I hate touchscreen buttons too and unfortunately all EVs I've seen have adopted that. I wonder if there are EVs with good old fashioned mechanical buttons.
The Polestar 2 is pretty good in this regard. All the most important things are on the steering wheel stalks, steering wheel buttons, and a few buttons for things like demist, play/pause and volume control on the centre console. There's still a lot on the touchscreen, including climate control, but it seems to hit a pretty good balance for me (and I'm not a fan on car touchscreens).
I love my Polestar 2. But there's gotta be a better way to do touchscreen climate controls. I've had mine for 8 months now, and had to google in order to figure out that the car had dual-climate zones—it's really hard to tell from the swipe-up page, so I just assumed it didn't have that feature for a while. Plus, I don't feel comfortable changing the climate settings while driving, because I might hit the wrong touchscreen button when I'm not looking at the screen.
But hey, maybe if I wait around another 5-10 years, there'll be more than 3 mainstream electric sedan options available for the US market and I'll be able to find the perfect car.
Recently drove a Dodge Hornet rental and it had a slew of physical climate buttons, most of which didn’t make sense or didn’t control what I wanted. In the course of trying to just turn on the defrost from the touchscreen, I turned on the heated steering wheel, stopped the airflow to the cabin, adjusted the driver side temperature way higher than I wanted, and probably subscribed to Disney+
Many EVs have a sensible amount of buttons, and you generally don’t need the touchscreen for driving or much else for that matter.
I can even keep driving while the whole system is rebooting. Around here (where we have many immigrants and some odd practices) I’ve seen people with a towel hanging over their screen while driving, to protect it like a dust cover I guess.
The one thing you might argue I do need from my screen is the speed, which is very easy to see and usually not needed in the flow of traffic.
The outcry against screens is just misinformed imho. My car has plenty of mechanical buttons.
I can even keep driving while the whole system is rebooting
At least you're still acknowledging the abysmal state of modern cars by including this statement. Why on earth would anyone expect otherwise from a car?
if you are ever in the middle of highway (especially if you are traveling with loved ones) when your EV suddenly reboots you will understand why one does not expect shit to work… the anxiety is unlike most thing one can experience… I think 100% reverse of your comment but talking from a different real experiences.
EVs are computers on wheels, expecting them to work during reboot is not unlike expecting vim to work during a reboot :)
I'm pretty sure they're talking about rebooting the console system, not the entire car.
EVs are not computers, they have computers. The controllers that make it go should stay on during a "sudden reboot". Expecting them to keep working is like expecting my coolant pump to work during a reboot, not vim.
I would expect the drivetrain components (including computers) to be essentially bulletproof and only the unnecessary components like infotainment and maybe the dashboard displays to even have the option of crashing.
you are 100% right in theory. in practice the car is the computer. when my 2014 tesla s rebooted while I was going like 85mph on the highway it is a moment I’ll never forget. the car is running but everything is dead, quiet, have no idea what the speed is, all systems are shut down, a/c is out (I was in the middle of a desert in Utah)… EVERYTHING feels wrong and every instinct you have tells you to pull over immediately. no chance I would drive any distance other than maybe a quick 1-mile radius errand in that state of the car
Ok but how is this failure mode unique to an EV? Modern ICE cars are highly reliant on computers as well. Maybe even more than EVs since they have transmissions and timing and fuel injection and exhaust monitoring.
Kia is the company that gathers “information about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, sex life and political opinions” and “trade union membership”.
I don't want to have anything to do with a company like that.