You have to do this on the current Sync 3 screen. It becomes second nature though so it’s not really an issue.
I think the intention was to give an anchoring point for changing climate controls. The climate settings are always at the bottom of the screen and the "lip" above the center vents give an area for you hand to find direction without needing to focus on the screen. Other brands do something similar although not necessarily with the vent, and not always effective because of the lack of static touch controls.
Possibly. My Volvo has touch screen climate controls and I have to say that I really dislike them. I know that they are a lot cheaper than physical buttons, so I suspect that higher end cars will move back to physical buttons once the novelty of touch screens wears off.
No matter what the trim level, basic heater and radio controls should be buttons and knobs that you do not have to look away from the road to use, period (either steering wheel or dash). If you want to duplicate those functions on some screen (for maybe more advanced functioning of those items), that's fine.
I agree too, but the industry has other ideas. Don’t see it going back anytime soon so it appears we don’t have much of a choice.
Same here. My wife’s 21’ Volvo XC60 has the tablet screen. What a pain in the butt to do the simplest things.
True, and this is something that has been beat to death in the last decade from a portion of consumers. So much so that certain companies are experimenting with putting gear selections on the touch screen, but right now, the general buyer is enamored with touch screens and feel that this is what constitutes quality, regardless of usability. I'm looking forward to the day the industry understands that driving benefits from tactile controls. I guess we just haven't reached that tipping point yet, but as cars with these features become more accessible to people, we'll see what the reaction is.
I personally think the vertical tablet is the worse implementation of using a touch screen in a car. The reason vertical controls worked in previous generations of cars is because you can find it by feel. Vertical displays require you to look down and track your selection. Horizontal at least allows for better selection with less eye tracking, still not as safe/user friendly as some physical controls.
But how else will we know when a door is not a door
As always, the market will decide this. They first showed up in higher end cars because it was a novelty and new technology that required an R&D investment. But now that the R&D has been paid for, my prediction is that higher end cars will revert back to physical buttons (because the customers will demand it and be willing to pay for it) and lower end models will get stuck with the lower cost touch screen controls.
It's still weird to me that EVs have a particular interior style (or lack of style). Everything is becoming more bean shaped on the outside with an inside that looks like a lounge with a center screen.
this is where Ford engineers need to proudly proclaim their contribution to the features, and then we go beat some sense into them - Clockwork Orange style. Such that they puke uncontrollably every time they reach for a touchscreen.
