Where did Dashboard knobs go?

  • Christopher Pramstaller
  • India
  • Apr 11, 2014

 

 

Touch-screens in cars are ousting the traditional arrays of dials, knobs and switches - and bringing in hazards, warn experts. The plus is a wealth of digital information; but drivers who have been used to instinctively finding their cockpit controls more by feel are noticing the loss. The recent inking of a major deal between computer giant Apple and several carmakers, on multimedia applications, is a sure sign that cockpits will keep getting more sophisticated - and become more like phones.

Right now carmakers are desperate to woo back the vanishing younger buyers. In Germany and some other western countries, the average age of new car buyers has risen worryingly to over 50 years of age. Appealing to the youth calls for a rethink. For a long time makers were content to keep adding analogue buttons and rocker switches. As a result, many a central cockpit console resembled the flight deck of a light plane. These controls are now being replaced by touch-screens, which allow users to summon up functions by navigating through a menu. The new approach opens up new options for designers and manufacturers. But it could herald danger. Drivers more familiar with tactile sensations may be distracted by the visual displays. The screens provide none of what experts call ‘haptic feedback’: the tactile sensation from touching a control and the vibration felt as it moves. The word comes from the Greek word hapto, meaning ‘I touch’. Mobile phones already offer some limited haptic feedback, for example, through the vibration alarm. “Apple’s Carplay and other multimedia systems are symptomatic of the trend towards networking, and user acceptance levels are high,” said Christian Hatzfeld, who conducts research into haptics at the Technical University in Darmstadt. “The question is whether touch-screens are actually a good thing safety-wise. Tests show that drivers using controls with haptic feedback make fewer mistakes. Such controls are more intuitive and quicker to use.” If touch-screens are to take over, they must be able to channel a mass of information to the driver in an understandable manner. The driver must be able to make adjustments – quick enough - without being distracted from driving. Problems could arise if a smooth screen surface gives no tactile response when a new route is entered or a telephone number is dialled. The manufacturers take a different view. “We are convinced that touchpads enable a rapid and hazard-free use of controls,” said Daimler media spokesman Steffen Schierholz. Daimler’s system can be operated by a round dial in the centre console. The Company is also making increasing use of voice control. “This represents a considerable increase in comfort,” said the spokesman. Schierholz defended touch-pad control too, stressing that the controls involved a range of human senses. “This system’s level of error tolerance is very high,” he said. Commands entered using alphabetic characters are repeated acoustically, which “avoids the need to maintain constant eye contact with the displays.”

 seems manufacturers have little choice but to instal touch-screens. “By installing touch pads in the centre console, we have considerably reduced the number of in-car switches,” said Schierholz. “At the same time, the most important functions are still available at the touch of a button.” Martin Grundwald, who conducts research into haptics at Leipzig University, takes a more critical view of the widespread deployment of touch-screens. “We’re just getting high on this technology. We’re putting the screens into cars just to show that we can do it, but without regard to what people actually want,” said the scientist. “Motorists are interested first and foremost in concentrating on the road ahead and not in multimedia entertainment,” said Grunwald. Touch-screens call for constant eye contact “and that is a big problem as far as road safety is concerned.” Studies show that driver concentration is best achieved through a combination of visual, tactile and audible signals, according to an international team of scientists at Pittsburgh University. Just operating the controls of a navigation system can cause a high level of distraction; incorporating more features into such devices would increase the already high level strain of modern driving, say the experts. A giant 17-inch touch-screen dominates the cockpit of the sporty S model from US carmaker Tesla. It has banished almost all the familiar physical driving controls. Some reviewers had misgivings about the titanic LCD, saying it distracted them from driving. A new generation of touch-screens promise to solve the problem of visual distraction at least. “Touch-screens with haptic feedback are in the pipeline and these will make it easier for us to find our way around,” said researcher Hatzfeld. “This would enable you to tell by touch whether you have just switched on the radio or the heater,” said Grunwald.

 

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