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A comment on Physical buttons outperform touchscreens in new cars, test finds. Parent comment

Re:Physical buttons outperform touchscreens in new cars, tes... by kottapar on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @08:22AM (#32495291)
> What was even more surprising, to me, is that Mercedes had this amazing nice center console unit to control things with your arm in a rested position. They removed that piece of brilliance!

Mazda also has this beautiful dial-joystick which we can operate in a rested position. It is so intuitive that I stopped using the touchscreen console itself. On the other hand even when we operate using a dial and buttons we take our eyes for an instant to look at the screen to check the changes. Now imagine looking away at a touchscreen just to see what operation to perform etc. This is a major distraction.

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Re:Physical buttons outperform touchscreens in new cars, tes... by ModernMech on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @08:46AM (#32495555)
Mazda has actually been going in the opposite direction by removing their touchscreens; 2016 Mazdas came with touchscreens, but the newest models go without. Personally, owning a 2016 Mazda I never actually used the touch screen once, due to as you note, the great dial interface.
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Re:Physical buttons outperform touchscreens in new cars, tes... by spcebar on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @08:28AM (#32495352)
BMW at one point had (and may still have) a dial joystick, but I found it really unintuitive. Maybe it was poor software design, but it was never clear to me when I needed to turn the dial vs move the stick to navigate menus. Did you find it easier to use the control in the Mazda? Was the UX better?
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