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Comment by gonehome | Hacker News Reader

It really is imo. Good touchscreen UI is superior in many ways (though not all) to fixed control buttons. It’s why it dominates phones and why it’s winning in the market for cars as well (Model Y was top selling car on earth for Q1 2023).

Bad touchscreen UIs suck, but that’s also true of phones. Good tactile controls have some advantages, but ultimately they’re minor and worse on net than a good touchscreen interface.

People on HN will disagree (like people here disagree about everything), but the market will settle it.

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>It really is imo.

It really is not IMO.

A touchscreen UI is a visual medium. That is not what you want/need while operating a vehicle. You should be able to change the AC by feeling for the button and not taking your eyes off the road.

This isn't just HN being HN again. Driving enthusiasts are pushing back on touchscreens.

I'd bet most people look at the tactile buttons when adjusting them, to see the temperature, fanspeed, etc. and that the difference between this and swiping on the tesla display isn't an important difference.

I bet they don't. Muscle memory is a thing. Do you look down at your blinker lever to change it? How about your wipers? If you have controls on your steering wheel, do you look at those to press them?

I bet not.

The stuff on the steering wheel no, but the stuff on the dash (radio, aircon, fan, etc.) I did look at when I had tactile controls (this is primarily the stuff that's moved to the touchscreen, the wheel controls/levers let you do tactile actions without looking for more common stuff).

I'd take that bet. The only controls I use muscle memory for are some of the steering wheel buttons (not all, e.g. I still have to look for the cruise control on/off for my F250) and the stalks. And even then, when I switch between cars I sometimes have to glance to remind myself which functionality the right stalk has. For climate controls and such, I pretty much always glance. The only knob I can reliably hit without a glance is the volume.

Maybe I've just been driving so long that the variety of cars has impeded my ability to develop muscle memory. But I doubt it.

My original comment was flag-killed, the irony of what constitutes a forbidden opinion on HN.

The iPhone works because it's a device you'll look at all the time while operating its touchscreen.

The car touchscreen doesn't work since you need to operate buttons without directly looking at them, purely by tactile feel.

This is not a problem touchscreens we're able to fix so far, and I don't think this will change any time soon since there's just not enough ways for a touchscreen to provide this level of tactile feedback.

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