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Comment by chrisseaton | Hacker News Reader

> Have insurers determined if touchscreens result in more accidents? And have premiums accounted for this?

Is it possible to buy a car without one anymore?

Unfortunately, it's extremely possible. Up until recently, Lexus didn't have a touch-screen in its lineup. Android Auto / Apple Carplay forced their hand on bringing them back.

How did things like navigation work before touchscreens? There can't have been a QWERTY keyboard on the dashboard?

Joystick control for virtual keyboard.

You turn a knob to scroll through the alphabet and press the knob to enter the currently selected character.

Doesn't sound like great UX! Must take forever to type an address in.

It has the same functionality as putting a name in a game using a SNES controller.

Nobody complained when Apple did that with the Macbook Wheel a few years ago: https://www.theonion.com/apple-introduces-revolutionary-new-...

That doesn't seem better than a touchscreen.

Is that a serious question? Vehicles simply didn't have have navigation prior to separate GPSs like Garmin. Once they were built into cars, they used the same touchscreen interfaces. The entertainment "system" (radio/CD) simply used a few buttons. The "navigation system" was a map that, if you were by yourself, was something you tried to follow without taking your eyes off the road too much

> Is that a serious question?

Yes?

> Vehicles simply didn't have have navigation prior to separate GPSs like Garmin.

But we're not talking pre-Garmin here - the person I was replying to said recent Lexus didn't have them. They must have had navigation in a recent Lexus surely? So how did you input an address?

A joystick or touchpad!

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/47/14/b2/4714b2032ba746a2fce7...

https://images.cars.com/cldstatic/wp-content/uploads/img-142...

also lol at people downvoting me who don't drive a Lexus and think I'm wrong about my claim that they don't use touch screens. Maybe they had one model that kept a touch screen but the RX series didn't get one until I believe 2020. It had 4 years of not having one at least. That's by far their most popular car. I don't remember the ES or GX that I test drove having them either until recently...

I guess I'm surprised that such things existed. I never saw one, but then I still don't have a built-in touchscreen system. I just use a phone. I guess I assumed that any built-in nav touch screen was controlled by touch but maybe not.

There is a delightfully awful feature in audis where you can draw letters on a sort of touchpad and it works out what they are correctly a good 10% of the time. It's a cool tech I guess, but a really quite awful idea for cars, both in terms of UX and keeping concentration on the road.

My car has this. It's actually pretty well-done, and I can do it while keeping a hand on the wheel and eyes on the road.

Of course, I could also stare at the screen and use the knob to rotate through a keyboard, or use my voice. It's all about the options!

You'd input a street address on something that looked like a SNES game controller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw6EQXiLPkY

Something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro_Gyrocator

Haha, I saw that, too before I posted the youtube link to a Mercedes-Benz GPS from 1999

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw6EQXiLPkY

People forget what older car and handheld units used to look like and how to input them, but then again, this was over 2 decades ago.

Voice interface (of the "pull the lever to speak" variety), physical buttons (e.g. T9) , physical dials (e.g. rotate to select key then press to confirm), drawing letters on a touchpad (seen it), etc.

These all sound terrible. I'd hate to go back to that.

Except for the dial (some Mercedes had it) and voice, I've tested the rest and found them highly convenient, actually.

The voice entry on my MB can be frustrating sometimes, mostly when telling it street names, but the entry knob it has is easy to use. It dials clockwise and counterclockwise, works as a four way joystick, and presses down as a button.

Why is that unfortunate? Being able to run your car by feel alone is very fortunate.

There are certain systems that probably have to be a combination of touchscreen and voice. What's happened though is that a bunch of parallel knobs and buttons have been removed.

This is not true, the navigation option for Lexus has included a touchscreen for decades.

My 2019 IS300 doesn’t have a touch screen at all. It has a small wide-screen display on top of the dash but it’s controlled by a physical controller in the centre console like a mouse, and it’s only for GPS and audio. Same goes for all IS models until this year when they got CarPlay/etc.

Not sure why you’re being downvoted. I have a new (1yr old) Lexus and you’re correct, no touch screen.

What did you buy? I'm suddenly interested...

IS300. I’ve had some older ISes and always been a fan so this was a dream purchase for me.

Wow the website says they're still running a CD player. I'm not sure that's really realistic today for most people and most consumers wouldn't accept that for entertainment.

Lexus makes better cars than anyone else from a reliability standpoint. That's all that most people need to buy them...

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