this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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You might be able to adjust things without taking your eyes off the road fairly safely if you had some sort of tactile feedback. Like a knob to adjust the volume of the radio or another knob or lever to adjust the heat/AC. I doubt you could do so just as reliably and without accidentally hitting a different button with a touch screen without looking at all, but even if you can, most drivers couldn't.
There's also a learning curve to contend with. Put me in a car with a standard stereo that has a volume knob, and I'll be able to use it without looking pretty quickly and without error. Put me in a car that has only a touch screen with a UI that is different from every other manufacturer's UI, now I have to memorize where buttons are. And until I have it memorized, I have to look.
It isn't at all reasonable or feasible to suggest you shouldn't adjust any control unless you're stopped. That completely ignores the fact that the US is comprised of many highways and interstates that won't have any stops for hours under the right conditions. You're telling me that you exit the freeway just to adjust the AC? That's a lie and you know it. And again, even if that's the case for you, it isn't the case for most drivers.
Cars marketed to the masses should be designed for use by the masses and should be designed with safety in mind. These are 80 mph tin cans that can do a ton of damage and need to be treated as such. Especially modern EVs with batteries that burn with the light and temperature of 1000 suns when damaged.
Also "every other driver is staring at their phone" sounds like a disingenuous way to suggest that taking your eyes off the road is okay because everyone else does it too. Yes, lots of people do, but lots of people do not, and just because some do, that doesn't mean we should design our cars in a way that requires the same level of inattention.
If you’re driving, you shouldn’t be doing anything that distracts you from driving. Period.
Right. Which is exactly why removing tactile knobs and buttons is stupid.
Messing with knobs is still a distraction. You’re simply arguing for lesser distractions when the point is that, if you’re driving, you should be focused on driving and not on buttons, knobs, screens, or phones. It’s literally the first lesson of driving and yet you’re pretending like there’s some safer way to be distracted. It’s a load of bollocks.
No, you keep your eyes on the road, and use you're sense of touch to adjust the radio, temperature, etc. Hence the benefit of tactile knobs. Boy you really are somethin lol.
Oh, it’s you. First off, it’s “your”. You’re not to be taken seriously.
Second, using your “sense of touch” is still a distraction. You’re not focusing on the road if you’re trying to feel your way around your car. As mentioned before, you’re moving the goalposts attempting to argue a degree of distraction. I’m arguing that any distraction is a negative.
Yeah that's stupid, you need to be able to change your heat controls due to weather conditions, that's the reasons tactile knobs work.
Yeah, because the weather conditions change suddenly while driving. You adjust everything before you start driving and you focus on driving while you’re driving.
.. Yes? Are you a real person or a child lol?
I’m an imaginary straw man that you made up in your head. It doesn’t go from being 72 degrees out to being freezing where you need to change your “heat controls” suddenly. Stop being disingenuous.