Touch screens versus buttons, which interface is safer in cars?

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pantallas tactiles frente a botones 2 1000x600.jpg
pantallas tactiles frente a botones 2 1000x600.jpg

We are in a time when the technology of cars it is a reality, and to such an extent that we have reached a point that a few years ago would have seemed unthinkable. I remember when, in the 1980s and early 1990s, some car manufacturers were toying with the concept of putting screens in cars. These gave them a very curious futuristic touch, although their real usefulness was very low due to the technological limitations of the time.

Today screens have become one of the pillars of the automotive sector. Most cars have replaced the classic center console of yesteryear made up of numerous buttons and wheel mechanisms. by a huge screen that reminds us, and a lot, of a «tablet» glued to the dashboard. This screen allows us to control all the key aspects of the vehicle and the cabin, it can display useful information and has a fairly simple interface, but at the same time it has important disadvantages.

The distractions they are one of the most important disadvantages of touch screens, but it is not the only one. A round of tests carried out by the Swedish magazine Vi Bilägare has confirmed that this type of interface is inferior to the classic button interface in things as basic as the speed of execution of actions. The results of the study overwhelmingly confirm this, and it is that in order to carry out a series of simple actions, the driver of a 2005 Volvo V70, with a classic interface of buttons and wheels, it only took 10 secondswhile the driver of an MG Marvel R, a Chinese touchscreen SUV, took 44.6 seconds in completing them.

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Touch screens vs buttons (2)

If you wonder what the actions to perform in this quiet test consisted of, we will not leave you with the doubt: activate the heated seats, raise the temperature by two degrees, activate the window demisting function, turn on the radio and set it to a specific station, reset the trip computer, lower the illumination of the instrument panel to the lowest level and turn off the center display.

It is clear that there is no turning back, touch screens are here to stay, and minimalist interiors with almost no buttons are going to become the norm, but this does not mean that they are the best possible option. I personally prefer an interior that combines a touch screen with a physical button-based interface.in fact this was the reason that led me to go completely from the SEAT León MK IV and to stay with the SEAT León MK III when I changed cars a couple of years ago.

And you, what do you think of this jump to minimalist interiors without buttons in cars, do you like or prefer classic interiors with wheels and buttons? We read in the comments.