Test Shows Proper Buttons Less Time-Consuming in Cars Than Touchscreens
Future drivers may look back at the current trend of replacing swaths of simple, physical buttons with touchscreens and wonder why we let this happen
The Volkswagen ID.4, for example, uses an almost entirely digital dashboard (pictured below) that makes using the infotainment system a headache.
Eliminating or minimizing the number of physical buttons may look clean, but a new report from Sweden shows how touchscreens and endless pages of menus cause, in a sense, distracted driving.
Swedish automotive magazine Vi Bilägare recently proved that physical buttons are safer than touchscreens by simply seeing how long it takes to do simple, everyday actions.
The magazine had its reviewers perform four common tasks as they were driving:
- Turn on the heated seat, increase the temperature by two degrees, and start the defroster.
- Turn on the radio and tune it to a specific station (Sweden’s Program 1).
- Reset the trip computer.
- Turn the instrument lights to their lowest setting and turn off the center display.
Before starting the stopwatches, the test drivers were given time to familiarize themselves with how to do these tasks in the various cars.
The 12-car lineup included the touchscreen-heavy Tesla Model 3 and BMW iX as well as a Seat León and a Dacia Sandero.
For comparison, Vi Bilägare also brought along a 17-year-old Volvo V70 with physical buttons for days. (Pictured at top: the similarly equipped 2007 Volvo S60.)
The magazine timed the drivers as they performed each task while driving the respective vehicle at 68 miles per hour.
Interestingly, the 2005 Volvo V70 with its dedicated buttons took users the least time to run through the four tasks, at just 10 seconds.
To accomplish the four tasks in the new BMW iX took three times as long: 30.4 seconds, but even that’s not as bad as the MG Marvel R, which required 44.9 seconds.
Vi Bilägare points out that it’s not just the lack of buttons that can be a problem. The way an infotainment system is designed plays a huge role, too.
The system in the iX, for example, is one of the most complex and complicated user interfaces ever designed, the magazine said.
The Seat Leon’s touch-sensitive climate control buttons don’t have backlights, which makes them difficult to use at night.
By timing drivers to see how long it takes to change the settings, the publication was able to come up with a distance that these drivers are moving (at 68 mph, remember) while they’re fiddling with buttons.
This ranged from over eight-tenths of a mile (1372 meters) for the MG Marvel R down to just over 1000 feet (306 m) in the 2005 Volvo.
The other vehicles were clumped around 600 to 900 meters, with the Dacia Sandero and Volvo C40 both in the low 400 meters.
See more here caranddriver.com
Header image: Volvo
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Howdy
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One of the great features of tactile controls, like a glovebox door release, is that it can be done without looking.
Most of what is seen now is tech for the sake of it. Zero benefit.
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RockyTSquirrel
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consider the Expense…
When, (not if) your digital screen goes on the fritz,
(as experienced by my son-in-law’s VW, it might be cheaper to buy a new car..)
His experience showed that just any ole replacement part wouldn’t do..
It seemed each part is individually designed for the vehicle it’s in…
Let’s see, he paid 6,000 USD for his VW, drove it for 6-7 months daily,
when his went out..
a multitude of dealers and repair shops told him it would cost 7,000 USD to
repair with individually designed replacement parts…
Need less to say, he now drives a 15 year old Buick…
(And as a family we all are telling every air breathing human we know, about the
racket being run by VW and it seem nearly all the New automobile manufacturers..)
. . .
(as requested, this is an opinion and or SARCASM)
“Let’s Go, Brandon” – “Pedo-Joe” (F.J.B.)
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Nigel
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I used to own a Lexus. Just to make a slight temperature change on the AC involved me Not looking at the road, while I’m reading and going through several screens !! Give me an older vehicle with knobs and dials any day! Screens are as bad as driving while texting.
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Paul
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Physical buttons anywhere are superior any day. For me at 70, it’s become a mystery to me that we have come so far yet have slid so far backward. How many have had the experience of turning something on or off with a virtual button and nothing happens. I dream of the days when mechanical switches were either on of off, with not a shadow of doubt. Now I’m never too sure.
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