These Car Settings Have No Business Being Controlled Through A Touchscreen

Literally anything that you need to adjust while the vehicle is in motion.

[...]

I’d like to add that in addition to confusion, you are in a moving vehicle — a vehicle that bumps and jiggles, and your fingertip is connected via a long device called an arm which acts as a mass spring damper. So keeping your fingertip in a fixed place while trying to touch something that has zero tactile feedback to let you know you are touching a button is impossible. This means you have to focus your eyes on where your fingertip is touching the screen, and therefore those eyes are not on the road.

Once I know the location of the control, I can adjust my audio volume, turn on my wipers, adjust my lights, change the climate control, and do most other things on a non-touch screen button or knob without ever taking my eyes on the road.

*.* and get off my lawn.

I understand moving switches that never get used, but some of us still use them.

And why there aren’t many interior standards is crazy to me, NHTSA. Confusion is distraction and distraction causes of death on the highways (right behind drunk driving and speeding which probably includes distraction and confusion).

It is crazy how lightly this is all taken by the regulators. I remember someone explaining to me ~12 years ago (I think) that with the standardization of HD radio, we could have all of that cool info readily available on the screen like the song and artist and whatever else the radio station wanted to broadcast. BUT because there were regulations on how must text could shown on the screen to the driver (because it’s distracting) a lot of cars would show you just a tiny portion of that (so all you see is “HOT 101.9 - Staying Alive - The”).

Oh, and how you can’t set GPS while driving on most cars?

But now you can be forced to use a touchscreen menu if your windshield is fogging up. And maybe it’s fine that it’s on a touch screen, but is it REQUIRED that the button is always visible regardless of what else the screen is doing? Or is it up to the manufacturer?

Phones bad and distracting. Laws must be passed to punish people that use them while driving. Large screens that run across 90% of the dash and control everything in the car - selling feature by auto manufacturers. Logic need not apply.

May anyone who puts too many heating controls (HVAC, heated seats and steering wheel) through touch screen be forced to sit in the cold weather testing room with ski gloves duct taped on.

Engine start stop, Headlights, defrost (and preferably heater and AC controls), wipers, and door locks. Gimme a button or switch that’s always available, and always in the same place, gives me physical feedback, and that I can use while wearing gloves without having to wonder if I actually hit it.

Glove box door. It just seems inane to the extreme.

Anything that directly affects visibility, like windshield wipers. You can probably react quick enough in most situations when rain starts, but what if something unexpectedly splashes across the windshield? Even if a sensor exists that turns them on and off automatically, I’m not going to leave my forward visibility to the decision of an algorithm.

So as someone who has one of those teslas that puts most things on the screen, the only thing in my car that I find absolutely unacceptable to be behind a touch screen are HVAC controls. Turning the temp up and down while driving is a very normal thing I really shouldn’t have to dig around a touch screen to work. And in the winter, suddenly windshields can start fogging up and I should be able to access the defogger setting without having to look at the screen.

I have a Model S so my glovebox is manually operated, but newer cars like the 3 and Y and I think the post facelift S and X require you to use the screen to open the glovebox and thats also unacceptable. Dead batteries are a rare occurrence but they can happen. If you keep any vital documents or materials in your glovebox, you will need to use workarounds to open your glovebox to get them Really dumb.

Headlights? Nah that doesnt bother me. The headlights were set to auto when I got the car, and they’ve been on that setting for 4.5 years without issue. If you need to adjust the headlights, that means the car is powered and adding 1 extra step to go to the menu to adjust them isn’t going to impact you much. As long as you can activate high beams without the screen, you’re fine.

Volume? As long as there are controls on the wheel for that, volume has surprisingly not been as much an issue for me as I first would have thought.

Side view mirror control.

I’m not sure if any automaker has migrated side-view mirror controls to a touch screen yet, but it seems like something that may come if/when regulations allow camera and in-door screens rather than mirrors.

IMO, it would be a bad idea, especially since the little touchpad on the driver’s door is so intuitive.