Are touch screens a fad that will date cars badly, or are they useful? Anyone who owns a new car with one...

Are touch screens a fad that will date cars badly, or are they useful? Anyone who owns a new car with one, is it really useful, or just a selling point?

I think they are a fad. Even worse, they are an excuse for manufacturers to spend less money, integrating all of the controls onto a cheap touch screen instead of using quality buttons and knobs with tactile feedback. Controls via touch screen are objectively worse than physical ones, and can cause crashes because you are forced to take your eyes off the road to adjust the climate control or radio.

The way I see it, I look at enough screens throughout my daily life. I sure as hell don't want to look at another one in the car too.

I know I sound like a ranting old man, but at 23 it seems like no one else in our age group thinks this way.

Mine is fairly useful.
I would still prefer an actual radio over it, but it's not as bad as i thought it would be.

Take a look at how 20 years old built-in navigation has aged and you can guess what's going to happen.

Agreed. I'm almost 26 and I can remember texting with a flip phone and not having to look at the screen. With a regular smartphone that's impossible for me.
I assume it's the same way putting a screen in a car. You don't have any physical feedback that you're pressing the button or knob you need.
Everyone else my age thinks it is great though and I disagree.

My car has a screen and controls on the steering wheel
I only use the controls on the steering wheel.
Some day I'll get around and get rid of all the electronic bullshit in my car and leave just the necessary stuff, the ECU and maybe a radio, maybe.

When will the DoT mandate no touchscreens in cars?

My Lexus's infotainment system is such a pain in the fucking ass to use.

I wouldn't know what I'd do if every single thing was controlled on it like some manufacturers are doing without any knobs or buttons.

It should be noted that I think Lexus has one of the worst, so take this as a grain of salt.

24 here. Knobs over screens any day.

I honestly hate it. With actual physical buttons you can touch you can tell if you're pressing the right thing without taking your eyes off the road because you can feel the button or knob or whatever.

Touch screens are a distraction.

They're not a fad but they will age fucking terribly

I think they are here to stay because it is 'what the consumers want' but I know no one who actually likes their infotainment center. Only a few companies even implement them in a good way.

I think the main issue with them is that after 5 years (the age of my car) they already feel pretty dated. Thankfully they put buttons too. The problem there is that cars now a days last so fucking long that when I'm still driving this 5 years from now it is going to be even more retarded looking.

Whenever I think about infotainment I remember how dumb 90s bmws look with those car phones.

They already did with back up camera mandates (I like backup camera for convenience but we are teaching a generation to drive with dependencies to tech)

>cheap touch screen instead of using quality buttons and knobs
lul wut
most cars with touch screens (like the one in the OP) still have physical controls for basic shit like the heater and the radio

We are teching a generation to LIVE with dependencies to tech

I disagree; I have a 10 year old sibling my parents adopted when I was in middle school and even though she has had an iPad pretty much her whole life if I am asked to watch her on the rare occasion I am home I just take it away and she goes outside to play with the hooligans outdoors.

She plays video games a lot but it isn't her only activity.

>
forgot to mention i tend to take the ipad away after I have had to listen to minecraft videos for 3 hours

Try taking away the cell phone of any teen.

> not wanting a car phone
> not buying an old car just to get a car phone

Touchscreen a are just a product of it being cheaper than buttons for the manufacturer

> inb4 you realise your touch screen is just so they cut costs and charge you more

Why would I invade a teens privacy...
I don't care if people use machines trust me they aren't ruining our society.

Before phones and tablets it was solitaire in Windows and magazines.

That doesn't change the fact that society has grown to live dependent on tech.

Thank god no one forces me to buy a modern car

I'm so sick of hearing people whine about cell phones, and more specifically whine about teenagers being obsessed with them.

Yes, plenty of kids and teenagers are "addicted" to being connected 24/7, but you have to take into consideration the fact that people IN GENERAL are just as obsessed as they are. Checking your phone every three seconds and having a constant Internet connection is a societal norm in today's world, regardless of age.

On top of that, people ignoring each other and passing the time with simple distractions is nothing new. As said, before it was phones and tablets it was solitare and magazines, among other things.

probably op said like tesla, it's a tv/pc display control almost everything.

>Touchscreen a are just a product of it being cheaper than buttons for the manufacturer

true single display to replace everything ? sold.

I'm not whining about anything, why are you taking this so personally?
I just pointed out that people have grown to be dependent on tech. Why does this hurt you so much?

you idiot, human society has always depended on its technology to advance.

don't say a broad term like "technology" when you mean something specific, like a personal computer or the internet.

cars are technology

Then why are you so buttblasted for pointing that fact out?

>I just pointed out that people have grown to be dependent on tech. Why does this hurt you so much?

Human society was dependent on technology before the microprocessor even existed. Don't try and blame shit you don't understand for problems you can't solve.

>Getting this butthurt for getting a fact told to him
I'm not blaming shit on anything, it looks like you feel bad for being dependent on tech or something.

You didn't say "people", you specifically mentioned teenagers, and I responded by explaining why making a generalization about a demographic without taking a second to think about the bigger picture is retarded.

The teens were just an example, not the whole argument, like you're trying to make it out to be.
So again, why do you take this so personally?

Fucking this. Muscle memory is one hell of a drug, but you just can't do it when it comes to touchscreens.

>how dare you pointing out that wheels are technology
fuck off

it's not a fact, you are making a broad generalization based on your limited timeframe of observation, which judging by your consistent use of the phrase "butthurt" would seem to be about 12 years.

basically you are saying the same shit people have been saying since the dawn of time -- that the very fruits of our civilization are what's causing our downfall.

if that were true, none of this would exist and this idiotic conversation would not be happening.

Because it's 6:30 in the morning and I have time to kill before work. I like arguing.

If you didn't want me to assume teenagers were who you were talking about, you should have said "Try taking a cell phone away from anybody these days." I'm sorry that you struggle with literacy.

>putting words that never were there
ok kid

No you buttblasted armchair psychologist, look at my first reply, I copy pasted what he wrote and replaced drive with live, because it's true, and that's it, you're trying to make an argument where there isn't any, because people live dependent to tech, and somehow, poiting this fact means that I'm against the progress of technology, you're assuming a load of shit out of nowhere.

And you like getting ass ravaged by non arguments apparently

>look at my first reply
everyone in this thread is posting as anonymous you fucking talking anal bead.

You can easily know where it all begun if you had two working neurones. I guess you're absolutely retarded and I'm wasting my time here.

You sound pretty mad. Maybe you should go for a drive, take a good long look at your infotainment screen while you're merging onto the highway. You'll probably feel better.

>this projecting
m8...

Nobody posted this yet
Just leaving it here

24 here. I can text on an iPhone without looking at the screen at all. Typed this with my eyes closed

Fellow 23 yrold here, agree completely

Damage control

It took you this long to come up with that rebuttal?
How much technology did you need to use to get to that reply?

>I look at enough screens throughout my daily life. I sure as hell don't want to look at another one in the car too.

You look at the windSCREEN when you are driving though you braindead retard fuck

I suppose it is better, if I see an option on my screen I want to select I don't have to think about what to press to get to it, I just press it.

i can do everything but set my navigation without the touch screen, and the heater controls are separate. also, for a first car that ill probably upgrade in a year or 2 for something faster, i couldn't give less of a fuck

Bet you have no idea what T9 is

welcome newfriend

what will date is the software
I would be surprised if 1/10th of it still works in five years
with backup camera there is need for a screen
so that's just one more thing to integrate

Instead of a steering wheel there should be a big touch screen that you make swiping motions across to steer the car, then little icons along the bottom of the screen for selecting gears, parking brake etc. Manual cars could have a clutch icon that was sensitive to how hard you pressed it etc. It would make driving so easy a kid could do it because it would be like playing a game on the ipad

no we self drive now
just drag pin man where ever you want to go
>does not include unpaved roads

only design that makes sense. The UI can continually be updated and to match newer innovations

Yeah I've got a LS430, and I just turn the screen off most of the time. The Nav is literally impossible to use. The screen works ok for audio and climate, but it's just a bear to use for anything else. Thankfully, the nips also had excellent redundant buttons for most of the functions. But some hvac and sound controls have to go through that stupid screen.

There are two advantages of the old tech touch screen in that car though. 1. You can use polarized lenses and still see it. You can use gloved hands to touch it, as it is an early pressure sensitive screen.


The newer generation Nav in my wife's RX is much better with that haptic joystick thing. But it will trigger most autists, as the GUI is bad.

They will visibly outdate quickly, but can be very useful, and I doubt they'll go out of production any time soon.
I highly prefer buttons for important things (light, heat, basic radio functions), but a touchscreen does give the possbility to include many settings etc. into the car, that would make buttons a freaking nightmare. Just as long as those are not required to be operated while driving and the UI is decently made that can be a pretty nice thing.
What I really don't like is smartphone integration into the cars stereo beyond just playing music from it. Focus on the road not facebook...

I don't like them because it's becoming harder to install aftermarket headunits.

Good time to be alive when driving you cannot web surf or pay attention to a screen it's not safe

I just dropped off the 2016 Cruze we rented for our beach trip. It had a touch screen and we didn't use it. GF even loves touch screens and she used the physical buttons to change radio stations because the interface was lame.

We all carry touch screen devices around with us already and barring some sci-fi cataclysm we'll only continue to. Cars should have GOOD built in cradles for every single passenger's phone/tablet with headrest speakers and mics. The driver should have handsfree controls for his on the wheel itself and the head unit should have a radio and a source selector that can put any of the phones on the primary sound system with an optional large flip-down screen that can display the MHL output or I guess OTA TV stations too.

There, problem solved. The cradles can have a cheap little pop-swap cable base from micro-usb to micro-usb3 to whatever Apples use and in case some new cable format comes out.

Actually, future cars will have even more touchscreen panels because you're not expected to drive the cars.

I think the sad thing is down the line 30,40+ years when you have a collectible car and the touchscreen breaks - and no way to repair it.

Imagine trying to find the hardware and software required to communicate with, program and repair a computer from 1970 and you'll see what I mean.

Also gives you a nice surface to punch when it locks up.

I remember in the 80s, digital gauges were a fad for a while, and then people started seeing how badly they would age and they all switched back to analog looking, even though it's digital underneath.

I suspect something similar will happen with infotainment in general. After a few years people will see how badly it ages and you'll see all of them scale it back to just what the customer actually needs and not what they can put in there, willy nilly.

My personal druthers on the matter would be to have something in the car that's more or less just a bluetooth interface to the speakers and maybe climate control system and if you want infortainment, you buy a pad or a 3rd party aftermarket system that slots into the car.

I'll keep my buttons thanks

This is where things should go.

For instance, I have an '00 LS400 and an '03 Tundra, both with your average radio and climate control setups for the early aughts. I added AUX jacks to both stereos and installed mounts for my phablet.

I strongly prefer the setup to my wife's '13 Highlander with the screen and blootoo. The phone and apps automatically update and as long as I keep a current phone, my cars will always have the most current tech, no sweat.

Car manufacturers should stick to what they do best and leave the tablets and apps up to Apple and Google because that's what *they* do best.

I mean, when you have a smartphone, what's the point of having a bunch of redundant shit in your car?

The fuck I need nav for? I have google maps on my phone! It will always be updated, no problems there.

>collectible car
>any vehicle from CY+2
>collectible
No one is going to miss vehicles from the present day.

Oh, I can see certain models of sports cars and muscle cars being collectible 50 years from now.

Think of how rare an unmolested, not-wrapped-around-a-tree Hellcat is going to be 40 years from now, for instance.