Touchscreens now make sense, bye physical buttons...
Discussion
I never thought I'd type the above thread title!
But in my latest car, a BMW i4, the lack of physical buttons for media and Aircon etc simply no longer causes me any inconvenience.
Chiefly I think it's because a lot of newer cars now learn driver behaviour and do things such as turn on the heated seats and so on to whatever temp and duration you would yourself. Most such cars
Also in car voice assistants are now actually useful and seem to understand English... not to mention increasingly people use car play/android auto which both have near faultless voice control these days.
Anyone else pleasantly surprised by how little of an issue losing physical buttons actually is?
But in my latest car, a BMW i4, the lack of physical buttons for media and Aircon etc simply no longer causes me any inconvenience.
Chiefly I think it's because a lot of newer cars now learn driver behaviour and do things such as turn on the heated seats and so on to whatever temp and duration you would yourself. Most such cars
Also in car voice assistants are now actually useful and seem to understand English... not to mention increasingly people use car play/android auto which both have near faultless voice control these days.
Anyone else pleasantly surprised by how little of an issue losing physical buttons actually is?
So basically you've got used to the inferior system by a) avoiding it by the smart functions that turn them on automatically and b) slower, more cumbersome voice control.
Imagine driving along at night, 3x passengers asleep and you want to tweak the temperature... Which one of these is the easiest and safest? Do you fiddle in the screen and take your eyes off the road, wake them up talking to the stupid voice recognition, or just reach down without having to look and tweak a knob/push a button?
It's a s
t backwards step.
Imagine driving along at night, 3x passengers asleep and you want to tweak the temperature... Which one of these is the easiest and safest? Do you fiddle in the screen and take your eyes off the road, wake them up talking to the stupid voice recognition, or just reach down without having to look and tweak a knob/push a button?
It's a s
t backwards step.They're a menace in my opinion. Mrs. Toon has an XC60 and when I get in as a passenger, I want to turn on the heated seat. I go for the button then the screen changes as she selects reverse, so I wait. The screen comes back on, so I go for the button again only for the screen to change again as she slides into Eco mode. Ahh just let me press a bloody button. I'll be at the destination by the time I get a warm backside.
The voice recognition in my admittedly old BMW (2018) is still as woeful as any voice system I've used. It doesn't just get things wrong, it's so way off I'm wondering if it's set to deaf old man with the TV on too loud setting whenever I try and talk to it.
The voice recognition in my admittedly old BMW (2018) is still as woeful as any voice system I've used. It doesn't just get things wrong, it's so way off I'm wondering if it's set to deaf old man with the TV on too loud setting whenever I try and talk to it.
I've got a big touchscreen in the Merc, but I like that all the heater controls are still buttons though. Plus it still has shortcut buttons for the nav/radio etc too. The best of both I reckon, and I personally wouldn't want everything just through the touchscreen on its own. However I appreciate that you would get used to it after a while though.
They certainly have their place now and makes it a lot easier with a full phone integration.
I had a rental Tesla M3 a couple of months back and the only time it was annoying was when trying to change the wiper speed manually. It felt like I had to go in three menus deep in order to do that which wasn't easy when driving. Yes it had auto wipers (which weren't great!) and you could push the button on the stalk for mist/wash function but I found it unnecessarily difficult to do it manually. I didn't try voice control which in hindsight might have been a better option.
As it wasn't my car it could just be unfamiliarity on my part and there would have been as easier way. Other than that I think touch screens are ok but are only as good as the software behind it
I had a rental Tesla M3 a couple of months back and the only time it was annoying was when trying to change the wiper speed manually. It felt like I had to go in three menus deep in order to do that which wasn't easy when driving. Yes it had auto wipers (which weren't great!) and you could push the button on the stalk for mist/wash function but I found it unnecessarily difficult to do it manually. I didn't try voice control which in hindsight might have been a better option.
As it wasn't my car it could just be unfamiliarity on my part and there would have been as easier way. Other than that I think touch screens are ok but are only as good as the software behind it
My 2019 Jag XF has a touchscreen and CarPlay and I find the combination of the two very intuitive. That said, most of the heater controls are still buttons, with the exception of the heated seats which have a physical button press but still require a subsequent stab of the touch screen to come on which is a slight annoyance on a cold morning whilst waiting for the screen to boot! All in all though I don't find it difficult to use at all...
-crookedtail- said:
I had a rental Tesla M3 a couple of months back and the only time it was annoying was when trying to change the wiper speed manually. It felt like I had to go in three menus deep in order to do that which wasn't easy when driving.
For reference, next time blip the wipers with the button on the left stalk. You’ll notice the wiper controls appear bottom right of the screen. Use the left steering wheel scroll and you can click left/right to change the setting.
I agree the auto wipers are “indifferent” at best.
TheDeuce said:
I never thought I'd type the above thread title!
But in my latest car, a BMW i4, the lack of physical buttons for media and Aircon etc simply no longer causes me any inconvenience.
Chiefly I think it's because a lot of newer cars now learn driver behaviour and do things such as turn on the heated seats and so on to whatever temp and duration you would yourself. Most such cars
Also in car voice assistants are now actually useful and seem to understand English... not to mention increasingly people use car play/android auto which both have near faultless voice control these days.
Anyone else pleasantly surprised by how little of an issue losing physical buttons actually is?
I can't agree, I'd say my current car has the best set up, buttons/touch screens and "heh BMW" voice control or Alexa etc.. you can do just about everything 3 ways even use gesture control if you want (but don't as it's annoying) but of course that costs an awful lot of money hence they have removed it from the new cars. But in my latest car, a BMW i4, the lack of physical buttons for media and Aircon etc simply no longer causes me any inconvenience.
Chiefly I think it's because a lot of newer cars now learn driver behaviour and do things such as turn on the heated seats and so on to whatever temp and duration you would yourself. Most such cars
Also in car voice assistants are now actually useful and seem to understand English... not to mention increasingly people use car play/android auto which both have near faultless voice control these days.
Anyone else pleasantly surprised by how little of an issue losing physical buttons actually is?
I find having a choice and deciding what is your preferred method much better than being forced by cost cutting to only having one route.
TheDeuce said:
I never thought I'd type the above thread title!
But in my latest car, a BMW i4, the lack of physical buttons for media and Aircon etc simply no longer causes me any inconvenience.
Chiefly I think it's because a lot of newer cars now learn driver behaviour and do things such as turn on the heated seats and so on to whatever temp and duration you would yourself. Most such cars
Also in car voice assistants are now actually useful and seem to understand English... not to mention increasingly people use car play/android auto which both have near faultless voice control these days.
Anyone else pleasantly surprised by how little of an issue losing physical buttons actually is?
Nope, hate it.But in my latest car, a BMW i4, the lack of physical buttons for media and Aircon etc simply no longer causes me any inconvenience.
Chiefly I think it's because a lot of newer cars now learn driver behaviour and do things such as turn on the heated seats and so on to whatever temp and duration you would yourself. Most such cars
Also in car voice assistants are now actually useful and seem to understand English... not to mention increasingly people use car play/android auto which both have near faultless voice control these days.
Anyone else pleasantly surprised by how little of an issue losing physical buttons actually is?
Depends how far you want to take it. My Skoda very occasionally decides to re-boot the screen in the middle of a drive. Radio goes off along with sat-nav etc. for a minute or two. This can be mildly annoying but imagine if the lights went as well (for example).
Not only Skodas by the way - I can remember losing the screen on an X-Trail a few years ago whilst trying to navigate around Paris.
Not only Skodas by the way - I can remember losing the screen on an X-Trail a few years ago whilst trying to navigate around Paris.
Yes and no. Yes you learn to adapt but sometimes it takes a while to go through sub-menus which you don't want to be doing when driving. Plus Volvo software is a bit glitchy and sometimes the whole thing needs re-booting on startup. It hasn't happened in winter yet. The google voice command software is generally spot on though - when I shout at it.
Edited by Yahonza on Monday 4th December 18:48
No. We have a touchscreen in our runaround and I am forever staring at the damn thing trying to remember which sub menus I have to navigate in the correct order to achieve the same result as a single button push would have achieved. Luckily it's only the radio and vehicle settings in the screen, all the HVAC controls and everthing else are physical.
I wouldn't want a touchscreen if normal controls were an option.
I wouldn't want a touchscreen if normal controls were an option.
JimJobs81 said:
TheDeuce said:
I never thought I'd type the above thread title!
Do you ever find yourself taking your eyes off the road when using the touch screen? But really.. how often do people need to adjust temperature controls? The stuff I used to control manually such as defrost and heated seats is all automatic now. There's no reason I need to adjust the actual temperature - set it at your ideal temp once and forget about it.
But whilst I don't think touchscreen controls are any more dangerous than buttons - providing they're well laid out.. I do think the sheer functionality of modern car infotainment systems can be a distraction. Will this lead to an increase in accidents?.. probably not actually, because collision avoidance safety tech in cars has evolved at the same time as the shift to centralised infotainment systems and screens. That's not to say the temptation to fiddle with settings and apps isn't an issue, but a lot of the time it's probably mitigated by the safety tech.
If I'm 100% honest I do quite often set sat nav destinations whilst driving, but normall on the motorway with the car driving itself.
Weirdly, despite driving many BMW's and always being a fan of the idrive controls as opposed to touch screen,in this latest BMW I do use the touchscreen instead of the idrive controller.
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