[joosters]

His examples are unfortunately pretty terrible. Volume control and air-con are all settings that you frequently adjust. These are not the controls that should be hidden in a touchscreen.

It's the dynamic, changing display of touchscreens, where you can navigate through a menu (or other structure/organisation) of settings, are where the real benefits lie. If, like in the video, you don't make use of the screen, you're left with a tablet-sized void on your dashboard. Most people agree that the existing buttons and dials are far better, easier and intuitive to use, so your volume & fan speeds are going to be best served by physical controls.

The problem is with the less-used controls. Cars have lots of settings and if you add a button or dial for each of them, you'll end up with something looking like an audio mixing desk. This is where touchscreens and displays can improve the UI. A well thought-out system should let the driver find any setting they need and let them adjust it. Leave the common controls as-is, and work on how best to present the others on the screen.

[matthaeus]

I like your audio equalizer analogy.

If you look closely in the beginning of the video, you'll see that I'm proposing for this to be a special mode that would only be invoked from time to time. So as you are suggesting: It's all about showing the right controls at the right time.