The Death of the Knob, Switch, and Button?

[Zabo]

http://jalopnik.com/5874496/the-deat...tch-and-button

I want to start by coming out and saying I'm not one of those car luddites who think everything should hover in some magical past; while I'm very fond of old-school cars, there's an amazing amount of amazing new tech in cars, and LCD dashboards in so many new cars here at the Detroit Auto Show are a genuinely great advance. Except for one big issue: Knobs, switches and buttons? They're now officially doomed.

Knobs are still around, albeit in reduced numbers, but it's very clear they're considered vestigial holdouts and it's just a matter of time before they're done away with completely. Looking at forward-thinking cars like the Tesla Model S demonstrates this, as its dash is basically just two big iPads, one in landscape orientation and the other in portrait.

A booth from Denso, a major supplier of auto parts and electronics, shows a prototype ****pit of the future — and it's all touch screens. Touch screens are great on our phones and tablets; so why wouldn't they be great in a car, right?

The problem has to do more with the "screen" part than the "touch" part, though both are factors. On your phone, you're looking at the screen, interacting with it very directly; the visual feedback is essential for operating the interface.

When you're driving, ideally you're looking mostly out of the big window in front of you, and you operate most of the ancillary controls with no more than a quick glance. Touch screens don't work like that; little buttons on smooth glass surfaces have to be targeted with a pair of eyes.

All you need to do to prove the point is to look up.

Have you ever peeked in the ****pit of an airplane and seen the levers in between the seats? Those levers have funny-shaped knobs: Spool-shaped, crown-shaped, star-shaped — it's the marshmallows from a Lucky Charms box. There is, of course, a great reason why they're like that: so pilots can know what lever is what just by touch.

That's exactly what is being given up when controls move to the touch screen. Tactile feedback and the ability to feel what a control is has long been part of driving.

Traditionally, we can feel and know what's a radio knob, what a climate control lever feels like, how the notches feel as we move them from one setting to another, and it's worked great. Even without any interior lights or dash lights I bet most of us could find and use the essential controls on our cars.

Touch screens are awesome for many, many things. They look great, they can show an incredible amount of information, but they should never be the only components on a dash.

Oh, but that's not the only problem. Some cars, like the Chevy Volt, the Cadillac ATS and everything from Lincoln are replacing standard buttons with sleek capacitive touch plates with big clusters of identically-shaped buttons. Capacitive technology refers to using electrodes to sense the conductive properties of objects, such as a finger. So, basically, rather than physically depressing a button you've fumbled for while your eyes remained on the road, you'll turn on and off four different things before finally looking down to find what function you want to change. Then you crash and die.

So those suck in about the same way touch screens do, and they look like they came off a VCR. So knock that off, too.

Automakers, I'm pleading with you, spare the life of just a few knobs, just some essential ones, even if they have redundant touch-screen controls. Leave me some knobs in the cars of the future. Nice, chunky, clicky knobs, and maybe a lever, switch and button or two.

I'll even let you make them look cool and LED-lit or whatever you want.

[cab2g]

yeah, they're called steering wheel mounted controls. Those are here to stay. People will get used to adjusting their heating and cooling using steering controls and a heads up display or voice... Not that difficult. But I will miss knobs while I am learning each new car's system... But I suppose the same could be said for any dash you weren't familiar with. You always had to look down to find the right button.

[DGthe3]

I agree with that article completely.

I find touch screens more annoying than anything. First, you can't tell by touch that your hand is in the right spot. I can glance at a dash, move my hand towards it, then look away and still get my hand pretty close to where it needs to be. If I don't land my hand on the button, switch, knob, or slider I want I can easily find my way by feel to the fan control or whatever I wanted from there. With a touch screen, if I tried that I might end up in the wrong menu. So to compensate, I'd have to watch my hand as I try and manipulate the controls. This is made even worse by the menu system that is employed in most of these things. Each time you want to do something, you have to stare at the screen. This isn't bad if you're stopped, but its a huge problem if you want do these things on the fly.

Another thing I hate is the lack of feedback. I can feel when a knob or slider goes to the next detent. But with a touch screen, unless they use a little ding or chime, you have no way of telling that it recognized that you cut the heat back.

I've never understood the fascination with touch screens, for any application. Until there's something better, I'm perfectly happy with my flip-style cell phone and regular old laptop (I even prefer my TrackPoint nub to the TrackPad down below). Nobody is going to convince me that I need an iPhone or iPad. I only wish my Sansa MP3 player didn't come with a touch pad. My next MP3 player won't have one, thats for sure.

[Brokinarrow]

Yup, definitely agree that touch screens are a horrible idea for vehicles.

[upflying]

I rented a Ford Edge recently and it had Ford's My Touch BS.
Had no clue how to operate it, not intuitive at all. How I miss this technology.

[porcupinekiller]

Originally Posted by upflying

I rented a Ford Edge recently and it had Ford's My Touch BS.
Had no clue how to operate it, not intuitive at all. How I miss this technology.

I bet many of the iphone/ipod generation would be bewildered when it came to figure out how to change or set radio stations on that piece.

[TheReaper]

They wouldn't know to pull the button out.

[Zabo]

Originally Posted by TheReaper

They wouldn't know to pull the button out.

Or even know what AM band radio actually is.. (considering that head unit is an AM radio only)

Hell I'm sure a good chunk of them don't even know the difference between AM and FM radio OR what AM/FM even stands for. They'd rather tap away on their iPhones and follow Kim Kardashian on twitter.

For the record: I'm 24 going on 25. I'm an A&P trainee so I know full well the significance of the knob shapes for aircraft controls and the need for tactile feedback. We're trained as pilots and mechanics to work mostly by feel and not by what some little iPad says in our laps.

All they're really used for is to save the weight that 10lbs of maps, charts, and manuals dump on an airplane in triplicate at times.

[Dave McFly]

I love that my 2004 Monte Carlo has a old fashioned knob on the dash you pull out to turn on and rotate to dim the cluster lights and or turn on the dome light .

[Sevn86]

Originally Posted by TheReaper

They wouldn't know to pull the button out.

i had no idea u had to pull it out

[Mindz]

Hear! Hear!

[cab2g]

don't worry, for all you afraid of new technology, they'll make a car version for old people like this phone:



I hear they'll call it the Cadillac GTS nicknamed (good ol'Times Syndrom) It'll come with only 4 knobs, one for turning the radio on and off and volume (only one channel, the oldies), one to adjust the heater, one to call Life Alert, and one to keep the blinker on for 5 minutes.

It won't come with air conditioning, FM, HD radio, bluetooth, CD changer, MP3 capability, Navigation, heated seats, or keyless entry.

The speedo will be limited to 45mph and the car will be 20 feet long and the body panels will be 12" thick filled with the latest in bumper-car technology. It'll come in 3 colors, brownish yellow, yellowish green, and bare metal.

oh yeah, I went there.

[jmaynard]

Originally Posted by cab2g

don't worry, for all you afraid of new technology, they'll make a car version for old people like this phone:



I hear they'll call it the Cadillac GTS nicknamed (good ol'Times Syndrom) It'll come with only 4 knobs, one for turning the radio on and off and volume (only one channel, the oldies), one to adjust the heater, one to call Life Alert, and one to keep the blinker on for 5 minutes.

It won't come with air conditioning, FM, HD radio, bluetooth, CD changer, MP3 capability, Navigation, heated seats, or keyless entry.

The speedo will be limited to 45mph and the car will be 20 feet long and the body panels will be 12" thick filled with the latest in bumper-car technology. It'll come in 3 colors, brownish yellow, yellowish green, and bare metal.

oh yeah, I went there.

I represent--resent these remarks. I dont think any one is saying things like radio, nav, etc are terrible in touch format. Starter, gear shift ARE. It's a basic safety thing. Some say radios. I have to agree. Nothing more fraustrating than the time my SRX touch screen went down into the dash in full map mode and would not come back up without stopping and 'rebooting' (power off/on) the car. I canot imagine not being able to do anything when the screen fails or misbehaves. If you have the seat heaters on full, shich is very hot in some cars and cannot turn them off, you would cook going to your destination. If it is just nav or bluetooth, then fine. I can live with those failing while I am driving, but a full blast radio that I cannot ruen down, or not being able to switch into or out of gear. NOT FOR ME.

[cab2g]

Originally Posted by jmaynard

I represent--resent these remarks. I dont think any one is saying things like radio, nav, etc are terrible in touch format. Starter, gear shift ARE. It's a basic safety thing. Some say radios. I have to agree. Nothing more fraustrating than the time my SRX touch screen went down into the dash in full map mode and would not come back up without stopping and 'rebooting' (power off/on) the car. I canot imagine not being able to do anything when the screen fails or misbehaves. If you have the seat heaters on full, shich is very hot in some cars and cannot turn them off, you would cook going to your destination. If it is just nav or bluetooth, then fine. I can live with those failing while I am driving, but a full blast radio that I cannot ruen down, or not being able to switch into or out of gear. NOT FOR ME.

I agree that they should not integrate too much into complicated technology that is prone to crashes. I agree with that 100%. However, I do want to have the option of using that new technology and don't want manufacturers not to try because change comes with hurdles (such as software bugs). Yes, they'll screw a couple things up and introduce some SW bugs, yes they'll make usability design mistakes and find out that a redundant button or steering wheel control is necessary. But if manufacturers never made changes/improvements we'd all be stuck with crank start engines, am radios, cars with max speeds of 40mph etc...

The Camaro steering wheel is a good example, they made a new wheel that looked cool and had retro styling, but had poor usability. Many people complained so Chevy changed the wheel for 2012 and fixed the usability concern. Sure I'd be pissed if I was one of the complainers and was stuck with a 2010 Camaro, but you have to try doing new things, or else you'll never move forward in life.