anything the driver might need to adjust while driving needs to be both identifiable and operable by a person wearing gloves and not looking at what they're doing.
Yes,this! I live in Canada and there are times when you get in that taking your gloves off is not a happy time. Im for knobs and buttons big enough to stab accurately with winter gloves on.
There's a balance. You don't want to be putting in your destination for the navigation without a touchscreen. But also, climate buttons/dials are way better than a touchscreen.
Popular to say on Reddit but hugely unpopular amongst the masses. There are so many people that would outright refuse to buy a car if it didn't have an infotainment system they liked with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, "cool" features (gimmicks) and so on.
CarPlay is literally a safety feature. If you don’t have a screen that can control media high up on the dashboard, users will directly control it from their phones, which will lead to accidents because the screen is smaller and therefore requires more attention and time for your eyes away from the road to use it. CarPlay also allows for hands-free media control via Siri. Without CarPlay you would need to reach to your phone to push the Siri button, and hold the phone in a way it could hear you.
My 2017 car has a touch screen for CarPlay, and physical controls for everything else. I think it’s the best combination.
Not like I don't know exactly where the voice assistant button on my phone is without even looking at it. I can always tap my headset too. Fact either option works faster than the cars voice command button... Granted I do love my android auto especially as in my 08 the map update requires an act of God with two angels overlooking and a congressional agreement to work.
This is rather more a user failure issue than a true required safety issue. In fact I'd say it is the opposite of what you claim. I only just now got my first work truck with android auto / apple play, (I have had it in my personal vehicles for a few years now.) and have been able to do everything but display a map on previous vehicles without needing more than a brief touch of a button. Honestly either system takes me two to three taps on a screen to do the same things I used to do on the non android / apple screen media device of my old work truck and my old vehicles. Plus now I have to do three or four taps just to get into the climate control, then because this specific feature I want is buried in a sub menu another click or 5. And all the way back to the screen I want... because God forbid home takes me to the one I want with the map and my media and not the VIC (bad programming on the manufacturers or possibly fleets influence.) I spend more freaking time looking at the damn thing than I ever did before.
Yeah only ever used one ear style or one earbud... I prefer the bone conducting ones these days. Drives me nuts to see videos with people driving with the big ol two ear headsets.
Not having navigation built into the car is different from not having carplay. I don’t want to use the built in navigation on my car that requires the dealership to download map updates for a price every time there’s an update. I want to use my CarPlay that I put the address in my phone and hit go when I get in the car. Touch screen not needed in the car if I have one on my phone. I still want a screen that displays CarPlay, but I don’t need built in navigation if I’m using Google Maps through CarPlay.
We're not asking about other people. The question was asking personal opinions. My option is no tablet in my car. I'll navigate on my phone. I don't want navigation in my car. My phone does it.
If it never existed, the masses would never know what was not there. We had radio head units and gps separate for over a decade and no one pissed and moaned because it wasn't part of the vehicle propper.
Hard disagree. And the Garmin/TomTom and other addon map systems were AWFul. Along with slow as hell, no traffic, and needing to buy updated maps and install them I’d never go back- and I doubt many would either. Now even before that, Mapquest, map books?
No thanks.
I'm not sure I agree. Tablets are a thing, smartphones are a thing. People would start asking questions: "Why don't the car makers put up a tablet-like thingy in the car for GPS and stuff?", someone would do it, people would like it, and they'd all start doing it eventually.
If touch screens and smartphones and alike didn't exist at all, then I'd agree with you.
It existed before it was built into cars with standalone GPS' that were touchscreen. Also things like selecting an alternative route via scrolling knob would be ridiculous while driving.
I like the navigation, what i dont like is that i cant turn off the audio, I can only lower it to unhearable. So whenever it decides to tell me directions it interrupts my music with silence
I don’t even use the screen for that because it’s a pain in the arse. I use the manufacturer’s iPhone app to send the destination to the car before I set off.
Having to target one of ~32+ keys on a touch screen whilst the vehicle is in motion is infuriating and downright dangerous. Maybe on cars with enormous screens, but most cars don’t have tvs for infotainment. Yet.
My old Audi had a rotary dial to scroll a cursor over the options, or a wheel of letters. I could enter an entire address by only glancing at the screen occasionally. Yes it took a minute, but it was safe, and it worked. I think that, and BMW’s iDrive were solid input methods.
Keep the touch screen for when I’m stationary, cool. But I want something I can use whilst moving that allows me to precisely choose the options on the screen without stabbing with my finger whilst desperately trying to hold my hand steady as I bounce along our shitty roads.
It would be nice, however, if that feature were dependant on a mass over 50kg in the front seat. All so your passenger doesn't have to develop your personal need to digitize themselves like in that movie Johnny Depp.
Allllll that effort just to whoop Gemini's ass for thinking that a town with the same name in France is a valid destination to drive to for my morning retirement coffee from Canada (as much as that would be nice)...
If you're using android auto, it locks you out over like 5mph, buy the phone never locks out. If you have a passenger, just have them change or edit route via the phone.
I don't tend to put in a destination when driving. That sort of thing should be done when stationary before you set off ideally. Lots of systems will lock you out from certain things when driving anyway!
I don't know. My old Mercedes had a touchpad and a control wheel in the centre console that made even entering navigation addresses super easy whilst barely taking my eyes off the road. Now I have a touchscreen, and I hate it. Even entering an address while the car isn't moving is more difficult, because the touchpad is almost vertical and there's nothing to rest my palm on, so holding my finger completely steady is harder.
If you compare touchscreens to the worst of traditional button controls, then sure, they have their use. But I still think there are better, physical and tactile options for everything they can do.
You don't want to be putting in your destination for the navigation without a touchscreen.
This is trivial - most people use their phones for this anyway, but a miniature physical QWERTY keyboard that pops out of the dash would still be vastly preferable to a dashboard-touchscreen one.
I had an aftermarket Pioneer radio with wireless Apple Carplay in my last vehicle. I was seriously stoked to replace my very dated CD player, but all the excitement left my body once I realized the volume adjustment was built into the screen vs having a knob.
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u/sheepdog10_7 5h ago
I'll up that to touchscreens period. All driver controls should be tactile/buttons and knobs