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Comment by the_snooze | Hacker News Reader

It's probably reasonable to assume that car touchscreens are designed more to "look cool" at the time of sale than to actually be usable over the life of a vehicle. Car salesmen get to show off all sorts of high-tech bells and whistles, and that's more immediately impressive to buyers than the long-term practicality of physical knobs and switches.

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Either that, or cost-savings.

One off-the-shelf touchscreen... vs. lots of little custom-molded and printed analog parts that have to be assembled by costly robots or costlier humans. Big savings, I think.

Whatever the case, it sure isn't because people like touch controls in their cars. Holy shit, what a universally reviled "feature."

Touchscreen engineer here. There is no such thing as an 'off-the-shelf' capacitive touchscreen.

There is always custom engineering to match the customer's housing and bezel, tune the analog characteristics to the electrical environment, and handle other requests like a safer/thicker cover glass, optical bonding to the LCD, and low friction or hydro/oleophobic coatings on the surface.

No one is denigrating this work, but it's obviously easier to consistently get right than the fiddly processes GP describes. There is a rectangle of a particular size, and various substances are applied to it.

You didn't mention UI design, which is the worst aspect of this technology.

Thanks for this informative reply!

I think this is part of it, "iPhones are cool, and this is like a giant iPhone!", but I think a larger part of it is that it's easier to design/program for and actually possible to update after the fact if that's required. There's probably something here for using the same parts across a whole line of cars, too vs testing and fitting buttons.

Hopefully, those same customers will know better when coming to buy their next car after that, therefore reducing desire for touchscreen controls and hopefully, their extensive usage

I doubt that'll happen. It'll probably take the same trajectory as (smart) TVs: these crappy designs become the industry norm and it becomes very difficult to find alternatives.

This is the answer. I would prefer to buy physical switches and dials, but the options just aren't there.

So I'm stuck with laggy, buggy, bad software and a stupid touchscreen full of features that I will never use.

Seriously, who needs to be able to play movies in their car's center front console?

At least as of two years ago, Honda pushed back against touchscreens dominating the center console: https://www.thedrive.com/tech/32797/long-live-buttons-hondas... But looking at the 2022 HR-V, it seems like they've given up on that design philosophy:

>The automatic climate control system offers a high-tech touch-screen interface...

https://automobiles.honda.com/hr-v#interior

I'm of the opinion that the only touchscreen that belongs in a car is a barebones non-networked Apple CarPlay / Android Auto pass-through for sound and navigation. All other controls are physical.

Also, why can't we just have a fucking shelf or a bracket.

Ever since radios stopped being a standard rectangle, and the dashboard was filled with kevlar sacks and explosives there's nowhere to put anything down.

As of 5-6 years ago some (many? most?) cars still had a good old standard double-DIN slot for the infotainment unit, if you popped off the dashboard's plastic cover.

No clue if that's still true; I think it has become less true over time for sure.

There are benefits to automakers for retaining that standard form factor. Most factory-branded infotainment systems are made by a handful of OEM manufacturers like Bose. Bose makes systems for multiple automakers. So the double-DIN form factor has persisted, it's just hidden.

Problem is, for most cars, the climate controls and shit are all bundled into that infotainment system. So you can slot a standard double-DIN stereo into most modern cars, but you need a replacement dashboard panel and fairly elaborate kit to replace the OEM climate controls and whatever else.

Metra is a company that makes those kits, I think they were pretty much the only game in town last I looked into this. https://www.crutchfield.com/S-57MGZyBW0Mm/fg_112200_FFBrand%...

On a somewhat related note, Mazda has said a few years ago that they will be staying away from touchscreens. I'm not sure if they've followed through. https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1121372_why-mazda-is-pur...

Can't wait until we get in-car ads!

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