this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
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Volkswagen Admits Failure, Will Bring Back Physical Buttons (afronomist.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] stoy 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

I have a 2021 Seat Leon, basically it is a Golf with a Spannish design, almost everything apart from actually driving the car uses touch controls, with one exception, media can be controlled by buttons and a roller on the steering wheel.

It is really annoying and countries need to regulate that the following can't be touch controls:

A/C Temp

A/C Fanspeed

Heated rear window

Heated wind screen

Heated seats

Exterior light controls

Media volume

Media play/pause

Media previous/next track

Engine mode (Electric/Hybrid/HybridCustom)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This has been a gripe of mine for a looong time and not just in cars. For fuck sake, my fucking oven is touch screen and has wifi. why?

Every time I wipe it off, it thinks I'm touching 37 buttons and it overwelms the CPU, and the system restarts

Never again

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Same with fucking electric stove tops. Why am I to use touch controls on the same surface that heats my pots and pans? Idiocy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I guess I disagree on that one. If you’re talking induction, that is. For me, it’s a magical slab of glass that heats my food and is ridiculously easy to clean thanks for the touch buttons. Wipe wipe and it’s clean.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

At least on induction there's some safety. Regular electric ones however...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Ah, that makes sense. I’m only used to induction and the regular old gas stoves.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Well, touch controls on appliances make more sense because they should last way longer than mechanical buttons, and it's not dangerous for you to focus your attention on them like it would be while driving.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

they should last way longer than mechanical buttons

Sorry what lol

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Mechanical buttons wear out, touch buttons do not

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Lol there are mechanical buttons who still work who outlive any touchscreen alive today by 200 years, what are you talking about lol?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

First of all, touch buttons don't necessarily mean touch screens. Second, survivorship bias.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

First of all, I absolutely do not believe that a capacitive sensor + control circuitry + whatever firmware that requires + the OS that I’m sure is running somewhere inside the device + the myriads of technically unnecessary software + OTA update functionality + IoT (the S is for security) integration + enormous attack surface as a result of all of the preceding points is going to last longer or work more reliably than a robustly-engineered switch or rheostat. Second, planned obsolescence is a fairly recent “innovation”.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah we have a 2018 Seat Leon and that was one of the reasons we chose the older car as opposed to getting the 2021 with the fancier screen.

[–] stoy 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

At first I didn't really like the interior of the 2018 Leon, but it's fine, I have really started liking the rear lights of the 2018 Leon, I like the lightbar on my Leon, but the earlier lights looks great!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah. Practicality (and price) came before looks when it came down to those two cars in the end. The 2021 one had a glass roof, which I really liked, but there were too many drawbacks at the price point.

[–] stoy 1 points 10 months ago

I got mine as it was in budget, almost new and it is a PHEV, so as lobg as the battery is charged it will only use a very small ammount of fuel, oh and it fits my parents and soster comfortably with me driving, I live alone, but I like being able to help out.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Aside from media related options, why wouldn't you want all of those to be automatically controlled?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Have you ever driven a car before?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Yes. Nice cars that automatically handle these functions for me. I wouldn't ever want to go back pushing buttons when it can just happen when it's supposed to.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Volkswagen's return to physical buttons is long overdue. Imagine causing a car accident because you're distracted by a touchscreen, unsure if you pressed the right thing. Touchscreens became popular in cars because the market blindly follows the majority's whims. Present the touchscreen versus button issue to most people, and they'll choose touchscreens, misled by a lack of technical understanding. In their minds, old equals buttons, new equals touchscreen, and therefore, touchscreen must be better. They fail to see the bigger picture or care about this crucial design flaw, dismissing it as trivial.

This is just one of the many ways a market driven by majority preference results in mediocre solutions, never reaching the best possible option. And those who genuinely seek the optimal solution are left suffering the consequences, outnumbered by the masses who don't realize the impact of their uninformed choices.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Good! Touchscreens for basic functions are idiotic.