Posted on 09/21/2024 3:06:23 PM PDT by grundle
Physical buttons are increasingly rare in modern cars. Most manufacturers are switching to touchscreens – which perform far worse in a test carried out by Vi Bilägare. The driver in the worst-performing car needs four times longer to perform simple tasks than in the best-performing car.
The screens in modern cars keep getting bigger. Design teams at most car manufacturers love to ditch physical buttons and switches, although they are far superior safety-wise.
That is the conclusion when Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare performed a thurough test of the HMI system (Human-Machine Interface) in a total of twelve cars this summer.
Inspiration for the screen-heavy interiors in modern cars comes from smartphones and tablets. Designers want a ”clean” interior with minimal switchgear, and the financial department wants to lower the cost. Instead of developing, manufacturing and keeping physical buttons in stock for years to come, car manufacturers are keen on integrating more functions into a digital screen which can be updated over time.
So in what way have these screens affected safety? Vi Bilägare gathered eleven modern cars from different manufacturers at an airfield och measured the time needed for a driver to perform different simple tasks, such as changing the radio station or adjusting the climate control. At the same time, the car was driven at 110 km/h (68 mph). We also invited an ”old-school” car without a touchscreen, a 17-year-old Volvo V70, for comparison.
One important aspect of this test is that the drivers had time to get to know the cars and their infotainment systems before the test started.
No backlighting
Tesla was not the first to introduce a touchscreen, but the American carmaker has always offered bigger touchscreens than most manufacturers, containing more of the car’s features. Even the windshield wipers are controlled through the touchscreen.
BMW iX also offers a touchscreen, but not as big as Tesla’s, and also more physical buttons. But that’s no guarantee for a system which is easy to use. The BMW’s infotainment system has lots of features, but it also has one of the most complex and complicated user interfaces ever designed.
Another sin is committed by Volkswagen and Seat. In order to save money, the touch-sensitive climate controls below the screen in the ID.3 and Leon are not backlit which make them completely invisible at night. Voice control
The carmakers are keen to point out that many features now can be activated by voice. But the voice control systems are not always easy to use, they can’t control every function and they don’t always work as advertised, which is why the voice control systems were not tested in this experiment.
The results speak for themselves. The worst-performing car needs 1,400 meters to perform the same tasks for which the best-performing car only needs 300 meters.
Big differences
The easiest car to understand and operate, by a large margin, is the 2005 Volvo V70. The four tasks is handled within ten seconds flat, during which the car is driven 306 meters at 110 km/h.
At the other end of the scale, Chinese electric car MG Marvel R performs far worse. The driver needs 44.6 seconds before all the tasks are completed, during which the car has travelled 1,372 meters – more than four times the distance compared to the old Volvo.
BMW iX and Seat Leon perform better, but both are still too complicated. The driver needs almost a kilometer to perform the tasks. Lots can happen in traffic during that time.
Dacia Sandero and Volvo C40 perform well although they both have touchscreens. However, they are not overloaded with features. Volvo shows that a touchscreen doesn’t need to be complicated.
We have also measured the angle at which the driver has to look down to operate the controls. By photographing the same driver in all cars, we find that the driver has to lower the line of sight by 56 degrees to view the lower end of the screen. Compare that to only 20 degrees in the Mercedes GLB.
Which tests were performed?
Activate the heated seat, increase temperature by two degrees, and start the defroster.
Power on the radio and adjust the station to a specific channel (Sweden’s Program 1).
Reset the trip computer.
Lower the instrument lighting to the lowest level and turn off the center display.
COMPLETELY agree!!
I want my knobs and buttons!
“Physical buttons outperform touchscreens in new cars, test finds”
No Shiite, Ackmad.
Absolutely, positively no effing touch screens in any of my upcoming cars. At least my two vehicles have radio and A/C controls have knobs that control some functions - not all.
Not surprised. A 1998 Toyota Camry would have beaten even the Volvo.
I hated the lincolns when they had touch sensitive crap. They went back to knobs and buttons and it’s so much better.
Is there a service that takes out the touchscreen and puts in a radio and cd player? I would love to remove the touchscreen from my 4runner
As a mobile software developer I have to agree. For applications where looking at the screen to operate the device makes sense (I.e., a smartphone), touchscreens make sense. But when safety is paramount like keeping your eyes on the road, being able to operate a car’s functions by tactile feel of uniquely-shaped buttons is far more preferred.
It isn’t just cars though. For the same reason, video game consoles have excelled over touchscreen gaming for almost anything other than casual phone games because you need to keep your eyes on the screen. I don’t understand why manufacturers of almost everything insist that everything needs to be flat and devoid of any tactile feedback whatsoever. It’s insanely stupid, honestly.
One “advantage” of designing touch screens processes instead of pushbuttons is that the programmers can work remotely, because in order to make sure pushbutton processes work, you have to be in the same room as the pushbutton.
Exactly, I don’t want the blue screen of death…..
I could have done all these things in about one second in my 1966 VW sedan. Pull the lever to start the defroster, that’s it, and the damned thing probably wouldn’t give out any warm air for the next 20 minutes anyway. Didn’t have any of the other stuff, not even a radio.
Agree
Simple is better.
Agreed, KISS (keep it simple, stupid) is good advice for carmakers and everyone else.
But I’m an old guy. Maybe today’s kids demand power windows and the fancy touchscreens. What carmakers don’t get is that it’s the old folks who have the money.
Don’t give us what we want, and we’ll keep driving around in what we have now. (At least I will.)
100%. I like the old cars. I don’t even have power windows and I’m glad.
I used to have a friend who sold stereo equipment and he would always cite the “K and B factor” to his customers. Basically, he’d count the knobs and buttons on each unit and push the customer to the one with the highest count, because they were usually more expensive.
It's about money in cost of development and cost to manufacture. It's far easier to design all their cars with a touchscreen then it is to figure out buttons, switches, knobs, etc.
Likewise, keyboards vs. smartphones.
Touch screens in Automobiles to control features while driving are insane. I drove a family members GM truck and it took me forever to figure out a few things. Some of them like changing the volume were impossible without instruction. And I am convinced that some of the most simple tasks were not even an option. Circle the touch screen with your finger to change the volume? And try doing that without activating one of the other features. Change from XM to FM. That takes awhile. The few words that appear don’t seem to describe the action you want to do. So you have to just start pushing things and hope you find it somehow. Would they write the word “Band” on there.... No of course not. I never did find a way to input a station that was not on a preset. First it would do the auto scan which would stop on a non-station with static blaring. Then I found a manual option which would increment by single frequency every time you selected it. Hit that about 100 times to get where you want to go. No option to get a key pad to just type in the frequency you want. Meanwhile you risk driving off the road trying to simply play an FM station. I never figured out how to just turn the thing off either. Total insanity. No thanks. All of those tasks take just seconds with a traditional radio.
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