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Comment by jrib | Hacker News Reader

> they've really thought through the UX of a semi-self driving car

Minor side note. I'm sure a lot of the experience is well-designed but I can't help but grimace every time I see that huge touch tablet instead of physical buttons on the dashboard.

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That’s Ok. A lot of people thought keyboards on phones were an absolute requirement too.

Like with phones, having touch screen control everything provides extraordinary flexibility in rolling out new software features and ultimately improving UX.

Remember this design is supposed to lead the way into an FSD future achieved through purely software updates.

Whether they succeed in automating the majority of miles driven, they designed the car with that future fully in mind.

For what it’s worth, it’s one of my favorite parts of the car, and certainly it’s my kids favorite part of the car.

I have never felt safe using any touch screen while driving.

What you’re missing, though, is that from Tesla’s perspective you shouldn’t be driving while trying to use it. Or much at all.

I prefer hardware to software and I’d hate to control my Jeeps with a touchscreen but my Jeeps aren’t driving themselves.

That's okay, you won't be the one driving soon enough

Ehhhh. Self driving cars have been just around the corner for a long time now. Not saying it won’t happen, but I wouldn’t buy a Tesla today on the assumption that it’ll happen within the lifetime of that car.

A long time? I feel like they went from "eventually" to "around the corner" pretty recently. Even though there weren't any particular leaps in self-driving technology happening then.

We almost never have to touch the screen with driving our Model 3. All controls you need are physical or very easy to interact with on the screen.

A touch screen requires looking at it, buttons do not. That is a fundamental difference, and I don't want a UI I have to look at while driving.

I don't want a UI with modes on the touchscreen. More of needing to concentrate on the cursed screen instead of driving.

Lastly, every touchscreen UI is fatally attracted to icons instead of words so I have to pull over and consult the 500 page manual to see what the wretched things mean. Icons have set back communication 5000 years [1], though I doubt Susan Kare will ever apologize :-)

[1] Picture based written languages all evolved towards phonetic, alphabet based ones. There's a good reason for that.

> A touch screen requires looking at it, buttons do not.

While there are things on my car I use instinctively without looking—wipers/ lights come to mind—there are plenty of other pieces which are frustratingly difficult to find in the dark. Turning on the window defroster when the window starts to fog up at night comes to mind. Likewise many of the climate control nobs. While they do have nice physical manifestations, I don't know off the top of my head what position the nob happens to be in or which direction I need to shift it to get it into defrost versus heat versus vent.

Personally, I think there is a happy medium somewhere between Tesla's touch everything and the current state where you play button guessing games.

These problems have long been solved. Then, 20 years ago, it was all forgotten.

Behold my 1989 Bronco II:

    ----------[++]-----------------------------------
    MAX A/C   PANEL  PNL/FLR  FLOOR  FLR/DEF  DEFROST

    -----------------[++]----------------------------
    COOL                                         WARM

    OFF * * * HI

    PUSH FOR A/C

It has two sliders with positions as labeled above, then a rotating knob with 5 detented positions for the fan, and the label PUSH FOR A/C. The COOL to WARM slider is also color coded blue fading to red.

Turning on the headlights lights the display.

No manual is needed to fully operate it. I never even had the manual for that car. The knob and sliders are trivial, tactile, and visual. There are no modes.

It's near perfection in user interface design.

And then, the "AUTO" button was invented.

First, it’s not like everything is done on the screen. Blinkers, wipers, volume, cruise speed, skip track, horn, gear select, can all be physically controlled.

The only thing that I’ve ever felt was a little distracting is climate control, because you’re adjusting individual degrees with a fairly small touch target. However it’s also a totally non-time critical adjustment.

Defog/defrost is a 3-state toggle control so it’s easy to tap with minimal distraction. I find it’s strictly better than the physical toggle I had in my previous car, which I also had to look at to press because it was in a field of identical buttons, and which didn’t provide the same functionality with just two taps (going from cool defog to hot defog)

I think people dramatically overstate the idea that people are adjusting climate or radio channels without looking, unless it’s being done on the steering wheel. If you have to reach the dash, most people are going to look at it.

What’s great about the responsive touch screen is that there are activities which are massively faster to accomplish (like pinch-zooming GPS maps) which are significantly slower and more arduous on other cars I’ve driven with physical controls. There’s also a lot more functionality that can be provided. And providing remote control over the same functionality becomes a lot easier when there isn’t a physical switch that could get out of sync, or where your physical switches all have to be “soft-toggles” so they can’t physically get out of sync with the current digital state.

Honestly the HCI group at Tesla has really done some very impressive work overall. The design is quite beautiful and extremely functional.

I regularly drive my ancient Bronco 2 and sometimes a newish car with the touch display. I spend less than a second glancing at any control on the Bronco. It's so bad on the touch display I sometimes have to pull over to figure out how to get the fracking defroster on. It's even impossible to tell if it is on or off, you just have to wait and stick your hand on the base of the windshield. In Seattle having a working defroster is "flight critical" as they say. It's not a joke, but the controls are a joke.

BTW, "defrost" is a verb, and pictures are for things, not verbs. So I never know which stupid icon means "defrost". Lack of verbs is why picture written languages evolve into phonetic alphabets. I predict in 20 years Apple will announce a great breakthrough in user interfaces - words!

rant, grumble, rant, grumble, harrumph

BTW, I have no idea what a defog control does that defrost doesn't.

Yeah I still think touch UIS absolutely suck and the best example of this is the android WiFi GUI (idk if they changed it after kitkat, that was one of the main reasons I dumped it.) Everything is modal and you can never predict the mode, multiple layers of controls are constantly popping and sliding over/under eachother and there's no tactical feedback that lets you know when you're over the control you want. Screw touch crap I want my PDA keyboard back!

In a car it's extra bad because now you have to look away from the road and position your hand in a bumpy car to adjust the temperature/radio/navigation. It's so awful in my friends cars I dread the day I have to buy a new one.

I think the concern stems from differing contexts. When typing on the phone, you're looking at the phone. You're usually (hopefully) not driving.

Driving, on the other hand, is demanding on the senses; on at least three of them. Touch screens pull eyes off the road. Physical knobs are much easier to grab without looking.

In my car I have the luxury of both touch and knobs for some things. I always use knobs when I can. It feels safer. (But then, I also prefer crank windows instead of automatic, so maybe I'm just a nut.)

It's like my Macbook touchbar. It stinks. The physical keys were easy to use without looking. With touch, I almost always need to look steady at it before I touch. For me, muscle memory isn't enough for touchscreens. Weird.

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