Last week this video about a new interface for touchscreens in cars popped up and created a reasonable buzz, maybe you've seen it already. I just got to watching it and it got me thinking about the problem too.
Most new cars all come with touchscreen for radio's with extra features like navigation and traffic reports. The problem is car manufacturers cram too many features in too little of a space and you can't possibly control them without endangering yourself by taking your eyes of the road for a certain amount of time. Older car radios you could control without looking because of the feedback you'd receive from the buttons through your fingertips.
The guy in the video has made a more intuitive interface, but it has a steep learning curve.
That got me thinking: what advantage does a touchscreen have over good 'ld buttons.
It has some visual advantages for navigation and maybe album covers, but what about temperature and volume. To my opinion it's easier to remember the location of certain knobs than to remember the right finger placement on a touchscreen. And what feedback would you have? For example: I would know for every click the temperature will go up half a centigrade. For touchscreens I would have to look at the screen to see what temperature it is at. With temperature you don't have the instant feedback you get with something like volume. Also, buttons still have icons on it. Can't remember where the button is, look quickly. Can't remember what finger combination to use? Now what? You're screwed.
Is it just a flashy technology? Or do touchscreens have advantages that make them capable of taking over the entire car console?
Update
Apple introduced their car interface system in collaboration with Volvo.
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