, but i'd like the pendulum to swing there and see where it stabilizes. that's also an exaggeration, but i'd like the pendulum to swing there and see where it stabilizes. that's also an exaggeration, but i'd like the pendulum to swing there and see where it stabilizes. that's also an exaggeration, but i'd like the pendulum to swing there and see where it stabilizes.

View on HN

> having buttons and knobs just because it's the norm

What about having buttons and knobs just because you can use them without looking at them? Because that's what makes them extraordinarily useful when compared to a touchscreen.

> remove every single tactile element. have convenient touch interface. have usable voice control.

Just to imagine out loud: you want to change lanes. In order to activate your indicator, you have to look down at a touchscreen, or say "Car, activate left indicator!". I struggle to see how either of those could be an improvement on the current controls. Now I come to think of it, the wheel is a tactile element! Maybe we could implement a left-to-right slider on a touchscreen you could use to control car direction?

I get that you're not actually advocating for that, but I also don't think we really need to test out the hypothesis to know that it's a bad idea.

As someone with touch interfaces in their car for a lot of traditional things: sorry, you’re dead wrong.

In practice, the inability to do things without looking over to make sure your finger is in the right place is a big problem.

It’s far too easy to hit the wrong thing or hit nothing. There’s no good way to judge how much you’re adjusting something without looking at it.

It’s infuriating. If it wasn’t for the tactile controls on my steering wheel I wouldn’t have bought he car. It’s that bad.

Knobs are safer, a flat screen by definition requires your eyes to be on it to use since there is no tactile component. And if your eyes aren't on the road...

You are thinking about this based on your experience with traditional cars. When you drive today, think about all the moments of interactions that you have with the car while driving. It is fairly limited. You would change volume controls, turn on wipers, skip music, call someone etc. And almost all of those controls are either available via the steering wheels knobs or readily available on the giant screen (e.g., climate controls). The touch screen is really there for secondary controls such as vehicle settings and user preferences. Most people are thinking that you have to navigate some menu to increase volume. But that's not the case.

But even if they're right on the giant screen, you still have to look. A dashboard knob can be used without ever taking the eyes from the road.

Tactile feedback allows you to use controls without taking your eyes off the road. Do you really want the opposite of this in a car?

Couldn't disagree more, but I guess there will be that division between people. Cars are not the phones and at least until I'm driving my car myself, I will always prefer buttons or other tactile UI instead of touchscreen. And voice control, well if you are non English speaker, good luck with that :)

I think it's pretty clear that touch is third rate for many applications. Such as where you'd like to reliably and quickly operate a control without looking at it.

Voice control. No thanks. Optional for the stereo perhaps, but I absolutely do not want a car that's voice controlled where I can travel with 4 other humans. Kids are noisy. Teen friends might find it comical to shout out "handbrake!". Need I go on?

Yes, I know tactile switches and knobs are so last century, but they look like actually the best tool for the job.

> Teen friends might find it comical to shout out "handbrake!".

obviously not for anything driving related. there's still plenty left: radio/music, ac, navigation, phone interactions.

i don't really know where people got the idea i was talking about driving related instruments. they are almost never "buttons and knobs".

I rented a Tesla Model S four months ago, and I enjoyed it very much, except for the fact that they had hidden the button for the fog lights in some menu on the touch screen - it was not easy to turn on and off while driving - at all! Otherwise, it felt like someone had thinked through the most things.

I can already can change volume, change track, mute, answer/hang-up a call, signal, adjust my lights, set/cancel cruise control, wash my windscreen, and other stuff I have forgotton without taking my hands off the steering wheel

Never liked the idea of touch controls in cars. You don't need to look at knobs to find and operate them, but you absolutely need to look at a touchscreen and that just gives people more chances to get distracted from the road.

Someday, when the computer glitches or is slow to boot up, and you'd really like the AC to turn on, please update your comment above.

Tried a Peugeot 308 2017 that replaces a lot od buttons (ac,..) with a touch interface.

This being a french car maker they obviously skimp on having adequate performance - interface is slow as hell. Just increasing ventilation is a 30s process.

It actually made me rethink my purchase an go for a different brand.

I know buttons are expensive if you want good looking + ergonomic ones (a tablet is a great cost saving measure), but its worse for todays cars.

For cars in 5 yr time touch will be the norm and not a problem since full autonomy vehicles remove the worry of keeping your eyes on the road.

I would really count touch as a minus for tesla, but it sure is visionary. Kindof like we hated iphone for going with touch and no physical keyboard. It's stkll shitty bur we addpyed. Sort-off ;)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com