Touch Interfaces In Cars Difficult To Use

An anonymous reader points out an article about touchscreen dash interfaces in cars (in particular Cadillac's "CUE" interface). From the article: "I do not recall anyone ever complaining about the iOS interface and there have been plenty of attempts to replicate the experience and its flow of control. ... As simple as iOS may appear on the surface, it is incredibly well-executed balance that matches the requirements of a touch interface for phones, tablets and other horizontal screen devices. Changing the user scenario, hardware, or software will alter the requirements for the desired user experience as well. ... CUE is not as transparent in its usage as, for example, the iPhone. We are used to certain buttons that are located on the dash – sliders and dials that we expect in places that we can quickly memorize. In the end, you want to be able to reach for such a button without taking your eyes off the road. There are no such buttons on the XTS dash. Instead, there are some capacitive touch buttons for basic climate controls, audio volume and seat heating/cooling. Since the buttons are activated by touch, they feel the same." A touchscreen UI for some functions sounds perfectly sane (how do I set the clock again?), but ditching all of the dash buttons sounds like a recipe for disaster. I've heard from iPod users (and my own experience with my long-dead Neuros echos) that the click wheel was easy to use blindly; the move to a touchscreen made it impossible to use without looking at it.

Prius

[Kupfernigk]

All the important stuff is duplicated on the steering wheel. If I'm busy and the passenger wants to fiddle with the air conditioning, I can direct them to the touchscreen and I don't have to do anything. This to me is the ideal situation. The passenger can play with things that don't endanger anything, I can concentrate on avoiding the BMW driver who thinks that the little propeller sign on the front of his car means that he can pull out in front of people without looking.

Re:Never a good idea..

[hattig]

Good post, and certainly describes the future of the car dashboard - hopefully in the near term rather than the long term!

Certainly a single display can replace all of the current dials, and also instead of, e.g., "Engine Warning" icon lighting up, it can say "Your O2 sensor is broken". When using steering wheel functions (only buttons needed are "function select" and "home (back to standard dash display)" ("up"/"down","home", left hand side of steering wheel) and "function adjust" ("up"/"down"/"disable", right hand side of steering wheel)) or voice control, the display can alter to show what you're changing directly, or even better it can be reflected off of the windscreen so the driver's eyes are never off the road. Maybe a "back" button. Hmm, pretty close to the buttons on an Android phone really.

All of the centre console gubbins can be eradicated. Who needs a bulky CD player when you can slot in a $20 32GB SD card with your entire music collection on it, or just have the car get the music off your phone/tablet (which in turn could be pulling it from your server at home)?

And current smartphone platforms are more than adequate for all this already, from a hardware point of view, but maybe the software isn't quite there yet for car control. Still, the latest version of Eclipse is available in a version for car application development, so things are clearly moving in the right direction.

I think the primary input has to be voice, with steering wheel buttons as a backup. Using buttons to select using the dash display will still take the driver's eyes off the road, whereas "turn on air conditioning", "volume down 50%" simply won't. Even if you need a "speech control" button on the steering wheel.

In fact, the Microsoft Steering Wheel is 100% buttons, all square and different colours, each controlling directly their own function.

Re:Tell me you're joking

[flightdroid]

I have a 2009 Ford Focus. I installed the aftermarket Sync kit from the Ford parts department. Does it come close to the voice input on Star Trek TOS? Absolutely not. Does it save me having to push a crapload of buttons if I want to change inputs? Yes. Does it make talking on the phone safer and easier? Yes. For example: Using voice controls: I am listening to the radio. I decide that I would like to listen to Weezer. I press the voice button and say: "USB" I press the voice button again and say: "Play artist Weezer" Outcome: I never take my eyes off the road, I'm listening to the music that i want and it took all of about 5 seconds to accomplish. Using radio knobs: I am listening to the radio. I decide that I would like to listen to Weezer. I press the Aux button. I press the Menu button. I turn the dial to Artist. I press the enter button. I turn the dial to the alphabetical group that has artists that start with W. (There are three alphabetical groups) I turn the dial a lot more to find Weezer. I press enter. I turn the dial to All Albums. I press enter. But I guess you're right, voice input is way more inefficient.