A New Car UI: How touch screen controls in cars should work
Why Hacker News recommends it
Repeatedly cited in car touchscreen debates as an elegant, sensible alternative to distracting automotive UIs.
What it is
Matthaeus Krenn presents a concept for car touchscreen UI where the screen controls only one thing at a time, designed to suit driving. A tablet prototype accompanies the short demo.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 6 different months, 2017 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec ssalka · 2023-04 · on “The Glorious Return of a Humble Car Feature”
I feel compelled to share a video, now 9 years old, that shows how touch screens could be accommodated with sensible design in cars. The UIs we are used to on our phones are not suitable for driving, but we could make something that is. [this video]
Recommends cyberferret · 2017-05 · on “Audi's logo rebrand”
Whew, I was glad to see they hadn't completely scrapped the iconic 4 rings. Nice to see them making all their branding assets available like this though - right down to the icon sets etc. That would make third party apps or in car navigation systems etc. conform to the same look and feel. On that note - I wonder how soon it will be before car manufacturers have 'app stores' for add ons to their internal systems. Wouldn't it be cool, for instance, to have a custom navigation app that you could install in your Tesla to supplement the factory installed one? For example - this engineer's proof of concept for a touch screen interface in a car [0]. If he could brand it with the Audi graphic assets
Recommends cyberferret · 2017-06 · on “Redditors design worst volume sliders possible”
I'd love to see the antithesis of this collection - whereby smart UI designers try and improve the current audio controls to move away from the old style knobs/sliders, to something far better represented by todays interfaces, such as this concept for a car audio control: [this video]
Recommends cyberferret · 2018-07 · on “Why touchscreens in cars don’t work”
Every time I see posts about car touch screen interfaces, and the associated UX problems, I am reminded of this video I saw a few years ago [0]. I think it is an elegant solution (only allow ONE thing to be controlled by the touch screen at a time), however will require a lot of learning and remembering to get used to all the different gestures. [0] - [this video]
Recommends hndamien · 2019-09 · on “Porsche Taycan revealed: $150,900 base price, 0-60 MPH in 3 seconds”
It doesn't help that automotive latency for touch screens is incredibly bad. It it had smartphone level response maybe it would be a better starting point for comparison. I'd love to see something like this, even in a Tesla. [this video]
Recommends lbayes · 2021-11 · on “Some new BMWs won't have touchscreens thanks to chip shortage”
I have a 2015 Audi A3. I didn't want the brand at all, but loved (and still love) the dial control. I've been dreading getting a new car specifically because I do not want the touch screen. Fortunately, I still have a few years left of good life in this machine, otherwise I'd jump on one of those immediately! I still wish something like this UI would have caught on. [this video]