[vivek_lm]

Call me old school, but I despise these touchscreen infotainment systems in cars. In fact I even use the steering mounted controls sparingly- after using a car for sometime my hand goes to the buttons on the ICE instinctively.

I had a real tough time driving my friend's 4th gen City on a day trip due to it's touch based ACC. Glad that they've removed it in the 5th gen- good riddance!
You could choose to not use infotainment systems and just manage with the steering mounted controls, but ACC is something you might need to fiddle with quite frequently during the journey, particularly in Indian weather conditions and with multiple people (with varied preferences) on board!

Even for navigation, we use mobile phone and I let my wife do that task when I'm at the wheels and I do that when she's driving. We somehow like it that way. And it helps that I rarely drive alone.

[sidindica]

Touchscreens are a nuisance and without physical buttons a safety hazard as well. The main problem today is some so called "influencers" and "youtubers" have taken over the car enthusiasm to a whole new level. There are total misguiding videos and people get influenced and run like mad behind these XXL sized touchscreens.

We have to understand that there is a thin red line between safety, safe driving and entertainment and huge touchscreens are a huge distractors.

Sadly when you have uninformed youtubers who are there to mint money by making videos and misguiding people this is bound to happen.

Two of the so called influencers sample videos below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86EDo82Z-UI

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

[AnandB]

As GTO said, touchscreen should not replace complete control. With buttons you can memorize and press it without taking your eyes off.

Too small sample size but am surprised texting was less dangerous than talking on hand-held phone.

[Hayek]

I would not take such a firm stance against touch screens - ultimately, they are devices and people need to use them responsibly. The fact is that people are capable of finding various ways to distract themselves in cars.

I liked the relatively simple touch screen in my second gem Superb - but I do admit the iDrive plus programmable buttons in my X3 are better. But in the absence of Car Play, I end up fitting my phone on the dashboard mount - and trying to program that while driving would be at least as distracting as using Apple car play.

So yes, having an integrated touch screen with Car Play does lend itself to misuse - but is nevertheless a step forward compared to using your phone esp with notifications enabled.

[Mynameis]

Though I do not have much experience of driving a car with touchscreen, I do find it distracting whenever I have used one. Its like using smartphone while driving. Knobs and buttons are so easy to locate without looking on them but same is not the case with touchscreen. I hope this trend of touchscreen goes away soon.

Yes, it does feel good in using them, but its also annoying when you have to navigate through them while driving and not able to touch the exact area/button due to movement of the vehicle. For frequent use functions like radio and aircon, knobs and buttons should be provided. Also touchscreen should be made speed sensitive (unable to perform any function above a certain speed, say 30 kph).

I rarely touch the dashboard while driving, don't feel comfortable. Do all the adjustments before moving the car.
Apart from a few functions, it should be knobs or buttons for everything else, and not concentrated at one place to cause confusion. Instead should be spread in different areas like left of steering, right of steering, door pads, near gear lever, so as to be well distant from each other and not create any confusion, and thereby distraction, for the driver.

[R2D2]

Although I upgraded my car's ICE to a touch screen system I do not operate it whilst driving. Any incoming calls are unanswered OR if answered I restrict the call via the handsfree to <10 seconds telling the calling party that I am driving and will call back. If I must take the call I stop the car on the shoulder of the road.

Operating the touch screen whilst driving is very risky as lack of tactile feel means one cannot use "muscle memory" to operate controls. I use the steering wheel controls to mute or lower the volume. Maps on the head set are set to navigate only when the car is halted and if it must be changed I request the front passsenger to help out including changing tracks etc. Operating these screens at highway speeds is a deathwish. No movies are played and no loud music. The music is generally switched off as I need full concentration once the car is at highway speeds.

[Jeroen]

Thanks for sharing, very interesting and enlightening, if not to say a bit disturbing statistics. It is remarkable to think that using a hands free phone actually degrades your driving abilities more than one or two alcoholic drinks.

if anything, it just reminds me that one of the reasons I prefer my TomTom GPS to the incar GPS system, is that the TomTom is placed on the front window. I can look at it without having to move my eyes all the way downward to some screen on the centre console.

Jeroen

[AYP]

This is the reason why I always say that steering mounted controls aren't just a convenience feature but an important safety feature as well.

And this has been my gripe with VW for a long time. They do not provide steering mounted controls in the mid-variant of the Polo and did not provide it in the mid-variant of the now discontinued Ameo.

Heck, they do not provide(and have never provided) steering mounted controls on the Vento Comfortline which costs around 11L on road. This in the background of the competition having it as standard(except the Rapid rider variants).

[Keeleri_Achu]

Is it just me who thinks this thread is just turning into a touchscreen bashing one? We can sure have one, but I feel it is very much misleading to quote this study as the foundation.

This is the title page of the report which is the basis of this discussion.



It is not a study of touchscreen vs non touchscreen infotainment unit. It is merely a study to find out how much time a person takes to perform a function using Android Auto/Apple CarPlay while driving a vehicle. If you ask me it is fundamentally flawed as they are neither comparing it to a similar touchscreen based system without the said functionalities nor are are they comparing it to a conventional audio unit with all physical controls. AFAIK, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto is also available on non-touch based infotainment units. I've personally experienced them in the New Mazda 3. The closest analogy I can give is like trying to use a smartphone by connecting a mouse instead of using your fingers. Not a great combination.

Originally Posted by Batfreak

With physical knobs and buttons, muscle memory plays a very important role because these buttons provide you with physical feedback.

I do agree with you. For the basic tasks like changing volume or skipping a track physical buttons are much more intuitive. You can do that without eliminating Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. Every major manufacturer have been providing them with their respective systems. Either on the unit or at the very least, in the form of steering mounted controls. Whenever they skimped on them, the public reaction have indeed forced them to reconsider. Case in point, the 10th gen Honda civic.



This is the infotainment unit which was used in the 2015 model civic. After the facelift Honda brought back physical controls as they got a lot of negative feedback.



Now we have established that the basic tasks can be done using physical switches, how are we on the more complex ones? I hope you'll agree that it is going to be impossible to find a particular song from a USB stick just by relying on muscle memory.

For most basic actions such as adjusting the temperature on the ACC or changing the song/volume or changing the radio station, you can just rely on how the buttons feel under your finger and their approximate location and there is seldom any ambiguity when you click them.

I've already mentioned the same in my first post. I despise Tesla for their all touchscreen based interface.

I think the point of the study is not to determine for how long the effects of these activities last but what the level of distraction while performing these acts are. In other words, even though you would not be distracted by the touch-screen throughout the journey but for those small durations when you are, you are at an even greater risk than even if you were to drive under influence. Do remember that out on the road, it takes mere seconds for something to go horribly wrong.

Rightly said. It only takes seconds for things to horribly wrong. One should take measures to keep all distractions while driving at bay. But as for the argument related to Android Auto/Apple CarPlay, I stand by what I said. Without an apples to apple comparison, I feel it is very wrong to bash such an intuitive system. Unless everyone here agrees to get rid of all kinds of infotainment units - 1-Din, 2-Din , Touch, Non-Touch, Android, Apple or even playing a tune in your mobile phone.

[psmenon]

I just love my duster for this reason , not a piece of equipment that would require my touch to get it working. My JVC music system is a touch interface but that is 99% time turned off and I love the buttons, they are precise and does what it should.

i just love rotary or mechanical buttons, they never fail us.

[ashish2135]

I absolutely hate using the touch screen while driving because I find it very inconvenient. I try to use the steering mounted controls as much as possible.
I end up using the touch screen only when it is absolutely necessary. IMO very large touchscreens ruin a nice dashboard design.

[sam_babushka]

It's very simple. You put a magnificent illuminated toy with eyeball-grabbing graphics and interface inside a vehicle, and it is bound to pull away attention. This is about a basic tenet of human nature, one that we have had the opportunity of observing now for over a decade with smart phones. You put a screen on something, anything, and it will invariably distract. Because it is designed to do so. Hell, we have turned into such animals that our own young ones have to fight for our attention from our screens inside our homes. Why discredit the screen's capacity to distract when in our vehicles?

This is not a conversation on touchscreen versus non-touchscreen car systems, because an irresponsible "driver" will find a way to get distracted with either. This is a conversation on putting in one more element in a vehicle, that has the potential to distract regular drivers.

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Conclusion

It suggests that the level of impairment found here is in line with use of a mobile phone for a hand-held call. Further, the effect of engaging with some features through voice control, with both systems, was akin to the impairment associated with conducting a handsfree call. All of these produce longer reaction times when benchmarked against alcohol consumption (at the legal limit) and cannabis use.

Thankyou for sharing this insightful report Sir. Just reconfirms what I always believed. The menace of touchscreen is here to stay.

We have got so accustomed to reach out and grab our phones when driving, that there's no denying that we are a distracted bunch driving around. Thanks to traffic jams, I see a lot of drivers using WhatsApp when stopped at signals or a jam. Such larger touchscreens are only going to add to that.

I too used to reach for my phone when driving, but now I keep it inside the glove box or my bag out of sight. Connect via the bluetooth for music or calls (which I tend to avoid).

[anandhsub]

I would really like a touchscreen unit for just one thing- navigation. No need to mount the mobile and the battery life improves.

For music I prefer using the steering mounted controls.

However those don't work when I connect my mobile using bluetooth so currently have been using Alexa ( on Amazon music) for simple voice commands like next song, stop etc. Not efficient but no other choice unless stuck in a traffic jam. An android auto+ steering mounted controls would solve this. No way I will use the touchscreen to scroll through songs even when stationary let alone in a moving vehicle. I have just one playlist stored and it just continues from where it ended the last time I drove.

[NiInJa]

I look at it the other way. Touchscreen systems give too many options to fiddle around with, so its natural to get tempted to change things as you want. Don't like what you listening on Spotify ? try changing the playlist. Again, there are multiple playlists to scroll ! Lost mobile internet connectivity, you can switch to bluetooth or inbuilt music app. Meanwhile, you can see how the traffic looks like on Google maps, take a sec to see distance/time to reach destination etc. Its all just a huge distraction with far less use in my opinion. If I have to switch modes in my car, I have to scroll through : FM1, FM2, FM AST, AM, Aux, Bluetooth if car is not connected to AA. I still don't understand why FM1 and FM2 are present and who listens to AM anyway ?

I've sort of acquired mastery in how to handle all these distractions: Going back to the basics. I don't turn on Google navigation if I know the route. I usually keep my phone updated with songs which I listen to and connect to system via bluetooth and no Android Auto. Steering mounted controls are enough to do all the things you want: Skip songs, control volume, take calls etc. In case I need to navigate, I prefer mounting phone on the windscreen and do it directly via my phone. I have an updated USB full of songs attached to the key just in case. Of-course, if I am not driving alone, I ask the co-driver to take control of the system whichever way he wants, only navigation stays on my phone. Android Auto can be used efficiently too, but almost 95% percent of the time, only Bluetooth connection to the ICE system is enough.