Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by alistairSH on Monday June 17, 2019 @09:28AM (#20202678)

I own two cars with CarPlay, one use a touchscreen (VW) and the other a rotary knob/button (BMW). I much prefer the knob - with the touchscreen, I have to focus on the screen for a longer period of time to make sure my finger hits the right spot. With the rotary knob, I still have to glance over, but only enough to ensure the correct "button" is highlighted. That feels less distracting to me.

All that said, I try to use voice control whenever possible. But, that's not yet a complete solution, as Apple keeps Siri from accessing non-Apple apps (can't voice control into Pandora or Google Maps).

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by chipotle_coyote on Monday June 17, 2019 @01:02PM (#20205001)

Apple keeps Siri from accessing non-Apple apps (can't voice control into Pandora or Google Maps).

This is changing in CarPlay in iOS 13, as are a fair number of other things (generally for the better; I have a bit of hands-on experience thanks to a brave/foolhardy friend who's already installed the developer beta).

https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/3/18650923/apple-carplay-ios...

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by jdgoesmarching on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @01:21AM (#20209998)

You can use Siri Shortcuts to access non-Apple apps. I'm pretty sure this has been a thing since iOS 12.

Source: I do it

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by mstade on Monday June 17, 2019 @09:45AM (#20202841)

This hits the sweet spot for me as well. I think CarPlay is the best all-screen interface I've seen, but having to touch the screen is borderline useless. Even the most minuscule bump in the road usually results in a miss-touch for me, whereas with a wheel as you say you can just glance at the screen, count the number of ticks you need to turn the wheel and be confident you'll get it right. When stopped I might use the touch screen because it's faster, but the wheel is still more convenient I find.

At this point I never use the car interface if there's CarPlay available (I usually rent cars.) The only exception is for changing car settings, which unfortunately is not exposed through in CarPlay it seems.

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by alistairSH on Monday June 17, 2019 @10:32AM (#20203337)

I usually rent cars

It always make my day when a rental car has CarPlay. And a little sad when it doesn't. Mostly because cheap rentals rarely have their own sat-nav installed and being able to use the phone on an integrated screen/audio system is really nice.

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by kenhwang on Monday June 17, 2019 @05:22PM (#20207522)

With touchscreens, there's always the balance of putting the screen in line-of-sight while driving while keeping it close enough to be touchable. I like the touchpad system in the new Acura RDX the most as a compromise, has most of the accuracy of a touchscreen (still lets you draw letters and stuff) while retaining the haptic nature of the knob/buttons (position on the touchpad is absolute -- tapping the top left corner of the touchpad means you're tapping the top left corner of the screen). Plus it has the advantage of not having your hand block the screen when you're trying to touch it.

Otherwise, the Mazda knob works well enough. I think most of the power user complaints could be addressed by better default behavior or customization on what a scroll/click does on certain screens.

Android Auto/CarPlay is easily the most distracting system I've used. The only benefit is if I choose to be distracted while driving, it's less distracting than using my phone. Being distracted while driving is a _choice_ and sadly one that many drivers want to have.

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by ConceptJunkie on Monday June 17, 2019 @12:34PM (#20204654)

If you want choice and flexibility, don't live in a walled garden.

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by alistairSH on Monday June 17, 2019 @12:56PM (#20204930)

But it's such a well-manicured, aromatic walled garden!

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by asymptotically2 on Monday June 17, 2019 @06:55PM (#20208132)

And the fence is machined out of a single piece of aluminium!

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