Tesla’s Touchscreen Shifter Seems Like a Bad Idea

The whole idea of an all encompassing touch interface in a car is a terrible idea. Humans are incredibly adept at manipulating buttons, knobs, etc., and can do so by relying on muscle memory and without looking at the item they're trying to manipulate, which is simply not the case for touchscreens. Tesla and other car manufacturers are pushing touchscreens b/c it's cheaper to create software that gets displayed on a screen glued to the dash than to design, create, iterate, and install multiple plastic/meta bits.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Foxconn is trying to get into the car making game. In 20-30 years cars will probably be just like today's phones: generic pieces of glued glass sandwiching a battery and Lego-like hardware bits that are available off-the-shelf for any "manufacturer". This obviously sucks for the consumer since you'll be left with less options, less innovation and more conformity; basically Apple's 1984 commercial coming to a dealer lot near you!