Remember these?

They don’t have them anymore. 

Now we have these:

From a marketing perspective there’s no denying the latter is much more enticing.

However, like everything glitzy, after a while it’s down to utility. And let me tell you something. Old school rules!

The first thing you realize when trying to do anything with the radio is that you have to divert your attention to the panel.

Then you have to extend your hand to the panel, often missing the mark. Why is that?

Once you place your attention on the panel, you remove it from the road. Not only that, you have one hand less on the wheel, making the drive less stable. This causes your other hand to wobble as it tries to reach the button.

The missing sensory cue, what is sometimes called “haptic” prevents you from being certain you’ve hit the spot.

The display often offers you many options, forcing either the buttons to be smaller. Some companies make the panel bigger, but this also means longer finger travel. It doesn’t solve the problem.

One way to mitigate some of the issues are physical buttons on the wheel, allowing the driver to control the volume and switch tracks. Sometimes there’s voice control. That’s definitely better, but it’s also an admission that physical controls are superior to touch.

For me it’s a classic case of providing technical solutions to a problem technology creates by trying too hard to be innovative and fancy.

Contrast this with the old car radio:

• You had a limited set of buttons
• They were concentrated in a small space
• You’d have sensory cues to where they were located plus a physical feedback of being pressed without having to check

In cars touch screens are gimmicky and maybe they sell well, but they also hide the fact that they’re cheaper to produce than physical panels, so for the makers it’s a win-win situation at the expense of driver comfort and safety.

Drivers are complaining about it and I’d love to see these gadgets rolled back.

I’ve used and implemented touchscreen based solutions many times in the past. They have their place, to be sure. Next to a driver is not one of them.