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This is genuinely good for safety.
Common European W.
The screen should be strictly for the radio, and maybe some android-auto like thing.
Radio and parking camera, maybe sat nav for users that don’t do android auto or carplay.
Customer can choose any car they like as long as it has an ipad on the center console.
I prefer my 2014 car to anything new i have tried. Buttons are just better.
Bring back physical keys!
Blackberry
I don’t even mind the option of being controlled in the screen, so long as there are also physical buttons. Radio and climate control should be easily accessible by physical buttons. Also, I really hate the newer aesthetic of looking like someone just jammed a tablet into the consol. There no contouring or anything.
I hate key fobs, I have two cars both with massive fobs. I can’t keep both on my keyring if I’m planning to put my keys in my pants pocket. I also hate these stupid things are $200-300 to replace - even more at a dealer.
They don’t even make the car more secure or harder to steal. Get rid of them.
You can usually buy physical keys san fob. If you’re keys then…
That will get me in the door, but I need a fob to start the cars.
I’d expect modern cars to use proximity detection which means the fob only needs to be with you.
Like my Peguot has a fairly large fob, but it’s just in the pocket of my jacket. Never leaves it. I guess it’s a problem if you don’t have a semi permanent thing like a jacket you use every day though.
The first time I heard that many car manufacturers are getting rid of traditional buttons and odometers in favour of touchscreens, I already thought that it is dangerous.
As always, corporations don’t give af.
I don’t see an issue to have digital odometer because you don’t interact with it
Digital is fine for things that don’t need to be touched. Arguably, it’s better.
Separate analog odometers are better, because it’s a single point of failure otherwise. If one breaks, I can still read all other instruments (fuel, engine temp, speed and/or rpm, whichever failed)
This.
You work in software just a couple of years, you learn to appreciate the mechanical solutions on a whole other level. Especially in cars.
I think the whole cluster can also fail all at once as well as the individual components, so it’s actually more points of failure.
For real, instrument cluster I’m okay having digital. It’s not something I need to touch, usually there’s steering wheel buttons to interact with it.
Having your whole radio/climate/etc all on one screen with menus and shit is stupid. You can’t just reach over and change a setting without looking. I miss when everything was “analog”. My first car was a 91 mazda rx7, and I knew exactly where every control was, didn’t have to look at anything to operate it.
As someone driving a 2009 Mazda 3 - I really appreciate the simple physical controls in the car. Touch screens are a horrible interface for something you could fiddle with an analog version and get feedback without taking your eyes off the road.
Not saying they shouldn’t exist, they can be helpful and useful for displaying information and navigation, hell even controlling the AC and radio and all that but there should also be a physical interface for basic functions.
I know my next vehicle will be electric and I definitely will be swayed by the user interface for things. I do hope car companies are listening to everyone saying they don’t want just touch screens and nothing else.
I honestly hate to use the central display to control the AC. In my newer car first you have to press a button on the screen to open the AC control, then you have to set what you want.
On my old one I can do whatever I want without need to look off the road
I have a 2019 mustang, and it’s kind of a mixed bag. There are a bunch of controls for AC and head in physical controls, but there’s also several you can’t use without the screen (like dual zone temps, and niche things like that)
Bout bloody time, I really hate modern cars
they already did a study that touchscreens are too distracting and dangerous, buttons are more intuitive and quicker to use, without looking at the menu.
But now cars won’t look like what Blade Runner drove! /s
2015 Honda - perfect. Buttons when I wanted buttons. Touch when I wanted touch, and I never had to use it when driving.
2023 Ford - Yeah, it’s bad and dangerous.
But screens are cheaper and cars are getting more expensive.
Screens make cars look cheap. Why would anyone pay $60k for a vehicle when they cheaped out on the controls. Ipads are no longer new and exciting technology and yet companies want to put them literally everywhere.
No problem, they’ll manage to make them more expensive with buttons as well. I’m trusting the beancounters on that one.
Joystick interface… Use directional buttons on steering wheel to steer the cursor on a windows-like point and click interface from around 1999/2000
Why steering wheel? Use direction arrows (which sonstantly change position) on a touch screen conveniently mounted low on the centre console to steer the car. Imagine the leg space you can create by removing that bulky steering wheel and downsizing the dashboard.
/s before some car designer gets any idea
They wouldn’t read that far to catch that /s I’m afraid
That’s almost as bad. You might be able to remember three to the right and one down then ok but really you are going to take your eyes off the road more than if it was a touch screen.
Cars need physical buttons for all critical features. You push a button and thing happens. No menus.
Ah, yes! The Thinkpad clitoris and Windows 98 was peak UX!
Thinkpad clitoris
I always called it the mouse nipple.
Bendable screens that can add a tactile bump underneath a virtual button and that use force touch to detect a press.
Nope. Terrible.
now with AI speed limit assist which you can’t turn off
finally. Assisted suicide.
Yeah, by going 20 on a highway because it misread a 120 sign
cars are getting more expensive
Good! 😜
I mean, I get where you’re going with this, but as much as we’d like adequate public transit in the US, it’s simply not going to happen fast enough for people to not buy cars any more. Prices will keep going up as long as people keep buying, and I don’t see that stopping any time soon.
I mean, I get where you’re going with this, but as much as we’d like adequate public transit in the US, it’s simply not going to happen fast enough for people to not buy cars any more. Prices will keep going up as long as people keep buying, and I don’t see that stopping any time soon.
I feel like I might be too cynical in this, but demand is a strange thing, especially in a heavily corporatized country like the States. A less mobile workforce due to more and more folks not being able to afford individual transportation anymore will at some point result in more lobbying from businesses for alternative transport solutions.
But you’re right, that might just be wishful trickle-down thinking and from my understanding the States’ problem lies more with inherently car-centry city planning anyway and not with just a lack of busses or trains. That is hard to fix.Yeah we’re built entirely around personal transport. Granted public transit in the form of buses should function inside of that, but I think we’re SoL when it comes to good rail options. I looked it up once assuming it would be way cheaper to travel by train, and found plane tickets that were not only like 6 days faster, but 1/3 the price.
Thanks, Europe!
IKR? The EU legislation to require a common charging system is already making big improvements. Seeing so many things, not just phones, that are now chargable via USB C. So many electronic gadgets, like my shaver, screwdriver and others no longer coming with a wallwart adapter each to live in my drawers and jam them up. Benefits for everyone, apart from the occasional company (Apple) that locks in to a specialised charger for profit reasons.
For real, so many good things happen here (us) because Europe makes it a thing, and it’s too expensive to have separate manufacturing. Unfortunately for those that use iPhones, their requirement of third party app stores doesn’t work here, because that’s a software setting, and costs them nothing to have different. (Android user btw, don’t come at me)
But if there’s less screens then where will manufacturers put the advertising???
More buttons and more screens
Controlling everything in a car through screens is a safety hazard. It’s insane that’s even allowed.
It’s insane that as of now it’s up to manufacturers to self-regulate.
I just bought a newish car and would not even consider any without physical buttons for climate. It really helped narrow the options, haha.
Mazda?
Went with a Hyundai Kona Electric 🤷♀️
I have been fortunate to stumble into Mazda ownership a couple times in my life. I had a 1989 MX-6 coupe with a 5-speed manual ~25 years ago, and currently drive a 2012 mazda3. They have been doing a lot of great design for many years, and I think flying under the radar for many people. And the enjoyment of driving has always been on their radar. Hell, consider that they still make the MX-5 Miata! I think I wanna get me a fun little RWD zoom zoom with a soft top and a 6-speed.
If you look up the 2025 mazda3 interior, you see buttons and gauges, with a small central infotainment screen. Plus you can get that car in AWD with a turbo these days.
I don’t know how they are now but a couple of years back Mazda was on the other extreme for me. I don’t want to fiddle with a dial when all I would need is one tap. I don’t want to squit at a tiny screen to descipher the map. I don’t want to jiggle the knob for half an hour to write in 3 words in a search bar.
Having both a decent infotainment and also physical buttons for the most important functions is possible and there have been others that have done it better.
I don’t disagree, but what’s up with climate? Of all the things I change during a drive, climate is probably the least used one. IMO, if the car has a decent HVAC system, it should be set and forget (less the defroster and A/C max in summer).
It might be that manufacturers see in their data that most people use it set and forget nowadays anyways, which made the cost cutting decision easier.
Idk, I probably have autism or something. In more extreme temps I like it blasting on me until I reach a tipping point at which it is completely overwhelming and I need it turned off or pointing away, haha. It could also be the fact that I am upgrading from a 2000. And I got an electric, so if I don’t need climate control using battery I want it off, which may change when I am on the highway. Other factors include not having a garage and doing a lot of outdoor activities that can leave one very hot/cold/moist for the drive home. The thing that radicalized me on this issue was driving in a Tesla. You couldn’t even change the direction of the vents manually.
You’ve obviously never been in the same car as my mom. “ooh it’s cold in here, can you turn up the heating? A bit more? It’s still cold, a bit more?” “oh wow, now it’s really warm, can you turn down the heat?”
There are very few core controls and they should absolutely be physical.
I hate screens as much as anyone but I honestly don’t think there’s much that can’t be put behind one.
Climate controls need to be physical, though.
They are safety critical when your windscreen fogs over.
Radio, too. For emergency broadcasts.
And obviously any driving controls, like lights, indicators, cruise control, wipers, …Basically, anything that was present in a car 30 years ago needs to have physical buttons.
Disagree about radio (if it’s really that urgent to receive an emergency broadcast you can pull over for a moment), but yeah the rest seem like it’s best to have physical controls for everything else.
The volume down is important.
That’s usually on the steering wheel for a while now. I do agree with more physical buttons though.
just because it is doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be regulated to be
Also, it tends to be easier to find the volume knob or dedicated volume keys than trying to see if the label on the steering wheel is for volume, skip tracks or cruise control. Not as important on your car, but it comes into play for rentals and/or borrowed cars.
That’s theoretically correct, however, when picking safety standards you should go by how most people would be expected to act, not by ideal scenarios. Is someone commuting to work going to pull over to change the media source or radio station? Probably not. So the controls should minimize how long the driver will look at the console and have their hand off the steering wheel. Media buttons on the steering wheel can seem superfluous, but it helps keep people less distracted.
Climate controls need to be physical, though.
I had an 02 Peugot with automated climate controls. Shits not new. it’s one of the few cases where I will not go back to the caveman way. automated headlights are another.
a case can be made for demister buttons but I haven’t owned a car made this century that would fog up so that’s a pull over and figure this shit out for the first time affair not a take your eyes off the road and dick around with controls physical or otherwise affair.
Any car will fog up when you get in with 4 people in wet clothes while it rains.
again that’s not something you should be dealing with doing 110 on the freeway while steering with your knees and eating cup ramen.
I think my “peak American” was that time many years ago when I went driving down the I35 interstate in rural Kansas…eating a plate of chicken fettuccine alfredo.
It’s OK. The statute of limitations has long passed.
Although, now that I think of it, this might be my peak Italian moment, though I’m not of Italian ancestry…
Anyway, it was
deliciousFazoli’s.Absolutely not. Italians may drive like madmen, but they drive well and are focussed.
Also why the hell would you add chicken to butter and parmigiano.
automated headlights are another.
Automated headlights should be banned. Whenever I pull up next to someone with their lights off and talk to them, the answer is always the same “I thought they were on automatic!”, and then they fumble about madly for a minute trying to find where the switch is at.
It takes one bump and you’re driving without lights for days. It’s even worse with DRLs since your “headlights” are always on, there is no major visual impact to the driver when their lights are off, but the safety aspects of DRLs I think outweighs the risks here.
For the record, I’m not saying automatic headlights are useless. They’re great if you are driving in an area that has a lot of light levels variations, like tunnels, or intermittent storms. They also are nice if you are driving during dawn or dusk. But… Automatic lights should be something you manually turn on and off, not a set-it-and-forget-it behavior.
We have a 2015 Toyota Highlander with automatic climate controls. Except when it’s 72° outside and 110° inside the car when I get in, I don’t want it lazily whispering 72° air at me (which it does sometimes), I want it to blow ice-fucking-cold air for several minutes so I don’t sweat my balls off waiting for the interior temp to come down. Having physical controls is quite nice for that. I can set it back to 72 or 69nice or whatever after the fact.
Both of my cars have automatic headlights, so 95% of the time we don’t really touch those controls. Every once in a while I’ll turn them on during a storm, when the light level isn’t quite low enough to trigger the headlights.
Do you live somewhere not humid? My 2016 fiesta fogs up pretty badly.
it varies, but I’ve had 90s cars at the same place look like someone painted the windows white the second I open the door so I just assumed they figured it out. might just have gotten lucky with the model of car or window treatments or something.
Europe is being awesome once again!
Good.
My exact comment.
I would also ban touch sensitive fixed controls. My father’s Avalon has dedicated controls for the HVAC but they’re touch sensitive, so you set the climate controls to 80C and full fan if you just wipe dust off the panel while the car’s on.
You should be able to train your hand on the control, get a good grip on it, and then move it in such a way that a control input is realized. It shouldn’t have to beep at you to tell you it’s done a thing.
I can turn the air conditioner in my pickup on and off by feel alone, same with the basic radio controls.
VW id3, maybe the whole id series, has this bullshit. I test drove the id3 a couple of months ago. Buttons in the wheel are touch, but you can push them as well which feels clunky. rant warning! Giant freaking screen that got mad at me for trying to adjust the ac while driving (supposedly I tap it too fast, and got a time-out). Stupid LEDs under the windshield that tries to communicate stuff by lightning up in either side or move across and shit, that was really confusing. It even had mood lighting. Wtf, in a car?!? Putting the car in sports mode, to get an idea of how it can drain the battery on the motorway, changed the mood from blue to red.
Stupidest fucking car I’ve ever driven. Went with a fully optioned zoe instead. 5k€ less for the same year, and actual buttons for stuff. Although I’d like to meet the engineer, who thought sticking buttons behind the wheel where they’re hidden, was a good idea.
The Id3 and more specifically the Cupra Born are off my list because of the stupid steering wheel buttons, they are soo fucking bad.
I will probably go with a used electric Niro, saw a video complaining about how it has 73 buttons, I am like, awesome.
And temperature up/down and fan power should both be dials/rotary encoders, none of this “one push per degree/power level” BS.
I have a 15 year old car with a touchscreen. It’s not a capacitive screen, it’s resistive. That means I need to actually push a little bit to register a touch. It works great!
They even work with gloves! Of course, one could say “just turn up the heat”, but it takes a while to warm up the car. And heated steering wheel is still not a standard feature.
