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Gasp... pure touch interfaces aren't what consumers want

jjwolf120

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photontorque

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Thanks for the two links to very different perspectives on Tesla safety. Still new to the forum and trying to figure out how to quote from two different posts, and failing.

Changing windshield wiper settings on a touch screen to me is just another palm-on-forehead design decision. Sure you can . . . but why?

I'm not familiar with the Tesla self-reporting of accidents. An order-of-magnitude better than the general population is really impressive. Are these self-reports backed up by independent analyses by objective third parties?

And posts by electruck illustrate another fundamental importance of physical controls, which is to enable the independence in cars for differently-abled folks, a luxury that many of us take for granted.
 

jjwolf120

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An order-of-magnitude better than the general population is really impressive.
It isn't really an order of magnitude better. They are comparing autopilot miles which is almost all highway driving, versus all types of driving for other cars. Most accidents occur in city driving.
 

photontorque

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It isn't really an order of magnitude better. They are comparing autopilot miles which is almost all highway driving, versus all types of driving for other cars. Most accidents occur in city driving.
Ah, thanks for the clarification.
 

jimrichard

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I'm hopeful there will at least be an Alexa button or multifunctional button that queues Alexa on the steering wheel. My hope is that voice recognition software will improve enough that it can discriminate the drivers voice from music , conversation etc.
OK - if I don't have to say "Alexa" and remind me that the flipping Amazon gorilla is in bed with us every time I want to make a change I will be really really happy. I do really like my verbal text function on my phone even if it produces some funny misspells sometimes so voice control seems like the future in autos. Think the original Star Trek computer vs The Next Generation's but even then I bet the crew wishes they could just turn a knob when they want to change the music. Also good is Rivian has 2 screens with one straight ahead behind steering wheel like we are used to for speed ect thank you. I have heard that at least on Tesla's Model 3 they only have the one big touch screen. Thank you Rivian for that at least.
 

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P.S.Mangelsdorf

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I think there is a point a lot of people are missing in this discussion: Inclement weather.

I have yet to find a touch screen that works well with wet or gloved hands. Sure, for long drives you can dry your hands or remove gloves, but if you're just hopping into the truck when its raining/snowing, or you need to get in and out repetitively such as, I don't know, when navigating a trail, or you need to have windows down to get a better view of an obstacle, then your hands are going to be wet or gloved or both.

Touch screens are great. I love Apple Carplay in my Challenger. But these are supposed to be adventure vehicles, the kind of vehicles where you and the truck get wet and dirty. Touch screens should at a minimum be coupled with physical buttons.
 

bsaik

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Personally, I'd like to see full touchscreen interfaces except for essentials like driving controls, smartly designed and improved with customer feedback over time. It's 2020, time to ditch the buttons. :)
 

Bobthebuilder352

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Ford walked back this direction a 5-7 years ago with sync. True the tech has improved but tapping took more attention and was slower and bad I remember it freezing a lot.
 

bsaik

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slower and bad I remember it freezing a lot.
Well, yea if the technology is broken then stick with buttons. With today's technology they can make it work well, with responsiveness like video games.
 

Eager2own

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Well, yea if the technology is broken then stick with buttons. With today's technology they can make it work well, with responsiveness like video games.
And clearly Ford is turning back to touchscreen interface now. I think they’ve done an excellent job on the interface design for the Mustang Mach E. Aesthetically I wish they’d done better at integrating the display into the dash, but the functionality is great. I particularly love the physical large volume knob, which is capable of having additional functionality in the future through OTA updates.
 

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skyote

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Touchscreen should be fine for most passengers, and I'm curious how well the steering wheel controls & Rivian Alexa will work.

I really hope we start to see more videos (and other info) from Rivian soon, and ultimately test drives/hands on experience with the vehicles.
 

JeremyMKE

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Perhaps someone mentioned this I havent studied the string but highly programmable physical buttons and switches would alleviate this problem.

In short a thorough ability to "Key Bind" the physical switches and store them in the user "profile" would be really amazing. You could even "map" these in the Rivian app on your phone or computer. Use that cloud baby.

Maybe this has been done well on other vehicles but I havent seen it, In the BMW and toyotas I have owned each configurable switch had like 3 options, not really useful.

Why did I use so many quotation marks?
 
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jeeden

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IMO (and I see now as mentioned above), I think that Ford has been one of the best automakers to handle this and it is because they made the mistakes early. In the early 2000s they went all out touch screen on some of their vehicles and not only was the software/hardware not ready to handle it, but the interface was horrible. They got roasted for it and there was even a class action just settled because it was SO bad. In the last 10 years though they have really done a nice job mixing touch screen with real buttons. My 2015 mustang does REALLY well at this, they said they really took an airplane cockpit approach, which makes sense because it has been a similar concern with aircraft over the years. I think the Mach E is already getting good reviews for this as well.

The short version is that you have a hybrid (everything in moderation right?) physical buttons for very frequent, quick reaction, or "no look" functions like volume, wipers, hazards, driving mode, voice command prompt, temperature, seat adjustment/massage, heated/cooled seats, etc. and then you have the touch screen for everything else like vehicle settings (ambient lighting color, oil/coolant/etc levels, all the app/nav/other settings, launch controls, track settings, tire pressure toggles)

I'm hoping Rivian nails it with moderation and avoids the Telsa approach of all touch screen.
 

azbill

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If you look at the Hummer prototype interior, it has 2 rows of buttons below the screen. I cannot confirm it, but it looks like the bottom row has fixed functions labelled on each button and the top row gets tied to what is on the bottom of the screen, just above each button. That gives similar capability to the pure touch screen, but keeps the better tactile feel of real buttons.
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