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by FeloniousHam 508 days ago
I never understand the ergonomic/"unintuitive" complaints of the 3/Y. I've been driving one for a year, and I'm utterly befuddled by my friend's Outback (or any other car I drive).

It only takes a couple drives to get used the old-fashioned, unintuitive, massive array of buttons :).

(seriously)
2 comments
Prickle 497 days ago
The main thing with physical buttons, is that you don't need to look at them. You can feel for the control without taking your eyes off the road. Can't do that with a Tesla. The touch screen doesn't give you any tactile signals.
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FeloniousHam 497 days ago
The iPhone virtual keyboard is the obvious comparison for the hand wringing about the loss of physical controls. The advantages of a flexible layout, the cost of physical buttons, and most importantly: people got used to typing on a screen. I was sad to see the Blackberry go away, but I don't miss it a minute now.

I listen to a couple auto podcasts (shout out to Autoline After Hours!), and every episode bemoans the loss of buttons. I guess you just have to drive a Tesla for a few days to appreciate what you're not missing.

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Prickle 496 days ago
Ok, but the iphone isn't remotely the same situation, work load, stress or risk; compared to a car.

I relatively consistently mistype on a touch screen keyboard. That's not too much of an issue.

However, me taking my eyes off the road in a car, (stationary or not) to fiddle with a touchscreen is a major risk. I personally just enjoy the fine tuning I can do with physical controls. And the best part, I don't need to look at the control to use it. With a touch screen, sight is a requirement.

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FeloniousHam 494 days ago
Just my experience, but I don't futz with the controls when I'm not at a stop. Defrost is the most "complicated" (two taps) action I regularly do, but that's once, and before I start driving.

The risk of the screen is more on the user, IMO. It's not the necessary actions, it's all the fun things you can do, and Tesla doesn't have any of the nanny systems so common in other makes (which I very much appreciate).

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justin66 507 days ago
Subaru's got an unusually complicated infotainment setup.

If you'd like to do a more meaningful comparison, Mazda might be interesting, since they do focus on simplicity and use real buttons and switches.

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