However, I would prefer to plan my navigation, browse settings, configure the car, and peruse statistics on a nice snappy capacitive display UI. Please do keep/build that.
In a Tesla, these things are in a predictable place physically and the controls respond quite nicely. I can use the scroll buttons and other buttons on the yoke to control these and various other things without taking my eyes off the traffic. There's even good voice control for things like navigation (“take me home”).
However, I've encountered some challenges with the blinker controls, particularly when the yoke isn't upright. I've gotten more accustomed to their placement and can usually find the right spot instinctively, but occasionally, they either don't respond or I press the wrong area. It's a minor but noticeable annoyance. I'm thinking about adding tactile stickers to the wheel to help identify these spots more easily.
The blinker control placement confused me: how do you change the indicator direction when turning off a roundabout? With a stalk it's just a press down with your little finger, but surely with buttons that move with the wheel it's harder?
Or is the yoke on a Tesla so sensitive that you don't turn it far enough round for it to be an issue?
That seems to be the intended direction longer term. Cybertruck is designed with drive by wire and very sensitive steering at low speed. I have some doubts about it, but if it works well, it may eventually end up in the other cars too.
The yoke is upside down every drive for me. Just getting out of the driveway it's going to be upside down.
The yoke is fine doing extreme turns, my hands find it and I can turn it all ways very quickly multiple turns. I'm not concerned of “extreme situations” or anything like that.
But when I want to "blink right" it's a real fucking problem to figure out where exactly on the yoke I should exert sufficient pressure. Unless the yoke is upright and I'm “holding it right”; as it were :)
Hey, we have this new vision based TACC! But first... we remove the radar, then later we'll make that actually work. Get used to phantom braking and limited features in the mean time.
The CT drive by wire approach should solve your problems, but it remains to be seen if it actually works well. The reviewers so far haven't really gone in depth on its feel.
Driving a recent Model S.
Selecting the temperature can be done on the wheel, or with a single press on the screen in a predictable spot.
Same with media: play, stop, volume, next, previous.
Other adjustments, yes, those may need a modal interaction. Much like physical dials. I would slightly prefer physical dials, but not something I would need to adjust during drives almost ever, so I don’t see a problem here.
And the media controls are a mess that changes periodically with updates.
And maybe less of an issue in Cybertruck with steer by wire.
I worry HN has gotten itself into an "alternate facts" mode again with this subject, where the hyperbole has led people to assume facts that don't exist. The real world is always more boring than the most upvoted comment.
Being a flat pane of glass, I would worry that you need to use hand-eye coordination to locate the button, whereas with a physical button you can feel for it without looking.
And even if it's always visible on the touch screen while driving, I still need to look at the touch screen right?
My main use case for climate controls is turning recirculation on/off when i come up behind a clunker where there's no space to overtake and need to recirculate so I don't suffocate. That is not a good time to take your eyes off the road, except maybe if you're Elon Musk.
Also, on the one Tesla I've driven i couldn't understand how the turn stalk (it still had a physical turn stalk, I believe Musk has apologized for not removing that one physical control from the car) worked. It only signaled while i was holding it when i wanted it to stay signaling and the reverse. Useless in any intersection that's not at 90 degrees. Designed in California :)
A few years ago I had a rental (can't remember the make but I think it was korean) where you had to move a slider. Doing that is of course extremely easy while driving, especially if the manufacturer forgot that touchpoints should be perspective-corrected for the drive (every point was way to the right of where I saw it).
- climate control, driving modes, gearbox etc... are all physical buttons. As is entertainment if you count the steering wheel buttons.
- radio, navigation phone and some other non essentials are touch screens (there are two of those)
- car parameters and display are controlled by buttons on the steering wheel and displayed at the display unit
As it should be. Only thing I miss is buttons for the touch screen controls, but then the screen is reactive enough, even with gloves, so it is not really an issue.
My last car purchase it was not easy to find a newer vehicle without that junk. I see such things as signs of low quality. I don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on anything connected to some cheap Chinese touch pad. It ruins the entire experience.
If I wanted navigation I’d use my phone. Any car I have to configure, I will loath deeply.
There were no buttons on the steering wheel? Which model?
>you even use the touch screen to change gears.
Wow, really wondering now which Tesla model did you drive, where you had to change gears?
I'm not sure when you would use neutral but I suppose in a service situation, something pretty unusual and again on the vast majority of Teslas, whether you count by the number of models or the number of individual shipped cars, that's also done with a physical stalk so the touch screen is really a non-issue here. Yes, shifting into neutral is done with the physical stalk. As is reverse and drive.
But perception matters. I think Tesla should do a better job educating the public about their cars, because people form all sorts of opinions and then it's hard to even have a conversation because the baseline knowledge about what is going on has to be totally reset. Even people who drive a Tesla once come away mistakenly thinking it has no buttons (!!), which is so far from the truth it's hard to fathom what phenomenon we are witnessing here.
The app would do things like planning trips, showing mileage statistics, giving you verbose errors in case the vehicle has issues, and for an EV you could plan and control charging for off-peak times, etc.
If you would like that, why wouldn't you like the same in the car itself? Those are not things you would need to use while driving, of course, but it would still be quite a bit nicer that going to "stats menu 001" "L" "2" "11" and viewing a number on some LCD readout...
The LCD readout doesn't require long-term software maintenance, because it's entirely local and just works regardless of who's in charge at the car company.
They do. It will just be free for the first 3 years, 20/month next 3 years... up to 500/month for collector's items :)
The car with a touch screen has buttons to select between volume, radio and carplay and works fine. Cruise/Limit is a button on the steering wheel, and there's a roller for volume, changing tracks, etc.
Heating/aircon/defroster is a dial/physical buttons in both cars, same with things like hazzard lights, internal lights etc. Handbrake is a real handle, not a random button you hope is working.
There is no need to touch the touchscreen while driving, but having a map there is quite handy, certainly better than a phone in a cradle on the dashboard.
Just because a car has a touch screen doesn't mean you need to use it to operate basic functions. The problem isn't the screen, it's the lack of buttons for operational functions.
That’s a great general question that can be asked in many places that software dwells. My answer and thinking is therefore general as well. It’s a trap. What would the great Stallman say about touchscreens in the cockpit? He would be correct too. It’s a Trojan horse, once they get the touchscreen there it’s a matter of years before driving involves watching ads to offset fuel tax costs or whatever else the leadersip has decided the world must do now.
Judging by the cars you name I'm guessing you are not in the US, I don't know what your local laws are. Probably similar but different years and other minor differences.
> on a nice snappy capacitive display UI.
Heh, until very recently a lot of manufacturers' infotainment was comically unresponsive, VW being a standout there (along with the worst-in-class screens).
I wouldnt be opposed to have an option of touchscreen control (current BMWs have that), except that touchscreens are neccesarily placed so low that you have to take your eyes almost fully off the road.
They didn't just arbitrarily decide that, old suspension setups (even ignoring the terrible springs and dampers) were terribly unsafe and unpredictable. I encourage you to search for some videos of old cars going over bumps, taking evasive maneuvers or even just driving around a corner normally. The amount of bump steer, roll and lift is absolutely terrifying.