Updated: April 6, 2023
As you well know, I love cars. I also hate stupidity. The question is, which of the two emotions is stronger? Recently, I started having to face this question while driving more recent models from various manufacturers. I noticed a steady and worrying trend of the "cockpit digitalization", that is more and more stuff being moved away from physical controls into pointless touch interfaces. At first, it was trivial things. But now, it's come down to important things like media and climate control.
This prompted me to write this article. While I normally "only" do car reviews in my car section, that does not mean I have to exclusively limit myself to just this domain. Furthermore, I think this topic is so important that is merits discussion. Well, not really discussion. More sort of disdain. Let us begin.
Touch ... you keep using that word
It started small and innocent. A screen in the middle, some fancy info, colors yay. Then, an unexpected turn, almost a Scandi flick, and the manual handbrake was replaced with a button, which is another pointless, pointless idea. Then, the infotainment systems got bigger and bigger, and someone thought that cars ought to be phones, because, cor, everyone is using phones! What a brilliant idea, not.
Indeed, I'm not sure how it's different from using a phone
If you drive and use your phone, should the popo stop you, you will probably get a hefty fine and maybe points on your license. But, apparently, if you start fiddling with a large "phone" on your center console like some under-efficient monkey, that's fine. Makes no sense.
- You cannot use touch interfaces by touch. Paradoxically, you need eyes. No "blindly" figuring out what each control is while your eyes are on the road, where they should be, like in a car with physical controls. This make touch interfaces less safe. Eyes on your pointless console = less attention to the traffic.
- Touch interfaces are less efficient. Because of the overlarge form factor, as I've explained in my desktop & touch article from a while back, functionality is stacked vertically. Menu upon sub-menu of options, tap tap tap. Not efficient. Some cars even use touch for glove box opening. Yup. Something that takes 100ms to do with your hands now takes endless seconds scrolling through the menu. Progress!
- Touch interfaces are cheap. On all fronts. But mostly in making your expensive car look like a phone. That's an insult to my finances. Pay tens of thousands of dollars or euros to get a nice vehicle, and then use it like a three-hundred-dollar plastic brick. Wonderful.
Well, what do I know? Apparently, everything!
You may say I'm only a bitter old dinosaur. A study by Vi Bilagare, a Swedish car magazine, did a thorough comparison test of twelve cars on how well they do on the human-machine interface front. Basically, how efficient, fast and safe touch interfaces are versus physical controls (buttons and levers). The results are not surprising. Cars with physical controls were the easiest to operate, and the driver was able to perform required actions quickly. The cars with touch controls, less so.
Physical > touch. QED.
And there's nothing more to be said really. But I wanted to.
Here's an example of excellent use of touch and analog, my VW Polo GTI review. Climate control and handbrake are manual, as they should be. Non-critical infotainment stuff is operated via touch, which is fine.
Another example, from my BMW M4 review, a great combo of physical buttons, nice and large infotainment display, and a rotary knob for other functions (not in the photo). No real touch, but you can scribble letters onto the iDrive button top surface using your finger/nail, or even use voice if you really care. Also, not visible in the photo is a proper manual handbrake, too.
There's some hope after all ...
It's not all gloomy. Various car companies are slowly realizing the error of their ways. After going all the way in on the touch craze (that's called marketing and buzzwords for you), they encountered something that apparently market studies couldn't have predicted. User dissatisfaction.
And so, they are now dialing back on the touch stupidity and going back to a reasonable balance between touch and physical. Essential, often-used things are done via dials and buttons, non-essential and less often-used stuff goes into the touch screen. Frankly, that's how it should be.
If you want to set a navigation destination, a virtual touch keyboard sure makes more sense than doing so by voice or slow alphabet scroll. Or if you want to check your tire pressure. No problem. But radio, climate control, anything you may want to use WHILE driving, those must never be touch.
And that shall be my financing strategy forever on. Here, I have to call out Hyundai, as they never deviated from sanity, and committed to normal interfaces (a combo of essential real buttons and non-essential touch) for as long as we use human-driven cars. I've never pondered a Hyundai as a personal purchase, but here, we might have a first.
Conclusion
I know that every company out there is driven by profit. That's fine. The name of the game. But said profit is made by selling cars to people, who pay with their money for said cars. And if a person is not willing to buy a car because [reasons], then that's the best way to express dissatisfaction with the concepts or decisions that companies introduce into their vehicle fleets.
I won't change the world with my approach. Nor will I sway the mindless masses of simians that touch controls are stupid. But I sure can choose where to spend my money. I have decided not to purchase any car that bundles critical driving controls into touch-only infotainment systems. No matter how much I LOVE driving, no matter how much I enjoy the technology, the machinery, the speed, I will buy, first and foremost, a car that has normal human controls, and never one that does tries to make a vehicle look like a phone.
Now, my protest is a bit wider. I've already emailed a number of companies to tell them of my decision and rationale. As long as they keep offering cars with inferior ergonomics and safety, in my book, then I will not buy their cars. I will look at their competitors, even if potentially this means a reduced quality of fun in the driving experience. Maybe I'll get lucky. Maybe one of my preferred manufacturers will also have the right combo of physical buttons in their offering. Or maybe I'll even buy a second-hand car from the last normal generation, and keep it as long as I can. But I won't stoop to driving a smartphone. Oh no.
Oh, don't forget car "subscriptions" services. Another forever nope.
Anyway, that's it.
Cheers.