[mschaecher]

The three cars I've owned in my lifetime all had 90% physical controls, with a small little digital screen that would display something like the radio station you're on, the temp, the strength of air, treble/bass, etc, etc.

There was absolutely zero tactile feedback on all of them, as their were dedicated buttons that had to be cycled through to reach a state....and the only way you could know if you were getting to what you wanted was if you looked at the tiny little digital display.

Want preset radio station #x? Jam the preset button a few times.

Want to warm the passenger side a bit? Jam a button to select that side, then select heat, the turn it up.

That's on a Honda, a Cadillac & a Toyota spanning a decade in years....so I'm guessing you must be referring to pre-1990 vehicles that literally had dial tuners and manual button to control valves...and 5x less options for stuff that could even be adjusted?? Or did you speak too soon?

[gnaffle]

http://ipocars.com/imgs/a/b/n/u/s/citroen__citron_citron_ber...

Here's an example of a car from ca. 2005 that has simple, manual controls for climate control. If the passenger is too warm, there's a separate button for opening the window :)

Some newer cars also have separate dials for heat on each side: http://static.autoexpress.co.uk/sites/autoexpressuk/files/st... ..but of course they still have pushbuttons for fan speed.

[jcromartie]

This is a fundamental mistake of UI design that will just keep being repeated forever in favor of "clean" design.

The word for what is missing from these interfaces is "affordances": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance

[thaumasiotes]

My 2002 Toyota Corolla might (does) have relatively few options for what you can adjust, but it certainly doesn't have cycling buttons requiring you to look at a tiny digital display. It doesn't have a display at all. The buttons are all labeled with what they do. The climate control is dials. Want to warm the passenger side a bit? Your option is to warm the whole car. Set the temperature dial to warm and the mode dial to (most likely) floor.

Your pre-1990 estimate is way, way, embarrassingly off, at best.

[ahlatimer]

Hell, my 2013 Subaru BRZ has dials and buttons for the A/C. Granted, there's a display that shows you the temperature, but if you want it warmer, you don't have to look at it unless you really want to set it to a specific temperature. If you want it warmer, just turn it a few clicks to the right. Same goes for the passenger (it's dual-zone). There are loads of 2014s out there that don't have the automatic climate control, even. It's the same, old system that you see on cars from pre-1990.

Contrast this to the sound system, which only has a volume knob. Jumping to the next track requires you to hit a small touchscreen button that offers no tactile feedback. It's frustrating to do it while driving.

IMO, there's a good middle-ground here. There are a lot of settings and features on my sound/navigation system that I don't need to access all the time, or really at all while driving. Bass is too high? I can wait until I come to a light. That stuff can remain touchscreen driven since it offers more flexibility in the design and allows you to build in a lot more features than you'd have otherwise without cluttering your dash with a ton of buttons and knobs. But stuff that I mess with pretty often, like skipping to the next song, should be a physical button. Other head units get this right.