| I agree. I doubt there is any turning back, which was a UX nightmare anyway. I do agree that tactile and predictable locations for the most commonly used functions improve the ability of the driver to focus on the road while operating them. However, I doubt there are many customers willing to go back to the 12 disc CD changer days where you're randomly selecting discs to get the song you want, or manually scanning blindly until you hit a radio station with reception and the music you like. We have streaming services and playlists now, and there is an expectation that those are available to you on the road. We also no longer simply have a dial going from cold too hot for climate. We have basics like direction (feet, center, windscreen), circulating or external air, AC on or off, and then couple that with multi zone, and you end up in the same mess. If we get rid of the screen but keep the functionality, we end up with an airliner cockpit. If you want to operate that blindly, I think that's more time than any customer would be willing to invest in learning, and we're in deeper trouble than where we started ("where is the damn rear right seat warmer adjustment!"). I do agree that the current state of controls are suboptimal though, but that's exactly the point. We should focus our efforts on optimizing that. For instance modal controls displaying selected mode in HUD, either in the instrument panel or on the windscreen. I drive a comparatively simple Peugeot 308, which had a horrible touch screen, but not too much functionality. I agree that I check out more often than I should, but that's mainly when I want to know what song is playing on the radio. It took two years to discover a steering wheel shortcut to pick from a 30-station preset list of dab channels. I doubt any level of modal tactile control would allow me to intuitively change the audio fader settings between "driver" and "all passengers", but then again, that's something I've learned to do while generally focusing on the road as it's a predictable series of touch screen presses. I'm sure it's not great to do that in terms of overall attentiveness regardless how focused I think I am, but given that the alternative is not having the option.. I'll take my chances. And so, I think, will other consumers. Whatever can be done to improve the UX and reduce risk should be done however, and it should be a higher priority than style. |