Problem of course is that the interior of a Tesla has the aesthetic sense of a consumer electronics manufacturer, not of a precision automobile. It looks like a big fuckin' iPad stuck to the dashboard, almost aftermarket. It's tacky, even if the interface on the screen is better than most.

Way prefer the Mazda / Honda direction of moving back to switchgear. It looks and functions better, it can be discretely repaired and replaced by a normal person, and so forth.

Tesla big goal is self driving and the huge screen being the only interface sort of makes sense, if they ever deliver the self driving part that is

What kills me is when "legacy" automakers have dashboards with 40 buttons on them, of which you use may 5 regularly. It's especially annoying when the functions I use every day are buried in nested menus, but the button for setting the clock, sending a text, or satellite radio is right there front and center.

It works better in a sales pitch. "If you want to text your broker to punch in a few trades, it's just one button away!".

Nobody bothers to write sales copy saying "You can actually change the cabin temperature and the radio volume on this car"

You need HyperCar: HyperCard for Cars!

Then you could delete the buttons you don't use, and make the ones you do use really big, with cool pictures, and funny sounds when you touched them.

HyperCard Adventures (hypercardadventures.com):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19237052

https://hypercardadventures.com/

There shouldn't be menus at all. Modal systems in general are hard to use while driving.

There is so much misinformation in your mind.

Those supposed manufacturing issues are outdated rumors from the early days of the production lines when they were getting off the ground.

>went with completely touchscreen based cabin

Absolutely false. There are plenty of buttons and other physical controls in easy reach on the steering wheel and in other convenient and sensible places. As well as optional (you don’t need them) voice controls. It’s not “completely” anything based.

The cost argument should also apply to the camera manufacturers and yet they have enough common sense to not make decisions that (to me) are user-hostile. Teslas are in a different boat - it seems that whatever they do, people will still line up to buy their stuff, at least for the time being.

For consumer cameras it definitely has happened. But for professional DSLRs you’re serving are market that absolutely puts function over form, and will happy pay a big premium for a devices that makes them more productive.

Much easier to justify the extra cost of switches when you know your customers will happily pay a premium for them.

I suspect you’re assuming too much about Tesla buyers. You are overlooking the possibility that the product is actually good.

It's all subjective, to me the touch screen on Model 3 is a deal breaker - I don't want to make this big a compromise for something this expensive. Other people have different utility functions, but from my perspective it seems that part of the reason to buy it is Tesla hype. It's a car, it moves me from point A to B, it gets stuck in the traffic exactly like everyone else's car, am I really getting ~$10k more worth out of it compared to other products?

>it gets stuck in the traffic exactly like everyone else's car

Ohhhh no no it is waaaay different because I make the lights that you don’t. Yes sometimes get stuck in traffic but not nearly as much. I can observe speed limits and still be way ahead of you because of the acceleration speed (quickness). Acceleration ability also means being able to keep longer follow distance in traffic without losing chances to pass safely when they open up.

A lot of people don’t understand the touch screen isn’t really needed while driving, except for glancing at the speed maybe.

And since you ask, you get that 10k or more back in gas savings. On top of that there are other benefits, some of them objective and monetary such as resale value ($), safety ($$$), environmental responsibility, longevity of the car ($$), fun, and speed. So, yes. You should test drive one and see what it feels like.

And that’s just comparing to gas cars. Comparing to competing electric cars would be a different list of benefits.

It would look much cooler if the display was in the middle of the steering wheel, and round, like a big old classic computer display.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB78NXH77s4

If this reason is true then it has the very characteristic stink of reckless endangerment....