European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
In 2026, Euro NCAP points will be deducted if some controls aren't physical.
The most annoying thing is that carmakers didn't move to touchscreen-only because people want it, they're doing it because it saves them money to ditch physical controls.
"Hey the touchscreen is already here, may as well just put everything on it!"
Yeah how about don't. It's such a pain having to fumble for things like climate control that used to just be a knob.
The ideal situation is having both.
129The most annoying thing is that carmakers didn't move to touchscreen-only because people want it,
Eh, I wouldn't say that. They definitely wanted it at first, or at least, they wanted the "new shiny tech" in their cars. Then they had to live with using the touch screen all the time and quickly realized that maybe the latest isn't always the greatest in every situation, and there was a damn good reason for doing things the old way.
I'd say people overall want the touchscreens still, they just don't want them to control every single thing in the car.
19The most annoying thing is that carmakers didn’t move to touchscreen-only because people want it,
They definitely wanted it at first, or at least, they wanted the “new shiny tech” in their cars.
They first added screens for things that are appropriate to show on screens, like GPS maps. But that's not going "touchscreen-only." Touchscreen-only -- putting everything on the touchscreen, whether it was an appropriate interface for it or not -- was purely a cost-cutting move.
30I disagree. I knew touchscreen controls on a vehicle sucked as soon as I encountered them. Sticking my hand out to reach for the heater slider/knob that was always in the same place, always there, and gave immediate real feedback of the real world is better.
It feels dangerous to use lcd touchscreens while the car is moving.
26Yeah. There are two kinds of 'want' to consider really - one being what sells cars, and the other being what people actually enjoy using.
Nice clean interiors with huge full-console touchscreens look modern and have that wow-factor that impresses in the showroom, and that's what matters as far as getting a purchase.
So yeah, you're right that people do want it, but only until they've had to live with it for a while.
I think because most buyers have never been in this position before, they aren't considering what the driving experience would be of not having those controls. They assume and trust that the manufacturers will make sensible design decisions and that the car will first and foremost function well and intuitively as a vehicle, because that's the whole point of a car, right?
We have lived through many decades of car controls getting better and more intuitive all the time, so people would naturally assume the manufacturers know what they are doing. And then only now suddenly get slapped in the face by changes that make the experience actually worse for the driver.
16
having touchscreen and physical options is the best solution?
9More options are always the optimal solution for the consumer, though in this particular case I'd say they don't necessarily need to have exactly one physical button and one touch screen button for each thing. Mostly just the things that a driver is most likely to toggle on the road.
It's not unusual for cars to have a couple different ways to control things. Like how the volume control on the sound system can be on the dash but also behind the steering wheel.
But again, doubles of every single function is probably overkill.
13Exactly. Touchscreen can be a positive because you get dynamic and contextual menus, and the sort of rich user interface that people expect from modern devices.
But for the most common functions, nothing beats the tactile muscle memory of physical controls that are always immediately present when you need them, and can use with your eyes still on the road.
So the best is to have both.
12
It's surprising that people buy those cars
8Our newest company car has volume touch-buttons.
Lovely if you need to quickly silence the radio/media while driving 120kph on the highway =).
But god forbid looking at the phone while standing still at a red light with a running/activated motor.6I think even more annoying are touch buttons on the steering wheel. It's easy to just accidentally activate something with a light touch while steering. And when you do want to push it, it doesn't work consistently. Mine even has different inputs depending on how long you touch it. I've heard that VW has the learned the lesson and will introduce real buttons again but apparently it takes a few years to change this simple thing in a car production even though they've been doing it in the past for many years.
1
everything controling something related to driving safety (windshield wipers, turn signals, lights..) should be mandated by law to have a physical control. Also the control must not be routed to any control computer, that is not exclusively dedicated to that control.
35I agree completely with your first sentence. As for your second sentence, I think its a reasonable rhetorical position to take for the sake of pulling the debate in the correct direction, but that there's a compromise that could be made. Essential systems should definitely not be running off the same computer that's running relatively complex and crash-susceptible stuff on a general-purpose software stack (e.g. the infotainment system running on Linux), but I think it's probably okay to consolidate them on a single computer running a hard real-time OS and simple software that's open source and auditable by third-parties, including the NHTSA (edit after noticing what community I'm in: or whatever its European equivalent is).
18Thank you. That seems more reasonable. E.g. the key principle being a strict seperation between safety/general car control and functions like entertainment, both in the user interface and in the computer/routing between interface and physical realisation.
10
Even ignoring the safety advantage physical buttons are just plain better.
14Depends on your definition of "control computer". ECUs with a microprocessor often have a microcontroller built in for safety-critical stuff. You can safely route control through that microcontroller.
Also, would you allow windshield wipers and turn signals and lights to be allocated to the same control computer or should each of them have their own exclusively dedicated to them?
1
Making UX a part of the assessment is a smart move.
35I hate the trend of replacing a dashboard with a touchscreen so great news for reliability and ease of use
22If this limits the ncap star rating it has a chance. 4.5 out of 5.
12You'd think they absolutely would include things like the level of driver distraction required to perform basic actions like climate or audio control, etc; things like field of view and size of blind spots should also apply. Using your phone while driving is proven to dramatically increase risk of accident. That should negatively apply for all touch screens.
The funny thing is most governments are banning the use of a phones while driving entirely, while it remains perfectly legal to use the cars touch screens, that also force you to take your eyes off the road, because they're built in...
3Well it is also a living evolving thing. And as with all bureaucracy.. slowwww. But this improvement we can get behind.
2
Sometime soon they'll hide the "break" function in some sub-menu of the "speed" tree, to replace the break pedal.
9I love the hazard light button. In my car it's such a convenient spot and I can push it in like 1s if I need to when the highway goes from 100kph to 10kph out of nowhere.
4The last company car I had was the choice between an Audi A6 and BMW 5series. I opted for the BMW, the only reason was that BMW had physical controls.
3