Touch screens, here to stay?

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

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What's your take on touch screens in cars? This may have been discussed to death but couldn't find any dedicated threads..

Currently have a Velar, touch screen is terrible, especially using the phonebook and maps at speed. Slightly dangerous in my opinion as it takes too much concentration away from the road and I'm hardly a technophobe. Looking at the Q7 now, seems like Audi have replaced their rotary dial system with a dual screen the same as the Velar. BMW seems to be the last man standing but for how long? I loved the iDrive in my previous 5 series.

Seems like this is a trend that's here to stay.
 
You mean just touchscreen? have both physical controls and touchscreen in mine and seems perfect combination to me just touchscreen definitely not ideal if you need to adjust something while moving.
 
Rroff said:
You mean just touchscreen? have both physical controls and touchscreen in mine and seems perfect combination to me just touchscreen definitely not ideal if you need to adjust something while moving.
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That would be fine - iDrive I presume? The system is excellent but still found the touch screen to be gimmicky unless sat idle.

Jonnycoupe said:
You should have Apple CarPlay now and I find can do pretty much anything with voice control anyway.
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Can't say I've tried voice control other than mucking about with my phone. Siri doesn't understand the accent so what chance do I have :p
 
shifty_uk said:
What's your take on touch screens in cars?
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Big fan, but it depends heavily on the manufacturer, I.E Lexus are known for amazing touchscreens and they were pretty much the driving force for years (which makes it more comical they have abandoned them in recent years in favour of **** idrive clones to try and win over BMW drivers :(). Overall they're just so much better/easier/safer than joystick/track-pad driven systems.
 
Terrible - with nothing tactile, you can't feel your way to a certain button, so end up having to look at the screen taking your eyes from the road.

Also every touch screen I've seen has been covered in fingerprints and looks a mess.

At least we seem to moving away from the stuck on iPad look to some slightly more integrated screens
 
ubersonic said:
Overall they're just so much better/easier/safer than joystick/track-pad driven systems.
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Why would you think that? Problem with touch screens is you have to look at what you’re doing due to lack of tactile feedback, with a physical controller like idrive you can keep your eyes on the road.
 
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Bring back toggle switches.

Oh, and while you're at it bring back cars that were set up by the factory - the people who allegedly know what they're doing - rather than having nine million combinations of gearbox mode and suspension stiffness and how much power you want the engine to produce and what kind of mood lighting you want inside and...

:p
 
Cant beat a good old fashioned button, must admit my Volvo looks dated but the sensus system is easy and safe to use. I cant see how a touch screen in a car is any safer than your phone to use in the car. Even a jog dial system isnt ideal for when on the move.
 
At this time of year I'm finding the touchscreen in my mondeo to be a bit of a pain. I have physical buttons for my climate controls / heated seats etc, but not for my heated steering wheel. Although it's not the end of the world when you just want to get going in the morning and have to combine the initial laggy startup with the forced safety warning I often find myself either missing the warnings ok and ending up in the full nav, or try to push the heated wheel button only to have the forced warning pop up. Combine that with the fact the steering wheel heat button is tiny on the touchscreen and it just gets frustrating.

I echo everyone elses feelings that it's a pain for changing soungs etc on the go, though doing it stationary I find it ok. I think things like iDrive make the most sense and whilst touch screens are ok, they need to be backed up by something physical. I don't think I would ever buy a car where the climate controls are touch as well and I just wish I had a physical button for the steering wheel!
 
Touch screens are always annoying to use when moving and you need to take eyes off the road to find them most of the time. It's especially crap when they put the basic stuff like radio, fan, AC controls on it as well. They might not look as "trendy", but physical buttons are so much better in every way.

The reason Volvo ones are large is so you can use them with winter gloves on. Which is how they should all be designed.
 
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... they can't make car touch screens too responsive ..or, paradoxically, you'll be more distracted ... so - haptics - the great white hope.

jpaul said:
touch screens -- look up 2016 paper
"Car User Experience Patterns: A Pattern Collection in Progress"


.. so touch screen responsiveness maybe tightly controlled
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if I was doing an autocompletion on a musician in tidal ...i'd be off the road
 
They are unresponsive due to being resistive touchscreens afaik (so you need to apply pressure). Not capacitive like a tablet or phone. Or at least they have set them up to behave like that.
 
if , you knew it responded immediately, you'd (edit: not you, but the average br****** ) be looking at it all the time - read the paper
using a phone/tablet in a cradle, without car manufacturer UI throttling, is probably more dangerous
 
Don't like Touchscreen but it's good for putting in postcodes when stationary. I tend to use the idrive knob selector still for anything else.
 
I find my touchscreen only controls a massive distraction and should be banned. At least give me radio and heating controls via physical buttons. Fortunately I tend to keep to one radio station and rarely need to change the temperature but I am sure there will be people out there arranging their Spotify playlists while in the move.
 
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