I remember saying this like 10 years ago and all the Elon fans on reddit couldn't believe how boomerish I was being. Redditors used to suck that guy off.
It's possible. I drive a 2020 that has buttons and dials, and anything onscreen is controlled with a clicky wheel with good tactile feedback. I can keep my eyes on the road and adjust stuff safely.
physical buttons break (not maybe break, inevitably) and short out all the time.
The issue you have isnt that its a touchscreen (which is orders of magnitude more reliable) its the bad UI/UX design.
If the display had an option to "always display climate controls" on the bottom edge or top edge, 90% of the people whining about touchscreens would shit up.
The issue is that when you're using it you pretty much always have to go into an individual menu to do anything, even clmate controls.
If they just had a "dashboard" default that had the controls on it AND let you use an app or CarPlay/AA, then it would be fine.
Yeah, I also like tactile feedback when I touch a button. To some degree my brain can estimate where the button is, but I also appreciate physical confirmation. I believe some manufacturer screens are getting more customizable and can move the buttons, but I haven't looked to see what solutions are out there.
That would be better, but 90% of the time a screen would still require you to take your eyes off the road compared to the learned layout of buttons and knobs.
I strongly disagree. I have had cars from three decades. Many of them with 200k+ miles. The only physical control that ever had problems was the seat control that the previous owner of my 2000 Avalon poured soda into. I disassembled it and cleaned it with a toothbrush. It worked for the six years that I had the car. Every car that was physical control first was a better user experience.
I'm also going to disagree with something more controversial. Android Auto an CarPlay are almost always worse than the built in systems they typically run on. Every car I've owned with a modern infotainment system has had better navigation UX, better music integration, and better voice control for all practical things I need to do while driving. There is nothing wrong with Bluetooth or the built in streaming apps on most cars. The cars that would benefit from it have such poor hardware that the phone connection is trash anyway, so you might as well not use either.
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u/SeminoleDVM 9h ago