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Comment by wcunning | Hacker News Reader

I've been waffling on this, but my biggest concern about the center stack display is that it's far away from looking at the road. I've been using a suction cup RAM mount on the windshield for years with Waze up constantly on my phone, podcasts playing to the bluetooth or wired connection, and most importantly, I have to look slightly to the right to see the directions, not down and far away. Even then, it's refocusing on something close instead of staying with my eye focus on the middle distance. Someday I hope to switch to a HUD, but my 2010 Mazda Miata does not leave a lot of dash room to mount such a thing aftermarket.

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I agree, I have Android Auto in my 2019 VW Tiguan. Its awesome but its very easy to spend more time than you think picking a playlist from spotify etc.

With your phone you know not to touch it when driving but the center console feels acceptable.

I had one close call where the car's auto breaking saved me from hitting a car that decided to turn without indicating. now I treat my centre console almost like my phone, I will use the console stopped at lights but not my phone.

glad to hear you've modified your driving habits!

i use voice control and steering wheel buttons only whilst driving, works well enough!

Does your VW have a microphone button? My 2017 golf does, and it works reasonably well with Google assistant.

To me, the size of display outweighs location by far. Also the fact that I don't have to worry about a suction cup or magnet or whatever letting go while I'm driving; also I don't have to glue anything to my dash.

To be clear, I hardly touch the infotainment screen while in motion. I can do almost everything I need to by voice, the only touch command is to choose an option from a list.

It would be nice to have a HUD projected on the windshield, but I don't find it distracting to look at the Infotainment screen.

100 times this. As nice as the stuff in the center display is, it's too far away from the forward field of view to use. I've been using a suction cup to hold my phone as well but it's very frustrating - it falls off every few months especially during temperature changes.

I came to a compromise of using ~1/4" aluminum rods anchored in the forward vent and around inside the CD player to create a phone holder cradled above and slightly off to the right of the main dashboard. This creates a mechanically sturdy enclosure that I really wish cars would come with built in.

A HUD would be even better but I don't think I could ever trust a display driven by car manufacturers' software stacks.

that suction cup will not hold in the event of an accident and now your phone is a projectile. always put your phone away in a compartment and use handsfree.

no one will follow this advice, but no one will think they will be in an accident until they have a huge welt on their head and can't figure out why.

>that suction cup will not hold in the event of an accident and now your phone is a projectile.

I guess?

What do I do about the legally mandated 2-4lbs steel backed rear-view mirror that's required to be hand-removable without the use of tools in most places?

To be clear, i'm not saying you're wrong -- i'm saying that making a car a safe crash space will drive a person mad. It's practically impossible.

This. People underestimate the amount of force and damage small items can have in your car.

A projectile going forward, sure.

It might bounce but at that point there's way less energy involved and the accident's intense enough that a welt on my head is the least of my problems.

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