2mo ago

Touchscreens Are Out, and Tactile Controls Are Back

spectrum.ieee.org Q&A: Rachel Plotnick On the Return of Tactile Controls

Rachel Plotnick’s “re-buttonization” expertise is in demand

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Touchscreens were never popular with customers. Manufacturers kept cramming touchscreens in cars and using them to control everything becuase they were being stupid with new tech.
Edit: I guess I should have been clearer. I was talking about as a replacement for tactile controlls in a car like the article is talking about. Reverse cameras and other things that are good to have a touch screen for make perfect sense but using your touch screen to control your Air conditioning in a way that you have to divert your attention from the road to operate sliders and buttons on a touch screen is dumb as hell.
- Also the fact that touch screens are cheaper to build with how expensive battery tech has been in electric cars.
  
  Cheaper to build and can be adjusted and patched as you go
  
  One of the biggest problems with touch is still that you have to take your eyes off the road (for quite some time). I have no issue if we are talking about some internal media center stuff and you still have some sort of haptic button on a steering wheel. But as soon as we are talking about AC, fans and everything you sometimes need to drive, I'm off.
  
  Teslas are so bad for this, that whole "all the controls are on a big ipad" setup should be illegal.
- Touchscreens are great to have, controlling Android Auto or Apple Carplay with physical buttons like you have to do in a Mazda is a nightmare.
  The problem is when the touchscreen is used as a replacement for physical controls, instead of an addition. Stuff like controlling your climate control should not be exclusively controlled through the touchscreen
  And don't even get me started about VWs stupid decision to put touch controls on the steering wheel. At least they backpedaled on that decision pretty quickly
  
  My wife and I drive almost the same model of Audi, separated by a couple of years. One still has physical buttons for infotainment and one has a touch screen, but both support Android Auto and CarPlay.
  I prefer the physical controls for it, because I can glance at the screen and know "turn right two clicks and press down" to get where I want, and then look back at the road while I do it.
  
  I added Android Auto and Apple Carplay to my 2016 Audi via an aftermarket add-on module that ties into its native MMI system and it requires me to use the dial and buttons to interact with it. I also really like doing it that way for the reason you described. I can easily switch apps and navigate menus by counting clicks without taking my eyes off the road. Plus I can still use my phone for some of the more complicated interactions like entering in addresses that Google Assistant can't decipher (only when the vehicle is stopped and in a brief and safe manner, of course)
- I love my touchscreen, it’s great for media control, map, etc.
  Mind you that is all it does, every other feature is behind a physical button. Which I also love.
  Touchscreen for some things, physical for the rest.
- In my 2021 Seat Leon the controls for defogging the windscreen and the heated rear window (both essential in Sweden) are placed on a cluster of touch buttons below and to the left of the steering wheel.
  It is insane, you have to take you eyes off the road and lean forward to press them.
  Also, to activate the seat heater, you need to access the climate panel on the infotainment, so you loose the view of any CarPlay navigation.
  The car has dedicated touch surfaces to change the AC temp, but the main ones are next to the power button touch area for the infotainment, and none of the areas are illuminated.
  I like my car, it is fun and comfortable, but the overreliance of touch controls is infuriating at times.
- Touchscreens are cheaper UI part too. It saved money and "looked cool"... Win-win for shareholders
- Touch screens also seem like they would be easier to integrate with subscription services. Auto manufacturers are looking to make things like heated seats a subscription.
  Cars have been getting steadily worse. There doesn’t seem to be any enforcement of recalls (has anyone satisfactorily had the Honda Civic 2016-2021 air conditioning resolved? How much did you spend?)
  If they can take cars away from us entirely, and move to us renting self driving cars, that’s what they would really want to do. Pay for your radio, pay for heat and AC…
- A screen is legally required for the backup camera in the US since 2016.

334 comments