How about touchscreens in cars

[GattigerPlay]

Hello folks, I'm searching for help for my thesis.
I need to find informations and images about the touchscreen displays in the dashboard of the cars produced during the past year (2013) and also in the present year.
If you know sites, magazines, or if you have direct informations...
Everything you know is accepted.
I have to build a sort of database of various models of cars by concentrate on the touchscreen and analyse functionalities, sizes, connections, graphics, usability...

Also if you have personal opinions and experiences feel free to explain

Thanks

 

[GattigerPlay]

 

[GranTurismo916]

I don't know if this'll help:
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/ca...ar-touchscreen-multimedia-system-ever-1185159

Also, don't bump your threads.

 

[Mikeybc]

Hate touch screens to control radio/heater functions in a car, I prefer knobs and buttons I can feel without taking my eyes off the road. As for social networking features... They have no place in a car, pull over and use your smartphone.

 

[Slash]

I fully agree with Mikey here. I've always preferred mechanical.

 

[Pifachu]

For working as a mechanic at doed dor two year and now at chrysler (aka dodge jeep fiat ram srt alfa) i got to say they are alot of improvement to do, chrysler have easier to work with system but do a little less than the ford one, as it as been said earlier, i prefeer mechanixal solution, keep your attentio on the road, have you see that huge screen on the new 4 door tesla, maybe you could talk about it

 

[ildd]

I don't mind using a touch screen for things like the radio, but you better leave knobs for the AC

 

[Slash]

I don't mind using a touch screen for things like the radio, but you better leave knobs for the AC

I want knobs and switches for everything. Radio, windows, lights, footpegs, wipers etc.

 

[Sage Ages]

The less unnecessary complication, the better.

 

[ExigeEvan]

I find trying to operate the radio with a touch screen unnecessarily difficult. As you can not feel your way between buttons, or even address finger-drift between presses, it makes simple tasks difficult.

So say you're scrolling through the available stations and are repeatedly hitting the scroll button. Just a minor movement may mean your finger is no longer pressing the correct area of the screen.

Similarly trying to change between pre set stations is difficult as you can't feel the movement between the two buttons.

All this can be sorted with steering wheel controls, but sadly I have a terrible double-DIN setup inherited from the previous owner.

 

[White & Nerdy]

I want knobs and switches for everything. Radio, windows, lights, footpegs, wipers etc.

And if it can't be operated from the dash or console without causing significant distraction, it may not actually have a legitimate place on a car's feature list.

 

[eiriksmil]

Tesla Model S
/thread

 

[McLaren]

I see Slash & his mentor are in here spewing more "my way" posts with still no experience.

This isn't the early century, these systems have gotten better by leaps & bounds.

Hate touch screens to control radio/heater functions in a car, I prefer knobs and buttons I can feel without taking my eyes off the road. As for social networking features... They have no place in a car, pull over and use your smartphone.

Most of these cars now-a-days won't let you access the features without being in park to begin with.

 

[GattigerPlay]

Tesla Model S
/thread

I don't want to get stuck on this model, I want to explore most of the entire vehicle production of 2013 and 2014, to know what car producers offer and what users feel about it

 

[eiriksmil]

I don't want to get stuck on this model, I want to explore most of the entire vehicle production of 2013 and 2014, to know what car producers offer and what users feel about it

Oh I hear ya.. You could make a good intro looking into how the Tesla screen may be the benchmark for the future and so on.. I mean my Samsung phone has a screen three times the size of 80s portable TVs and screens are getting bigger.. My prediction is that car makers are gonna be competing in the same way.. Making a thread like this in here though; I predict this thread will be a d*ckfest of how buttons in cars rule and end up a manual transmission thread.. Just sayin

I see Slash & his mentor are in here spewing more "my way" posts with still no experience.

Do anyone take slash seriously?

As for social networking features... They have no place in a car, pull over and use your smartphone.

Yeah like you do.. And if you're pulling over, why not and use your in-car screen instead of your phone then..

 

[homeforsummer]

A fair amount on recent touchscreen tech can be found in the infotainment section of Motor Authority. Not that I work for them or anything...

As for using touchscreens, as @McLaren says, they've got a hell of a lot better in recent years. Less distracting than they used to be too.

That's mainly because the actual screens have got bigger, so the controls on the screen can grow. There's little of the "missing a button" discussed above since the buttons are quite large, and because they're large on the screen they only need a quick glance to find. To be honest, once you've got used to the system it's not a great deal different from using physical buttons either - you know where on the screen to tap to do a particular function, so you can do so without looking at the screen.

Most cars with touchscreens these days also have steering wheel controls for major functions like volume, skipping tracks/scanning stations, that sort of thing, so you don't even need to take your hands off the wheel most of the time, let alone stare at a screen for ten seconds as you whizz along.

I was pretty skeptical about touchscreens for a while but really once you're used to them they're no more difficult to use than anything else on the car.

And they do have side-benefits too, other than having lots of functions. One is clearing the dash of dozens of buttons. The other is reducing component costs for manufacturers, since they then don't need to design, engineer and produce all those buttons, switches and knobs, since their functions are incorporated into one screen.

 

[Tornado]

I see Slash & his mentor are in here spewing more "my way" posts with still no experience.

This isn't the early century, these systems have gotten better by leaps & bounds

Ohai. I've got quite a bit of experience with these modern systems, somewhat regularly (ballpark twice a week for one or the other) driving a 2014 Camry and a 2010 Milan.


The touch screens are still junk for most functionality compared to just using the buttons and knobs that Toyota and Mercury thankfully restrained themselves from removing. In fact, the one on the newer car is the more confusing and notably less responsive of the two.

 

[ildd]

Don't forget you have steering wheel buttons too. In my car I can change the radio station without looking at the radio or my wheel, simply by knowing how the info pops up.

 

[Wolfe]

At night, the bright blue display of my aftermarket stereo unit (selected by the previous owner) is annoying enough. I leave the retractable cupholder deployed just to block the light. The only menu-driven system I have experience with is BMW's iDrive circa 2005, so I can't really comment on usability, but I dislike the idea of a big fat backlit screen in the dashboard, even if it turns off when unused. Both functionally and aesthetically.

It might not make much difference, but it seems silly for an electric car like a Tesla to expend electrons on such a thing.

 

[Harry6784]

I don't need a high-tech gaming computer in my center console, as many manufactures tend to believe. Just want something that I can play music on and manipulate easily on the fly.

Just because something is more advanced and complicated does not make it more practical.

 

[Mustangmiha]

Not that this is touchscreen but it's very similar so I believe there's a good reason they stopped using these by the end of '80s and no cars today have these kind of displays.
Good luck driving with those today.

 

[Joel]

I really like the setups in newer Volkswagens. I've driven a 2011 Golf and Touareg extensively and the infotainment systems in them are fantastic, you can control virtually everything from the steering wheel and there are still physical volume and radio knobs, and the AC is still controlled with physical switches. Both cars have a small screen in between the tach and speedometer which relays info (your radio station, who you're on the phone with, current fuel economy, etc etc) which means most times you don't have to even shift your eyes towards the screen in the first place.

The Touareg's is particularly good, when you're using the GPS it displays your next turn (and tells you how far away it is) so you pretty much never have to stare at the GPS while you're driving to figure out where you're going. They're both just very well thought out systems and do pretty much everything in an intuitive way.

I can understand the hate on them because a lot of the systems (especially the early ones) are horrible, but I think like anything they'll continue improving over time. There's already good systems out there like the ones the VW's have, and while it's not reasonable to expect every car's system to match something like the Touareg's, I think it's reasonable for most cars to have something like what's in the Golf and if that were the case I don't think there would be as many complaints.

 

[homeforsummer]

At night, the bright blue display of my aftermarket stereo unit (selected by the previous owner) is annoying enough. I leave the retractable cupholder deployed just to block the light. The only menu-driven system I have experience with is BMW's iDrive circa 2005, so I can't really comment on usability, but I dislike the idea of a big fat backlit screen in the dashboard, even if it turns off when unused. Both functionally and aesthetically.

Driven dozens of cars with touchscreens and with a few dishonourable exceptions, they aren't in the least bit distracting at night. Many dim the screens when you put the headlights on, and virtually all feature white-on-black graphics too, so it's not like there's a large white block shining back at you from the dash.

It might not make much difference, but it seems silly for an electric car like a Tesla to expend electrons on such a thing.

Relevant bit bolded.

That said, I cannot think of anything worse than buying a cutting-edge electric vehicle like the Model S to find a dashboard full of buttons and knobs. It'd be like buying an iPod with a mechanical Walkman-style fast-forward button to press down.

Not that this is touchscreen but it's very similar so I believe there's a good reason they stopped using these by the end of '80s and no cars today have these kind of displays.
Good luck driving with those today.

I'm not sure what you're getting at. Are you referring to the digital gauge cluster?

If so, my current car has one and it's among the clearest, easiest-to-read cluster of any of the few hundred cars I've driven over the past few years.

And it's worth pointing out that a great many modern cars now have fully-digital displays rather than analogue dials. Once again, I've driven several of those and for anything other than nostalgic reasons (i.e. liking a particular style of analogue dials) the digital ones are generally much easier to read. Not least because they tend to feature a digital speedometer, which I find far easier to read than an analogue one.

I predict this thread will be a d*ckfest of how buttons in cars rule and end up a manual transmission thread..

Indeed.

 

[Mustangmiha]

I'm not sure what you're getting at. Are you referring to the digital gauge cluster?

If so, my current car has one and it's among the clearest, easiest-to-read cluster of any of the few hundred cars I've driven over the past few years.​

​

Maybe it's just my case then. My dad's Opel Vectra has half of the screen full of dead pixels, Omega I used to drive for a short time had the same problem so whenever I'm going to buy myself a new car, I'll make sure it has old-fashioned, clock-alike analog gauges.

And it's worth pointing out that a great many modern cars now have fully-digital displays rather than analogue dials. Once again, I've driven several of those and for anything other than nostalgic reasons (i.e. liking a particular style of analogue dials) the digital ones are generally much easier to read. Not least because they tend to feature a digital speedometer, which I find far easier to read than an analogue one.

Maybe modern cars' fully digital displays are going to last longer than those from the '90s but only the time will tell. Right now I hate anything digital in my car from displays to automatic windows/sunroofs.
Though I miss the sound of automatically lowering windows.

 

[homeforsummer]

Maybe it's just my case then. My dad's Opel Vectra has half of the screen full of dead pixels, Omega I used to drive for a short time had the same problem so whenever I'm going to buy myself a new car, I'll make sure it has old-fashioned, clock-alike analog gauges.

Ah, you meant from a reliability standpoint. That I can understand, though it does seem to vary wildly depending on the brand. The only non-working part of my Honda's display is - wait for it - a button. The trip button to be precise. Easy enough fix, but rather highlights that more "traditional" things are hardly infallible either. Worth pointing out that two problems common to older vehicles with regular dials are failing speedo cables and fuel senders - regular analog gauges aren't immune to going wrong!

 

[Mustangmiha]

Ah, you meant from a reliability standpoint. That I can understand, though it does seem to vary wildly depending on the brand. The only non-working part of my Honda's display is - wait for it - a button. The trip button to be precise. Easy enough fix, but rather highlights that more "traditional" things are hardly infallible either.

Which Honda? In the previous post's pic the dash looks too American so I suppose the Euro and American Hondas differ in little details. Also what does the trip button do?

Worth pointing out that two problems common to older vehicles with regular dials are failing speedo cables and fuel senders - regular analog gauges aren't immune to going wrong!

I remember driving with a broken km/h cable, for some reason it was really interesting and fun experience because I had to 100% of my brain focus on the speed and keeping it steady. What makes it more worse is that the car doesn't even have rev counter.

 

[Joey D]

I like the touchscreen in my car, it works well now that Ford sorted out the issues with it and I don't find it distracting at all, especially at night since it dims automatically and the background is black for the most part. I really only use it for the radio, but it makes it easy and all of the onscreen buttons are big and easy to read.

 

[homeforsummer]

Which Honda? In the previous post's pic the dash looks too American so I suppose the Euro and American Hondas differ in little details. Also what does the trip button do?

It's a Honda Insight. And I'm in the UK, incidentally, though that wouldn't make a difference on the Insight as they were basically the same all over the world.

The trip button is fairly self-explanatory - it lets you select between miles traveled and MPG reached on different trips. And between those and the overall mileage, which is unfortunate as the button has failed on a display that isn't the overall mileage.

The message here though is that the flashy digital bit works like the day it left the factory and the old-school button doesn't...

What makes it more worse is that the car doesn't even have rev counter.

Blimey. Must be a proper poverty-spec model then, no Vectra in the UK was sold without a revcounter.

 

[Pifachu]

I would like to add that today car are made for a 10 year life spawn, the constructor cannot care less if the screen gonna die in 12 year, for them the car will be long time overused

 

[Mustangmiha]

Blimey. Must be a proper poverty-spec model then, no Vectra in the UK was sold without a revcounter.

It's the first year of the model but yeah, the car is the basest and lightest model (plus sunroof). It was cheap and we didn't have time to look for other cars at that time.