Swiss police: Screen in Tesla cars is too large
google.com
google.com
Swiss roads and driving rules are both safe and very sensible. People drive at limit, but limits actually make sense. There's plenty 1.5-lane two-way roads, but people are aware of others and it never causes any issues. Roundabouts are very widely used, but there are no right turns on red nor there are left turns without guaranteed right of way. You are assumed to be a good driver, but they also try and protect you from doing stupid things when you are on an "auto-pilot". And 17" multi-screen UI could easily be just the thing to put anyone into an auto-pilot mode.
That said, I don't think it's a big deal for Tesla. For one, they can auto shutoff the screen in Swiss models and, for two, they can easily redesign the whole thing as needed.
'Smaller, difficult to read and use interfaces that require more attention are better for operating heavy machinery. '
Sounds like a fear of change, which would be the sort of thing that needs to be backed up with research and evidence.
The center console display is not "for operating machinery". That's what the dashboard is for. If your eyes are on the center console, they're nowhere near the road.
And touchscreen are a horrible way to operate heavy machinery as they can't be operated by touch alone, the split second where you have to look at the screen (where good[0] physical controls would have been stored in muscle memory a long time ago) can lead to lots of damage. In fact, the article also points out to issues with this as the Tesla's touchscreen is apparently necessary to toggle fog lamps buried behind multiple screens, a completely inane proposition.
[0] not all physical controls are good, e.g. I've seen decks where all controls are small identical buttons, completely unusable and genuinely dangerous
"operating heaving machinery" I mean that as; While driving the car you should also use this smaller, difficult to read and use interface.
I'm not going to defend it to the death, it's almost certainly not the best implementation in the world, nothing in software is. But a massive screen lets you make input so much bigger than they ever could be in hardware. You can't take up 17" just for the radio if it were real, you can on a screen. Or have a 17" 'Object in path' warning light.
I've had my car 5 years and can't operate the radio by touch. Or the fog light buttons on the far side of the dash.
Which does not actually matter. The problem is not the size of the control, it's 1. finding it, 2. distinguishing it from its brethren and 3. only activating it once 1 and 2 are unambiguously fulfilled.
The core properties of a touchscreen, its usual advantages of being flexible and ever-changing, become drawbacks.
And I think that's OK, use the right tool for the right job you know? There are situations where a touchscreen is not the right tool.
The positive click of a physical button is much less error prone than a touch screen (although touch screens with a vibrate function can be a bit better).
These kind of displays are used in aircraft and spacecraft.
http://astronautabby.com/files/2013/11/Astronaut-Abby-Lockhe...
Other than that, I certainly don't want the guy driving in front of me to be browsing the web or checking his journey stats while driving.
Whaaat? That looks like a huge mistake in terms of UI. I was dreaming of getting Tesla once we got enough electric-gas-stations in Europe. But I wouldn't ever buy a car that shifts so much control to touch screen.
A touch screen cannot be operated without looking at it. There are things that you would regularly expect to operate while driving that can only be operated by touch screen in a Model S. Guaranteed distraction.
I think the Swiss law makes sense. And if I think about it further, this amount of distraction should not be legal on any human-operated vehicle anywhere.
What things are there? I don't own a Model S, but am considering buying one, so I'm genuinely curious.
I agree that you probably don't want to have to use the touchscreen while you're driving, but I was under the impression that most things could also be controlled via steering wheel buttons, so I assumed this wouldn't be a major issue.
Obviously there's some stuff you can't do via steering wheel controls, like web browsing, but then again I wouldn't want to browse the web while driving anyway. I've also been told that web browsing is disabled while the car is moving, but I'm not 100% sure if this is correct or not.
> "The distraction of the giant screen in the Tesla is not tolerable. I am convinced that the deflection is so great by the picture and sound while driving that accidents were due to the increase markedly. "
I'm sorry but that alone requires no further research, basic machinery operation should never have to go through a sight-requiring touchscreen, let alone multiple levels of touchscreen menu.
The article says that according to the speaker of the police of Zurich who test rode a Tesla that the screen is very distracting. Based on the complaint a district attorney is now starting an investigation. Switzerland is one of the countries with the highest density of Teslas and this is an issue that is only coming up now which should mean that the screens passed initial government screening.
The article does raise usability questions and mentions how other cars with large screens handle this problem (e.g. screens visible by the driver stopping to show media while the car is driving, or impeding functionality while driving).
while gearheads like myself want gauges/displays for as much as we can see most people need to know only a few items, namely speed, distance till empty, and time.
Most displays should be treated like idiot lights, not visible until something is outside of nominal. A large display, or even the smallish display of my car's navigation system, are mostly overkill while not using any advanced function. At most show me the radio and go away.
I, too, strongly dislike the lack of tactile feedback on touch screens, and the lack of physical buttons for simple things like opening a sunroof is really annoying. But in reality it's becoming more and more difficult to keep all the hard buttons on a dash. Drivers and passengers want more options, customization, and media in their cars, not less. If you ignore their preferences too much they're just going to pick up their phones and use them while driving instead of messing with a clunky interface and screen lock-outs.
Was with you until this point. Yes, the UI is trickier, but if YouTube and Netflix and Twitch et al can be hammered into supporting the Roku and other non-touch-enabled set-top boxen, then the various audio-streamers need to get support for non-touchscreen-interfaces as well. Stick a D-pad and a "select/back" button on the steering wheel and do good old-fashioned arrow-key menu-nav.
I don't understand why you'd want a touch screen for everything though - like I said, even for changing the temperature whilst driving seems impossible on a touchscreen device whilst driving...
Tesla cars are have central 17" screen. It cannot be deactivated. According to the Swiss police and to public prosecutors in Zurich, Switzerland, that causes an illegal distration to car drivers since they cannot ignore the screen. According to the law, screen have to be disabled around a speed of 6 to 10 km/h.
Original article in German:
http://www.handelszeitung.ch/unternehmen/staatsanwalt-hat-te...
edit: http://www.teslamotors.com/models/features#/interior shows a video of screen operation (scroll down a bit). I really don't feel this thing is a good idea.
- disables non-essential features above a certain speed
- makes all essential features visible and usable without navigation
From the quoted law it sounds like this should be enough.
To be honest, I'm a little surprised that this isn't how the Tesla works. It's a car, and hiding something like the rear fog lamp behind layers of navigation sounds dangerous and should be forbidden.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_lighting#Rear_fog_la...
In fact, the car's computer system could use the GPS to determine whether it is in Switzerland or not and modify the touchscreen settings accordingly.
From the sounds of things the Tesla's UI design is abysmal.
My mom has a Tesla. The UI works as my Mom has no problems navigating it (although tech savy she's a little older). A lot the controls are on the screen (radio/temp). It splits too. Being big probably helps as its faster to look at.
This integrated computer approach has been around for a while. I still like some physical controls.
A touchscreen means I have to take my eyes off the road and focus on directing my right index to touch a bunch of pixels, with no physical feedback whatsoever.
Staring at the backlit display made my eyes readjust to that light intensity and now when I look back at the road, well, I cannot see that well for a few seconds while my eyes adjust back.
Hmm, does not sound that safe to me.
PS Been driving in the US and Europe for more than 18 years now.
And there's worse, "commonly used controls" (such as airco and defrost) are at the very bottom of the touchscreen, at knee height.
In cars with "built in navigation" they put a lot of those on smaller screens in the center console. Then they throw the radio and climate controls onto that touch screen thing. I don't see how this is significantly different from those, which have been in use for years now.
I still prefer physical controls, but I'd not be honest if I said I could just reach and grab my cars climate controls without looking.
I think these screens are going to be a part of the future as they provide versatility and profit.
but voice control will be the best/ safest way to handle cars (although from my co-workers demo, they still need work...)