This is a lovely example of great design. Beautiful, too. I'm sad to see it didn't catch on.
On a related note, I would like to own an EV -- but a touchscreen operated car is out of the question. Where did all those competent designers go and why didn't they design an electric car?
Thankfully it looks/sounds like they're moving away again from touchscreen-only operation. It's probably an Apple effect where the established brands follow the innovator, without actually confirming what the innovator did was good.
they ripped out the GUI-based controls after a bad crash
(actual story is more complicated though -- they transferred partial control of the helm to another station, instead of transferring full control, leading the new operator to think they had lost control of the boat. similar thing happened with air france 447 where a single pilot panicked and the others couldn't observe their control input)
UX for control from multiple places is just really hard:
* How do you know what you have control of
* How do you take/give control
* When you release control, does the other guy's input instantly take over?
* Or does it only take effect when the other guy makes a change something?
* Do you need to be able to see the specific inputs the other guy is giving?
* Do you need to see the actual outputs if the result is actually some merged combination of inputs?
* Under what circumstances should the computer skip scheduled automated tasks due to manual action being taken(See the Gare de Lyon rail disaster)
* Do users need to know about the presence of absence of an automated control input that could, but has not yet taken effect?
* Does anything special need to happen when nobody at all is controlling it?
In home automation, the usual solution is basically just a mutable global, anything can change it, when you're not actively changing it, leave it alone so someone else can... But if you need more than that it gets complicated in a hurry.
I don't like this design all that much. It makes sense, but it is too spaced out for me.
I love the design I have in my current car - Renault Laguna 3. The HVAC control panel is between air vents and on the top it has three buttons: Soft, Auto and Fast. I like how it uses words with no negative connotations (it could be Slow and Hard). Soft is for it to be quiet, Auto is the most common setting for me and Fast is self-explanatory, though also recommended if you have passengers on the backseat. Then there is the current temperature (and other HVAC settings) display and finally very comfortable and big up/down rocker switches to change the temperature with a 0.5°C resolution. I usually do not change the temperature much. A knob seems to invite changes for people who do not understand a concept of a thermostat.
Then there is AC off, closed circulation, fan speed and air distribution buttons. Right below this are buttons for quick defogging (I don't know how to call it) and the back window heating. Buttons that do not change the state shown on the LCD display have their little LEDs to signify their state.
On a related note, I would like to own an EV -- but a touchscreen operated car is out of the question. Where did all those competent designers go and why didn't they design an electric car?