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When I went car shopping recently, I was amazed by the autonomous technologies in most new models: automatic lane-keeping, braking to avoid collisions and parallel parking, for example.
But I was appalled by the state of dashboard technology. Technology sells, so car companies are all about touch screens and apps these days. Unfortunately, they're truly terrible at designing user interfaces (UIs)—the ways that you, the human, are supposed to interact with it, the car. A good user interface (a) is easy to navigate, (b) puts frequently used controls front and center, (c) gives clear feedback as you make a change and (d) is apparently beyond the capabilities of today's car companies. I asked my Twitter followers to help me nominate the World's Worst Car UI Designs—and I was flooded with responses.
Source:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/automobile-dashboard-technology-is-simply-awful/
Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Thursday April 12 2018, @06:30AM (11 children)
In a car, a touch screen is idiocy. With mechanical switches and controls, you can operate by feel. With touch screens, you have to look, which means you have to take your eyes off the road. All frequently used functions (climate control, music volume, etc.) should be controlled by controls that provide tactile feedback.
There are two related issues as well:
- Using the same screen for everything means too many options, means clicking through endless menus. This is made worse by the seemingly random organization of those menus.
- Long-term consistency is important. You don't find car manufacturers changing the way steering wheels or pedals work. Other mechanical controls have minor variations (gear shifts, windshield wipers), but a couple of minutes familiarization in a new car, and you know how they work. But software interfaces? Change for the sake of change, all the time.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday April 12 2018, @06:43AM (6 children)
Mercedes Benz has moved the gear lever to the column, on the right
Windscreen wiper controls (for front and read windows, including wash!) are on a twist/pushy knob on the end of the indicator stalk.
Some of the stereo controls are on the steering wheel, but there is a volume knob on the centre console.
The cruise control buttons are on a stalk under the indicators, but you can't see any of the buttons, as the whole stalk is hidden behind the steeing wheel. (The cruise control stalk has six functions, and a button that changes the behaviour of four, making ten in total)
Even the best screw it up.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @07:06AM (4 children)
That lever placement has been optional for at least the past 70+ years, however it was more popular on GMs and certain generations of Fords than anything else. Unless this Mercedes has bench seats though, it doesn't make much sense in a modern car, since most of the reason for doing so was to leave the drive tunnel clear for an extra passenger.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @07:19AM (1 child)
The important use is walking between the rows of seats. It's also a place to set a trash can.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @07:03PM
Nah, it's all about the road head. Nothing is worse than shifting in to park on the freeway with your dick in someone's mouth.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MostCynical on Thursday April 12 2018, @08:12AM
Makes converting from left- to right- hand drive easier..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by EETech1 on Thursday April 12 2018, @09:47PM
My girlfriend used to love sitting right next to me as I shifted gears in my old Ford.
4th gear was in the perfect location!
(I used to hose clamp weights on the driveshaft when we'd go out on dates:)
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday April 12 2018, @10:23AM
That WAS QuiteCynical!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rivenaleem on Thursday April 12 2018, @08:27AM
But people have been conditioned by Movies and TV to believe that taking your eyes off the road for extended periods of time (usually to look at the person in the passenger seat you are talking to) is totally fine.
(Score: 2) by chromas on Thursday April 12 2018, @08:43AM
Soon...
(Score: 2) by fadrian on Thursday April 12 2018, @01:04PM (1 child)
In a car, a touch screen is idiocy.
In a car, a touch screen is less expensive and doesn't make your car interior look like the inside of a jet plane cockpit because that's how many controls you'd have if automotive engineers put one function per switch. Automotive engineers work under the same cost and component constraints that most engineers do. If you can do so much better, lets see your your control designs. Put up or shut up, "so-called engineers".
That is all.
(Score: 5, Touché) by bob_super on Thursday April 12 2018, @04:42PM
I've got a bridge to sell to the guy who thinks the engineer designs the interior of the car, not a "designer" who has that great idea about the cool clean modern lines that a touchscreen allows, compared to all the ugly buttons.