[wlesieutre]

I always wonder if the people designing these things have ever lived in a cold climate. They know about cold in the abstract because they put heated seats in, but have they ever woken up in the morning and gone outside to commute to work in a car that's been sitting at -20 degrees overnight. Interfaces that don't work with gloves or mittens on are the worst.

Which is to say, do they know that touch interfaces are bad and do it anyway because it saves money? Or do they go through life thinking they're actually making a usable product?

[pcurve]

"Which is to say, do they know that touch interfaces are bad and do it anyway because it saves money? Or do they go through life thinking they're actually making a usable product?"

It's likely the former. Industrial designers are trained on ergonomics so they know the benefits of physical switches.

However, at least in the case of BMW / Mini, they're forced use touchscreens by their management primarily because:

1. Not only it saves money

2. It also enables subscription models for certain features like heated seats and steering wheel. No heated seats? Just remove the UI buttons.

Unless consumers push back (like VW customers did), they will continue to cut costs.

[reverius42]

EVs heat up the interior before you get in (very effectively, since they are usually a heat pump for interior heating/cooling and also for battery temp management). Generally you tap a button in an app on your phone about 10 minutes prior, and by the time you get in the car it's nice and toasty. If you keep your car plugged in at home it doesn't even use any battery to do this. Heated seats is just a luxury feature, not a necessity.

[wlesieutre]

When I was street parking in New England winters I was not exactly an EV target customer. I'm sure that's very nice if you have a driveway and home charging though.

Absolutely heated seats are a luxury feature. That doesn't change the fact that if put heated seats in a car and then have touchscreen only controls, you have created a stupid product that's made to be comfortable in cold temperatures but not usable in cold temperatures.

Of course they should be making cars usable in cold temperatures whether or not it has cold weather luxury features, but the addition on heated seats in a car that you can't operate with gloves on just highlights the stupidity of the screen interfaces.

The manufacturer is considering "what would be nice for a car in cold temperatures" and then skipping over "it would be nice if you could turn the heat or defogger on."