The case for knobs over touch screens.

i like it. voice commands, if perfected, would be great

 

Absolutely the last thing you want on a warship.

Edit - you want human voice commands to other humans, but not to equipment that can act without a repeat-back.

 

"I don't know, sir. It's FUBAR!!!

 

Makes total sense, I hate touchscreens for almost everything, and I'm a computer geek. They're just a mess UI wise, harder to use, prone to failure, and there's no way to do things by touch, I hate them! (breaking my knuckles against the nearsest touch screen)

I don't like voice for anything more than simple stuff in a quite environment either.

 

because it's not perfected

 

I like the Prius Prime touchscreen. The first few days were a little rough, but now I know where things are and how to quickly access things. My only pain point still is the volume up/down touch buttons. Those are terrible. I am working on trying to stick to using the steering wheel controls for that.

 

And if not perfected, then they suck. They always seem to work on Star Trek, but they are centuries ahead of us.

I like the touch screen on my Prime just fine, when parked. Using it while driving is not so hot. I'll definitely pass on a Model 3.

 

There’s definitely a place for each such kind if UI.

Touchscreens are good, for example, when you have a lot of different types of things to control and you don’t have much “real estate” to put the controls in.

Also, if you intend to change (hopefully improve, like Tesla does) the UI over time.

On the other hand, if you want to be able to fell for a control, then obviously a touch screen is all but worthless...

I’ve found the Prius’ voice interface to be fine for (only) a few things, like changing radio stations without taking my eyes off the road. It probably could work for more things than I’ve let it do.

 

I’m pretty undecided on the Model 3 screen, and my wife utterly despises it (mostly on a visual/styling basis). I do for-sure like one thing about it though: It’s mounted up high, so it doesn’t take your eyes off the road as much as the Prime’s 11.6”.

 

I kind of like the mix of controls in the Prime. If I'm sitting still I use the touch buttons on/next to the screen, when moving I use the steering wheel inputs. But I can see someone trying to mess with the touch screen while moving and causing a accident.

From the article the picture of the control system does show a few mechanical systems like the wheel for steering. Sounds like they may only replace the throttle functions with a standard mechanical type. It makes sense to continue using the touch screens for rarely used commands, but keep the knobs/switches/etc for critical, often used, systems. It's not bad technology, but they really need to use the right tool for the job.

 

Notice that the Navy system used touch screens to control the ship and not just auxiliary functions. We still have the steering wheel, brake and accelerator pedals for the critical controls.

 

Isn't this also shades of 737 Max!

 

I hate touchscreen UI period. Not only for the PRIME or any other cars, but also for computers and any electronics. Only thing I feel the touchscreen is the only UI compatible is the smartphone. For PRIME, I try to use as little of control on the screen as possible, leaving the screen off most of the times and controlling HVAC, audio, and other from the steering wheel switches.

That being said, from the article, it is clearly stated that "the sailors didn’t know how to control the ship properly due to a lack of proper training and documentation". With proper training and documentation, the touchscreen UI should have worked fine. I don't know if one can make the case that touch screen UI is inherently unsafe compared to good old knobs and dials.

 

The system on the 737 Max was adamant about wanting to fly the plane at high speed into the ground despite efforts by the crew to override it, due to a faulty sensor input. The issue with the Navy system was confusion about how the controls worked.

 

The Model 3 has a pretty good touchscreen. It's clear, mounted high, and extremely responsive. But it still doesn't work for critical things that you need to access quickly. For example I think turning on the wipers is one or two taps. But sometimes if you get splashed by a truck you need wipers immediately, and even one tap it too long to wait. You need something that you can do by muscle memory without looking for it. So far I can't think of any touchscreen with good enough haptics that you don't have to look at it. Two reasons for that are 1, that everything moves around depending on context, and 2, that haptic feedback isn't good enough yet (at least not available to consumers) to mimic actually touching a button or knob. The problem of things moving around it at least fixable.

 

after 3 or 4 years, my prius touchscreen audio and gps became finicky in certain area's.

'return', 'am', 'source', etc.

if you're driving, and trying to find the sweet spot, and push it hard enough, it can be dangerous.

the only solution is replacement. i wonder what a new model 3 screen would cost?

 

Probably a lot, but it's one of the only things that could break in the car. The car is super minimalist.

It uses a glass touchscreen like an iPad, so it's not going to wear out in one area. It feels like using an iPad Pro.

 

I don't use the touch screen on my car due to the fact that it is harder to drive and touch screen. A driver gets a "feel" sense of where things are once they are use to their car. Touch screens means you have to look at the screen to make sure you are touching the spot you want to touch. The steering wheel controls and knobs for my stereo are good enough for me.

 

Dead touch screen was the reason for ditching the old Garmin, and Magellan replacement is starting to get finicky along the border of the screen.
Luckily for the Camry's screen, I barely need to actually touch it.