Finally! A friend was an in-house reseacher at some car manufacturer, whose job is to usability tests car prototypes, including in real traffic.
She was telling me about one study in particular to try a new touch screen built behind the handbrake, pretty much at 5 o'clock behind the driver. I'm sure she's not the only one sharing usability reports about how dangerous touchscreens are while driving, but marketing needed to advertise one more screen than the competition... This was 5 years ago. Took them a while to pivot, but i guess better late than never.
AStonesThrow · 2h ago
There is a local taxicab provider here which uses a liveried fleet. All their cars have a customer-facing touchscreen mounted on the rear of the front passenger seat.
You would not believe the number of drivers who attempt to tamper directly with this screen, from their own seat, including while the vehicle is in operation. I have, at least once, terminated a ride early because of how unsafely the driver acted. There is never any reason for them to be interfering with a passenger control.
But drivers gonna drive, and more than a few are simply control freaks.
marklubi · 2h ago
Doesn't matter if they don't sort other things out. The physical buttons they do add are tied in to the operating system.
My son thought I was crazy when I complained about the window down buttons not registering when I fully pushed them down, and the defrost buttons not working on the first press, until he experienced it a couple of times himself.
simulator5g · 32m ago
The market yearns for old school buttons connected to relays.
piperswe · 6h ago
> Seemingly learning little from Buick’s Riviera, BMW reintroduced touchscreens in 2001.
Didn't BMW hold off on adding a touchscreen until iDrive 7 a few years ago? Or maybe it was iDrive 6 - either way a long time after 2001.
She was telling me about one study in particular to try a new touch screen built behind the handbrake, pretty much at 5 o'clock behind the driver. I'm sure she's not the only one sharing usability reports about how dangerous touchscreens are while driving, but marketing needed to advertise one more screen than the competition... This was 5 years ago. Took them a while to pivot, but i guess better late than never.
You would not believe the number of drivers who attempt to tamper directly with this screen, from their own seat, including while the vehicle is in operation. I have, at least once, terminated a ride early because of how unsafely the driver acted. There is never any reason for them to be interfering with a passenger control.
But drivers gonna drive, and more than a few are simply control freaks.
My son thought I was crazy when I complained about the window down buttons not registering when I fully pushed them down, and the defrost buttons not working on the first press, until he experienced it a couple of times himself.
Didn't BMW hold off on adding a touchscreen until iDrive 7 a few years ago? Or maybe it was iDrive 6 - either way a long time after 2001.