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this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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While we're at it get rid of retina frying headlights. Sure, you can see great but I'm blind as I drive into you at night. At least make it so they don't look like point sources and can't aim upwards.
Also make the auto headlight setting the default if the car is in drive. Too many people driving in the twilight with no headlights on.
"Don't stare at your phone but instead stare at this screen that controls your car."
Wait, which car models lack that for “hazard warning lights, indicators, windshield wipers, SOS calls, and the horn”?
Don’t get me wrong, I agree these need physical buttons or similar. But everyone is celebrating as if it’s for things I’ve seen hidden behind touch or capacitive buttons in the cars I’ve driven and that really annoy me, like temperature, volume, mute, and cruise control inputs. Or have I just not driven the worst of the worst (Tesla).
Good.
Next please go after the animated indicator lights that take way too much time to realise the car in front of you is turning and not playing snake. Fuck you, Audi, and all the others tha copied this absolute bullshit of an idea.
Drove a new pickup the other day, upper trim model. Felt like I was driving a luxury car. Even had hands-free driving in some areas. Those parts were amazing.
Absolutely hated the infotainment and other automatic systems. A giant clusterfk of poorly designed, non-intuitive, frustrating systems that did unexpected things or took too much time to set up. The nice tech was completely overshadowed by the over-engineered junk.
A giant clusterfk of poorly designed, non-intuitive, frustrating systems that did unexpected things or took too much time to set up
That sounds heavily under engineered, not the other way around.
sounds like europe is really sending a very loud, deafining FUCK YOU to elon and tesla.
and I am absolutely here for it.
While this does fuck him, it's also sound safety science. Touch screens have made cars less safe. It just so happens that Musk's company makes shitty unsafe cars which got rid of buttons to cut costs.
oh I agree. the thing is elon has explicitly said that he doesn't want a bunch of knobs in his cars and they should only have a central control screen to run everything. even the backup shift device is a touch sensor somewhere around the rear view iirc (never driven one nor do I want to). I essence, an entire continent is telling one company explicitly that your cars are not the safest on the road no matter what you claim. that's going to be a massive hit on the company's reputation and value and it couldn't happen to a more deserving induhvidual.
Tesla was the trailblazer, but what's worse is that everyone else followed. Now Mazda of all companies is kind of a trailblazer in getting back to sanity (there were articles about them ditching touchscreens or at least touchscreen-only setups a couple of years ago already).
What's really funny to me is that even so-called premium German brands went to pretty much full touch. Used to be they'd put in the engineering time to make buttons feel more solid to push and nowadays they just give you a big slab of touchscreen you can't even feel properly while driving.
Everyone is just pinching pennies because touchscreens are cheaper than buttons.
Fucking finally.
Ya know what? Lets get a mulligan. Lets go back to the begining. Let's start from the begining with vehicles again. From now on, the only vehicle allowed to be produced is the Ford model T that came out in like 1914. Every car is now that car.
No screens. No gimmicks. No seatbelts. Not even a heater or an enclosed surface. If you crash, your ass is getting thrown from the car onto the pavement! HEADS UP ASSHOLE!!! PAY ATTENTION TO THE GOD DAMNED ROAD YOU CELL PHONE DRIVING DISTRACTED FUCKCLOWN!!!
Let's just get back to basics, ya know?
I’m actually a fan of big screens, HOWEVER they should be limited to being an actual “infotainment” system only. All essential controls should be buttons, switches, and dials.
My vote is:
- Button layouts that have worked for 20-30 years
- Heads-up displays for readouts of current values. Mph/kmph is displayed by default and the display temporarily changes when something like volume, heat, radio station, track, etc. is adjusted
Best of both worlds
I disagree. I don't want to have to take my eyes off the road to change my music, or turn the volume up/down. They need to be physical buttons/knobs.
There are buttons on the steering wheel to skip songs and adjust the volume.
If you get the fancy steering wheel option
You’ll be hard pressed to find a new car in 2025 that doesn’t have steering wheel controls unless you go out of your way to look for one (if there is any).
I think I agree. I would be fine with an infotainment system that:
- doesn't cripple the car when broken
- isn't integrated with non-screen controls like climate
- still has functional buttons on the steering wheel
My malibu meets 2 and 3, but the fact that if the infotainment system breaks it cripples the entire car, puts me on edge. This would be mitigated if actual functionality was outside of it, and that the touch screen was just a control layer.
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Jesus finally. Death to touch screens in cars
Monkey paw curls
Same exact cars but with button navigated non-touch screens.
button navigated
2000s Volvo?
Or 2000s BMW?
That's a plus. I drove a hire car with a joystick/dial/button thing that could control the touch screen. It was so much easier to pay attention to driving while controlling something on screen. With touch screens you need to watch your finger as you press because there's no tactile feedback.
people don't seem to understand what's going on here.
Nothing on the infotainment unit needs to be adjusted while driving, it can have a brail interface for all it should matter.
Core controls are being put behind touch screens, that's the whole point of changing NCAP requirements.
leaving them on a screen with less direct control is objectively worse. need to use turn signal? now you need to select it first.
As someone who drives a mazda with infotainment designed before touchscreens (it has one), I'm fine with this.
I bought my Mazda 3 used. The captain's knob will be sorely missed if I ever get a different car.
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How about just banning touchscreen use while driving altogether?
E: I meant the OEMs, not drivers
We already have distracted driving laws here. You can't use electronic devices like phones while driving. How a giant iPad in the middle of your dashboard doesn't count blows my mind.
Well, presumably this group is more about models of cars and less about individual driver behavior.
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Driving and texting is dangerous. Put down that phone and stare at this ipad in your dash! Further the ipad is slow, designed by imbeciles, is glitchy, buggy, and not intuitive and doesn't follow modern design standards.
now with #ADS, please tap the x to continue changing your GPS.
Your brakes will be available again after this mandatory 30s ad.
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cars will need to use buttons, dials, or stalks for hazard warning lights, indicators, windscreen wipers, SOS calls, and the horn.
Not enough, in my opinion. I've never had a car with these on touch screens, but I can't imagine why anyone would think it's a good idea. I'd like entertainment centers to stop being touch screens as well, but this doesn't go that far. Hopefully they do in the future, though, since this is a good start!
I consider temperature and fan controls to be safety critical for demisting windows etc for example.
What, keeping a rag on hand to wipe away the fog on the windshield every 3 minutes isn't safe enough?
I can't imagine why anyone would think it's a good idea
Suposedly it's to cut costs but I find it very hard to believe a few buttons add much cost at all. Much less at the expense of customer satisfaction. Tripping over a dollar to pick up a dime, in my opinion.
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Not far enough indeed.
I dont need all my entertainment as physical controls but I do at least want volume - and that is totally justifiable as a safety consideration too. Sometimes you need to mute it quickly if you think you heard something of concern on the road, or if you are like me, just to concentrate on driving when things get tricky!
There are so many other items you can apply similar safety arguments for:
Blowers and demisters - you shouldn't be messing around in a touchscreen when you see your windows starting to fog
Cabin temperature - Uncomfortable driver = distracted driver
In my opinion, the place to draw the line should be this:
If the need to interact with the feature is triggered by external road conditions it MUST be physical. (Example: wipers, heating, blowers, all headlight and fog light controls, enable or diasable lane assist, cruise control)
If the driver has the ability to themselves choose when to engage with the feature and can do it only when safe, then it can be fully touchscreen. (Example: satnav route, fuel economy settings, electric seat position)
thank god. I hope this trend migrates to other countries. The amount of effort/distraction for touch screens combined with the additional cost of having to replace full on infotainment systems is annoying.
Screen consoles in 4000lb bullets were the dumbest engineering idea ever. It’s probably a contributing factor as to why accident rates are up.
Up until 2018 I could manipulate my entire console without shifting my eyes from the road. Doing this by touch alone only works with physical buttons and knobs.
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If they could ban the "confirm you know the rules of the fucking road" dialogue box that would be great.
cars will need to use buttons, dials, or stalks for […] the horn
Very excited for when I get cut off in my 2030 Polestar 3 and can adjust my honk volume dial all the way to 11 before Family Feud smashing that sucker through my dash and into the gates of hell.
Be still my heart
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