KISS?

[DrFfybes]

There is an old design adage - KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid.

I've often thought that the multifunction screens in modern cars are far from simple and easy to use as you jiggle over todays roads trying to hit the correct icon, in hire cars I don't even bother trying to use them. The one in our Avensis is far from intuitive, and even with the manual to hand takes some learning. Even turning the bloody thing off requires going into a menu and sub menu and last week I stopped in a layby as it went dark so I could work out how to set it to dim.

However at least the major controls on the car are button activated, unlike some cars. And now it seems that in Germany at least they are taking a dim view of in car touchscreen use...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53666222

I suspect our laws are not so tightly written.
Paul

[88V8]

All controls should be operable without looking, in the dark.

As is the case with our three cars. But none of them were designed by yoof.
The newest is thirty years old, and as far as I'm concerned it's the newest I shall ever own.

V8

[bungeejumper]

If there's one additional switch I'd like tohave on my car, it would be the one that turned off the steering wheel controls. Dammit, how often I seem to accidentally change the radio waveband, or bugger up the economy readout, or turn on the traffic warnings or the cruise control while I'm focusing on steering the bloody car.

We've had this discussion before, and I was told in no uncertain terms to get with it and damn well learn my steering wheel controls, because they were what kept the reps and the road warriors sane during long journeys. But as far as I know, only one of the seventeen buttons on my steering wheel is there to do a job that can't be replicated elsewhere.

And that's the horn, and I haven't used it in years.

BJ