4WD
$50 site donor 2025
I think that covers most here ~ despite those snarky posters who think cheap assembly parts and sales catnip represent real technology …
The Size Of Touchscreens Is Getting Ridiculous!
- Thread starter NDL
- Start date
The sky is the limit when it comes to screen sizes in cars, grilles in trucks and rim sizes in both. I'm looking forward to the 2030 F-150 with standard 20" screen, 30" rims, and roof mounted headlights (because the grill has displaced them).
Not every vehicle is designed the same way; while the auto dimming feature is helpful on some vehicles, it's not helpful on others.
Case in point: the 2020 Santa Fe...it's touch screen is fairly innocuous at night.
Not really, I mean I’ve driven a few rentals with very large touchscreens, as long as they’re integrated below the sight line it’s not an issue. Almost all can be dimmed or shutoff for night driving (the screen in my Nissan has a button that just turns it completely off). People have been distracted in cars for years, futzing with the radio, adjusting this and that, in fact many older people who watched tv on 13” had 6+“ garmin/Tom Tom GPS units suction cupped to their windshield just a few years ago. Most of the newer cars have voice recognition that control things like climate control, zero need to.
Things change, the world moves forward, life moves on.
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4WD
$50 site donor 2025
You might have noticed the most outspoken on this is even younger than you are …
Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Dang, I'm old...
I'm not a huge touchscreen fan-they're really expensive when they break, and they can be tricky to use & distracting. Maybe Tesla can replace the windshield with a giant one to use with "fool self driving mode"! Or was that "full"?
Please telle me, what exactly is distracting you on this example?
older version:
Again, what's so evil?
In case of my GTI I can either switch it off, use 'performance monitor' (oil temp etc), display several styles of clock among some other things.
It's quite simple, don't buy it.
In four years I never never ever needed to manually adjust dimming. It's just perfectly doing its job with the default auto setting. Same applies to the 12.7" digital instruments - just perfect in the summer sun as it is during the darkest night.
If someone finds this dazzling (night mode obviously) he probably shouldn't drive a car at night anyway:
I can confirm they do in fact have a touch screen radio. OH THE HORROR!
Except the vast majority of people don’t “feel their way around” even with physical buttons, they’re going to look down and make sure they push the right button. Why is that any different than looking down at a touch screen? Use it for any length of time and it’s just as quick as the buttons.
Because touch screens are far more sensitive. Especially when driving on any kind of bumpy pavement. The same reason you make more mistakes typing on your phone, than you do on a keyboard.
BMW introduced a solution for that issue 20 years ago.
https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/news/2021/idrive_history.html
https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/news/2021/idrive_history.html
If a road is so bumpy that you can’t accurately hit the relatively large buttons on a touchscreen, you’re going to struggle finding a button or knob without looking and arguably both hands should be on the wheel at that point regardless of what kind of controls.
I’ll be honest I’m trying to understand the conflation of large screens and buttons on this thread. Plenty of cars including the Toyota cited in the OP that have large screens and an easily accessible bank of commonly touched items with manual controls (e.g. climate, heated seat, and volume controls). Those that don’t have voice assistant systems which you can use quite effectively these days to input data. The only cars where this is an issue are Stellantis cars and those have a bunch of other issues. I’d also say if you’re inputting an address manually while driving you’re driving dangerously you could have a Logitech wave in your lap but it still isn’t safe, Siri can easily respond with directions when I say “take me to xyz Main Street anytown USA”.
I've never used the "navigation" on either of my newer vehicles. I think when it's gotten to the point where I have to talk to my car to get where I want to go, I'll start taking a cab.
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
Other than @AutoMechanic, who is younger than me?
Lotsa people use navigation nowadays... Waze crowd share is amazing.
I use Waze in my trusty old Tundra. First on my smartass phone, now on the cheapie double din radio I installed.
I am a safer driver because of the touch screen radio in the dash.
The Tesla tablet is simply the next generation...
But like any tool, make sure you understand and follow safety rules. Don't hit your thumb with that framing hammer... It will hurt.
I use Waze in my trusty old Tundra. First on my smartass phone, now on the cheapie double din radio I installed.
I am a safer driver because of the touch screen radio in the dash.
The Tesla tablet is simply the next generation...
But like any tool, make sure you understand and follow safety rules. Don't hit your thumb with that framing hammer... It will hurt.
Up until a few years ago I had never used any kind of navigation except a map or memory. If you are going to a location in a unfamiliar area the navigation is the right tool.
If you start taking a cab chances are the driver will be using navigation. The old days when a taxi driver knew a city like the back of their hand is over.
AutoMechanic
Site Donor 2025
I think mrlawnguy mentioned he was a young one too not sure how young. I remember in the 9/11 thread like me he said he wasn’t born yet.
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Right on! I remember seeing it in the theater when I was a kid (all of us neighborhood kids went together) I had a book that came with a record I got from the Scholastic Book Fair. I was 8 years old
