Hacker News Reader

Comment by thorin | Hacker News Reader

Is this a US thing? I recently bought a reasonably high end Skoda (which I think would be made in the same factory as VW, SEAT etc). It has a big touch screen in the centre console, but that's really only used for the radio / media / phone calls etc. This is all non essential stuff and so I can deal with it being on a screen. Everything relating to driving is an old skool analogue control.

A couple of things I don't like is the pull switch for parking brake, it's the first car I've had without an old skool handbreak, it feels unnecessary, but ergonomically it's fine. Also it's a key less ignition with a button to start. Again I don't see why this benefits me, but I can deal with it. I do worry about having a smart key though as I'm often on the water kayaking/surfing but it's been ok in a waterproof case so far.

View on HN

No, it's the same. You can control hidden things from the touch screen (like light length when opening the door for example) but most cars still have tactile nobs for everything outside of radio/bluetooth/media.

There are some cars that have touchscreen for essential things like climate control, but those are absolutely in the minority.

Thing is, those cars with touch screen climate controls will let you set a temperature target much like your home thermostat. Once you figure out the right temperature, you don't really ever have to change it. I haven't changed the temperature in my car for months. I'll probably adjust it as summer turns to fall but it will be a one or two degree change one time and then I won't touch it again unless my kid drove the car and messed with it.

Putting things like windshield wipers or headlights on a touch screen would be a nightmare though.

My newish car does have buttons to control the temperature and fan. But, yeah, I don't really change it. I do use defroster settings in the winter.

My current car (like all of the cars I've had since 2008) allows you to set a temperature target with physical controls. I don't change it as often as I changed the older direct controls, but I do change it often enough that I would hate to use a touchscreen for it.

For me controlling the radio using a touch screen is an issue - i cant take my eyes off the road, and using driving wheel buttons that require fiddling is not great either. I need buttons and dials that leverage muscle memory.

Volume should absolutely be a knob or, less ideally, a pair of buttons. But does anyone have a physical radio dial any longer? (Even my 1998 Toyota with no touchscreen I sold last year didn't.) I think at least one manufacturer was considering eliminating FM radio all together.

>I think at least one manufacturer was considering eliminating FM radio all together.

Are you sure it wasn't the elimination of AM radio? I have not heard of anyone suggesting to kill the FM radio, but I'm not that dialed in

Actually I guess it's both. https://musictech.com/news/industry/ford-tesla-bmw-am-fm-rad... AM radio is sometimes used for information updates on roads etc. but I'm sure very few people use it.

interesting. maybe i blocked the FM part out, but i was distinctly remember AM. removing radio entirely makes sense, as i didn't really think that an FM only radio would be any cheaper than AM/FM would be.

>but I'm sure very few people use it.

The conservative side of the spectrum loves the AM band

I guess Ford at least is going to keep AM radio after all https://www.npr.org/2023/05/24/1177847361/ford-changes-direc... with the justification being it's an emergency alert system. I assume AM and FM antenna requirements are different and that's probably where the cost is.

I remember as a kid being fascinated with the first car that I saw that had the radio antenna embedded into the windscreen glass. All antennas I had seen were on top of houses, rabbit ears, or the long annoying things attached to cars/trucks. This tiny thin line that wasn't even exposed to air was the antenna? That opened up a rabbit hole.

Every car I've driven that was made in the past decade has volume control as two buttons on the steering wheel. There may or may not be a knob but the knob is less convenient than using the buttons right next to your hands. My current cars will also let you cycle through the radio presets using the >> and << buttons.

You’re old. Almost no one has that muscle memory anymore. Hell almost no one listens to the radio anymore, people listen to Spotify or podcasts.

I exclusively use streaming, and I still find that I want to control the volume, or skip to the next song, etc. Thankfully my car has a scroll wheel on the steering wheel to do that, or I'd be pretty irritated.

Most cars still have the steering wheel controls from what I’ve seen regardless of screens. I think even teslas have some steering wheel buttons

Handbrakes were mostly necessary for stickshifts starting on a hill but were kept around on a fair number of automatics even after they were unnecessary. (Though my emergency/parking brake has been a left foot pedal on my automatics for decades.)

It’s the same in the US, you just correctly identified that it’s not an issue for the vast majority of people outside of the data collection concerns (which most people also don’t care about)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com