Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by ChuckMcM on Monday June 17, 2019 @02:38PM (#20206051)

I too am glad Mazda did this, now I have to decide if I want to trade in my 2018 Mazda 3 for a 2019 one :-).

Touch screens are cheap, mechanical switches are expensive. Mechanicals are expensive from an acquisition cost, tooling/manufacturing cost, maintenance cost, and replacement cost. So automakers were happy to move everything into the touch screen and reduce these costs and boost their margin.

I hope Mazda will be able to hold this line with their accountants.

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by ec109685 on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @12:18AM (#20209745)

How much do mechanical switches cost?

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by ChuckMcM on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @12:55AM (#20209900)

Depends, are they custom or off the shelf? Are they environmentally sealed or open? How many cycles do they need to last for? What sort of conditioning circuitry do they need?

There will always be the cost of additional wiring harness and copper wire at some cost per foot. Some additional testing time when the consoles are assembled to verify the switches are all working Etc. Time has a cost associated with it during assembly as well.

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