The Lemon Fool

I hired a car at the weekend, the first time I've driven a car with a touch screen, and it confirmed my worst fears. Touch screens are the work of the devil in a car. My eyes spent far too much time trying to touch the appropriate part of the screen, rather than on the road.

In an ever more safety-conscious world, I'm really surprised that there appears to be no legislation to control/minimise this (at least to my knowledge)

--kiloran

You are right. Mrs H has a VW with a touchscreen and I have to be very disciplined about watching the road when using the Sat Nav, radio etc.

My BMW also has a (better) touchscreen but it also allows control by the BMW "twiddly rotator" which is much better when driving. The touchscreen is only really useful when stationary in a car park waiting for Mrs H to return from Tesco.

regards

Howard

PS Don't go near a Tesla!

The problem I find with touchscreens is when the car goes over a bump a you end up touching the wrong bit of screen. Not cmpatible with UK roads, perhaps OK in Germany.

John

I've never had any problems with them.

I think that if it's a new car or any car you're not familiar with you need to make sure you know how to use it and take care until you become familiar with it.......that's not gonna take very long.

My Range Rover is ok to use, many of the touch screen features are only ever gonna be used when stationary. When moving I am only gonna need radio and sat nav and they are very simple.

What is it you are trying to do on the move that's causing you such a problem ?

richlist wrote:What is it you are trying to do on the move that's causing you such a problem ?

The only thing I tried was the satnav. There were +/- symbols to change the map zoom level, and a symbol to change the map orientation from heading north to straight-ahead. Trying to stretch over and jab at the right symbol while on the move was difficult to say the least.

My own car has a twiddly knob between the front seats for these functions which allows me to immediately locate it and tweak without taking my eyes off the road (just a quick glance at the screen to see the result of my twiddling)

For my next car purchase, I will instantly dismiss a car which relies upon a touchscreen

--kiloran

I don't think I have ever needed to access either of those features on the move......surely you operate the sat nav initially while stationary, set the screen to your needs and then follow the map/ instructions once on the move.

richlist wrote:I don't think I have ever needed to access either of those features on the move......surely you operate the sat nav initially while stationary, set the screen to your needs and then follow the map/ instructions once on the move.

As above. I wouldn't ever touch a screen while my car was in motion, and I wouldn't ever buy a car that required me to do that. I suppose I might twiddle the dashboard knob that turns my sound system's volume up or down? But then again, I'd be better off using the buttons on the steering wheel instead.

That is, if only I could memorise all seventeen of them. It seems that, every time I try to hit the mute button, I hit the band selector button instead, and so my stereo switches from Beethoven to the six o'clock news in Albanian, or maybe MegaPump Thumpin' Bass Dance Trance. And I can't turn it off because there's a truck right on my tail and the radio is suddenly giving me very loud traffic alerts in Welsh.

Anybody else been in that situation?

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:
That is, if only I could memorise all seventeen of them. It seems that, every time I try to hit the mute button, I hit the band selector button instead, and so my stereo switches from Beethoven to the six o'clock news in Albanian, or maybe MegaPump Thumpin' Bass Dance Trance. And I can't turn it off because there's a truck right on my tail and the radio is suddenly giving me very loud traffic alerts in Welsh.

Anybody else been in that situation?

BJ

Yes, for me the problem is that the 17 buttons on my VW steering wheel are completely different to the 17 buttons on my BMW steering wheel and I spend my driving time 50/50 between the two.

John

richlist wrote:I don't think I have ever needed to access either of those features on the move......surely you operate the sat nav initially while stationary, set the screen to your needs and then follow the map/ instructions once on the move.

I knew where I was going but there was heavy traffic so switched on the satnav to see the map to see if there was an alternative route I could take. The initial view of the map was zoomed out so far it was of no use, I wanted to see a detailed street-level view.

--kiloran

richlist wrote:I don't think I have ever needed to access either of those features on the move......surely you operate the sat nav initially while stationary, set the screen to your needs and then follow the map/ instructions once on the move.

Frequently get the voice saying "We have found a route that is 30 minutes quicker" and need to touch to accept - this is usually after the ETA has gone up without me noticing.

Slarti

Slarti wrote:Frequently get the voice saying "We have found a route that is 30 minutes quicker" and need to touch to accept - this is usually after the ETA has gone up without me noticing.

Fair comment. ISTR that "one touch" acceptances of satnav route diversions are considered okay while in motion. Probably no worse a distraction than lighting up a cigarette or changing a CD. (Not that I do either of those things anyway.) But resetting a satnav location from scratch while wrestling with third gear seems to be considered a mark of manhood among delivery drivers.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:

Slarti wrote:Frequently get the voice saying "We have found a route that is 30 minutes quicker" and need to touch to accept - this is usually after the ETA has gone up without me noticing.

Fair comment. ISTR that "one touch" acceptances of satnav route diversions are considered okay while in motion. Probably no worse a distraction than lighting up a cigarette or changing a CD. (Not that I do either of those things anyway.) But resetting a satnav location from scratch while wrestling with third gear seems to be considered a mark of manhood among delivery drivers.

BJ

That only qualifies as manhood if they have a phone clamped to one ear at the same time.

Superwoman status needs all of those and shouting at the kids in the back seat.

redsturgeon wrote:
Yes, for me the problem is that the 17 buttons on my VW steering wheel are completely different to the 17 buttons on my BMW steering wheel and I spend my driving time 50/50 between the two.

John

The buttons on our Maserati steering wheel are identical to those on our 29 year old Toyota.

"Horn".

Perhaps the concept of "steering" wheel got lost when manufacturers realised they could get rid of all those untidy blanked off switches and make a generic dashboard, then simply change the wheel for the different options.

Paul