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A comment on Study Finds That Buttons in Cars Are Safer and Quicker to Use Than Touchscreens. Parent comment

Re:Study Finds That Buttons in Cars Are Safer and Quicker to... by mindslight on Saturday January 07, 2023 @11:00AM (#34289263)
Back in the day I did a long cross country trip with a Garmin 60CSx hiking GPS, held in my right hand, which I was also shifting with. I didn't use it for turn by turn navigation (following such things sucks anyway), but rather a detailed map with a live "you are here" indicator. To look at it, I held the unit halfway up and glanced down when I could naturally spare the attention. For input, I pushed the buttons without looking, since I could predict the unit's states (push button X to zoom out, push button Y 3 times to get from map screen to statistics screen, etc). It even had text input, in the form you'd probably grimace at (grid of letters, move using arrow buttons, select using enter button), which I believe I did while driving with no problem (it took quite a while to enter anything, of course). Due to the predictable input states and physical buttons that I never had to consciously locate (same position in my hand), it never felt like it affected my OODA loop or otherwise stole my attention.
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Re:Study Finds That Buttons in Cars Are Safer and Quicker to... by shkkmo on Saturday January 07, 2023 @02:55PM (#34291978)
FWIW, while safe, that would probably be illegal in many states you pass through due to hands-free device laws.
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Re:Study Finds That Buttons in Cars Are Safer and Quicker to... by mindslight on Saturday January 07, 2023 @03:07PM (#34292112)
That is probably true these days, unfortunately. The held-in-hand aspect was key to the device being easy to use safely. If the GPS had been mounted to the dash/vent instead (per current customs), then each button press would have taken more effort to visually register where the button was and verify that I was hitting it, similar to a touchscreen. Also, I suspect focusing on a more vertical screen would have required my eyes adjusting to cancel the ambient backlight, greatly slowly my ability to change focus.

I also did most of the driving barefoot, which it turns out actually is not actually illegal as many urban legends would have you believe. That too gave me much better control modulating the clutch, handy for things like rough dirt roads.

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