Volkswagen will restore physical buttons to the dashboard in its latest compact car, part of a wider move away from touchscreens.
In a particularly retro touch, the new ID Polo will even have a volume dial.
For a decade or so, automakers rushed to replace knobs and switches with screens, Autoblog noted in October, but users largely disliked them: Controlling the air conditioning, for example, required delving through submenus while driving, which was both difficult and dangerous. Research found that using touchscreens took longer and distracted drivers.
Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and VW have all announced plans to return to more tactile controls, and US and EU regulators announced last year that cars with touchscreen controls could get worse safety ratings.
While I agree mechanical buttons are better for driving than a touchscreen, I think voice controls are better than either and prefer it.
“Car, help, I need the police”
“Sure. Now playing The Police.”
“Every Breath You Take” plays as you bleed out impaled on the steering column.
Do you have a “call police” button in your car now?
Yes, but I do drive a refurbished 1966 Batmobile and this comes standard.
I’ve never had a car with a police call button, but I’m not sure how much help that’ll be if you’re impaled if you could still reach it maybe.
While I haven’t compared recently, just a year or two ago, I was comparing usefulness of voice assistants with a co-worker. I experienced very accurate responses, whereas he found them useless. As someone speaking English with a heavy accent, the voice assistants could not understand him.
Voice assistants can be useful but there are still too many people who can’t use them
100% but every interface is going to have some level of exclusion & requiring more inclusive language models or better user onboarding to say some phrases related to specific commands can be required by regulation. I think probably the best imo is a voice interface that falls back to mechanical buttons if we’re trying to maximize usability and safety.