I have a gripe. Last night it was raining and humid and my windshield was getting fogged up. I had to stab at the controls on the dashboard to get the right one. On the steering wheel, there's a toggle for inside/outside air circulation. Why doesn't this button control the other settings? That would have been logical and far safer. In my mind it would display a menu on the front display, and you'd select fan speed, inside/outside, defogger etc.
I could never figure out why inside/outside air is on the wheel. The most common are temp (which is there) and fan speed. Others would be nice, but those are the two most adjusted.
i like your ideas wig. personally, i prefer a fan speed knob, a temp knob, an airflow knob and an a/c button. all large enough to operate with a gloved hand. keep it simple for us stupid ones.
Thanks for the compliment, bisco. But stupidity has nothing to do with it. It's a matter of ergonomics. The old-style mechanical airflow controls were simple, yes, but highly effective - you could find the common controls in one place, and just twisted the knob to the desired setting. Having the settings located on different buttons is not ergonomic at all because you don't have the intuitive sense where the darn thing is. They managed to have both front and rear wipers located on one control stick, which is easy to reach and fairly easy to control (I still mix up the rear setting - wipe vs wipe with spray). I would feel very stupid if I was looking for the defogger, missed it, looked down, and then BANG hit the car ahead of me.
can't agree with you more. even worse, imo, are the touch screen controls. that's what i had on my 08 and trying to find those while watching the road is impossible. and they rarely work with gloves on. but this has been toyota's m.0. for quite awhile now and isn't likely to change, just like thier idea's of ergonomics and storage features. have to take the bad with the good unfortunately.
I personally think that inexperienced young engineers were tasked with designing the cab. They were used to pushing buttons and thought that this paradigm would naturally transfer to a car. It doesn't.
Did any of the Prototype PIP drivers comment to the engineers and see any of their ideas implemented?